Idioms and Horse Racing
Idiomatic expressions are a part of everyday life. You hear and see them almost everywhere, but how many of them have mysterious origins. Do you know about the idioms and where they come from? How about beat a dead horse
or wins by a nose
?
Quite a few sayings—popular ones—originated in the world of horse racing. Let’s look at a few.
These sayings seem commonplace to me, but then again, I spent much of my misguided youth working at the racetrack selling papers, so I began hearing this lingo at an early age. For those of you who weren’t blessed with that opportunity, here’s a blast into the past.
Note
In some of these sayings, I’ll use other horse-racing terminology to explain them. I’ll enclose these in quotation marks. Often the sayings won’t have a dedicated explanation, but know that they also originated within the sport of horse racing. A few examples are the use of “finish in the money” and “neck and neck.” Read on further to find out about idioms and where they come from.
Across the Board
Across the board
has been around as a saying for about one hundred years. It was a way to place a bet on a horse and get paid regardless if it came in first, second, or third (win, place, or show). If you were fairly certain that the horse would finish in the money,
you might walk up to the ticket window and say, Put ten dollars on Mr. Shackles, across the board.
The saying has retained the primary meaning, though it has moved far beyond horse racing. Now it means a policy or situation that affects everything or everyone in a particular group. You may hear this in the business world when a new policy is adopted.
The boss might announce that the new insurance takes effect tomorrow, and it affects everyone “across the board.”
Also Ran
Any candidate who loses an election is often referred to as an also ran.
As you might guess, this idiom stems from horse racing where it was used to refer to all horses who didn’t finish “in the money.”
At the track, after each race, the results would be posted so people could see which horse finished first, second, and third—the three spots that paid money.
Any horse that didn’t finish in one of those spots was listed as an also ran.
Nowadays it has come to mean anyone who loses, especially in an election.
Beating a Dead Horse
Beating a dead horse
is an often misunderstood term. Many people think it refers to literally beating a horse that has died.
You can stop worrying.
The saying dates back to the early days of horse racing when a lot of jockeys would whip their horses with riding crops to make them run faster.
Quite often, jockeys had a pretty good idea of whether their horse had a shot at winning shortly after the race started, but by the time they hit the homestretch, they almost certainly knew.
In the horse racing circle, a horse who had no shot at winning was often referred to as a dead horse,
and after it had become apparent that a horse wasn’t going to win or finish in the money, there was no sense in using the whip. That’s where the saying came about: there’s no sense in beating a dead horse.
The saying has entered all parts of today’s world and is commonly used to mean anything that is a futile effort, like arguing with your boss (or your spouse) once their mind is made up.
Champing at the Bit
Another horse racing idiom and where it came from that may surprise a few. Many people think it’s “chomping at the bit.” But that is simply a misuse.
The saying originated with horse racing, and it refers to the horse’s bridle, which has a bit that fits onto the gums of a horse’s mouth.
When the horse becomes excited or nervous, it tends to chew on the bit, which produces a lot of saliva. At the same time, the horse typically bobs its head in excitement.
This saying has evolved into what is now interpreted as meaning eager, or “ready to go.”
Even though the meaning has changed, it is still commonly associated with some kind of competition. A fighter may be “champing at the bit” before the fight begins, or a football player may be said to be “champing at the bit” in anticipation of a big game.
Dark Horse
Most people know what a dark horse
is. You often hear political candidates referred to as a dark-horse candidate.
The term got its beginning in horse racing where it referred to a horse about whom little was known, and especially when that horse came from nowhere
to achieve success.
The saying is not used much in horse racing anymore because the times have caught up with the sport. Most race tracks sell papers and tip sheets
that list a horse’s lineage, their preferences for wet or dry tracks, and their previous successes and failures over a variety of distances. But the term took a hold in the language of politics and now seems firmly entrenched.
Down to the Wire
In the early days of horse racing, they placed a wire above the finish line so the judges could determine the winner better. When it was a close race (when the horses were running neck and neck
) the announcer may have said, This one’s going down to the wire.
Modern usage of the phrase encompasses every part of life. You can hear it in the business world when someone says, “We still haven’t heard about that proposal. It looks as if it’ll go down-to-the-wire.”
Front Runner
Front-runner
also has a long history in horse racing. A horse may get this reputation after a few successful races where it started out in the lead, sometimes holding the lead “wire-to-wire,” meaning from start to finish. It has now come to mean whoever is leading a contest or competition, whether an election or a race.
Give-and-Take
Almost everyone is familiar with the term give-and-take. It’s firmly established in the business world, especially in any conversation about negotiations. It’s often said that for any negotiation to be successful, there must be “give-and-take.”
But few know the term got its start in the sport of horse racing.
I won’t go into too much detail, but horse racing has a long history of handicapping its entrants. This is done to enhance betting in much the same way modern-day bookies award “points” to one side or the other of competing teams or contestants.
In the old days of horse racing, the bigger and faster horses would run with more weight than the smaller and slower ones. This practice was meant to “even out” the chances of any one horse winning.
It became known as the “give-and-take,” which soon took on its current meaning of compromise.
Hands Down
If someone is said to have won “hands down,” it means that they won easily. In 1973, a horse named Secretariat won the third leg of the Triple Crown by an astounding thirty-one lengths, far “ahead of the pack.”
The saying came to be because of the way jockeys rode their mounts. According to Etymology Online, the phrase “hands down” (1855) originates in horse racing. It derives from a jockey’s gesture of letting the reins go loose if they saw they had an easy victory.
Homestretch
Homestretch has come to be associated with almost everything, though its meaning has remained the same for almost two hundred years.
Here is a definition from Collins Dictionary:
According to the Oxford English Dictionary:
the homestretch is a racing term dating back to about 1841. It refers to the final length, or stretch, of the racetrack. Nowadays, it means the final distance or time left until the end or finish.
Examples are below.
We’re almost finished building. We’re in the homestretch.
Keep running, Josh. You’re on the homestretch.
Notice that in the examples I used in the homestretch for the first, and on the homestretch for the second. I follow my own rule regarding this: if I’m using homestretch to refer to a measurable distance such as a race, I use on, and if I’m using it to refer to a length of time until completion, I use in.
In the Running (or Out of the Running)
Again, we need to go back to the mid-1800s for the origin. “In the running” referred to—you guessed it—the lead competitors in a horse race. If the horse you bet on was near the front of the pack halfway through the race, you might say it was still “in the running.” If it was next to last, you’d say it was “out of the running,” meaning there wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell it was going to finish “in the money.”
It didn’t take long for that phrase to move to the world of politics (funny how these sayings seem to end up in politics), where it has become entrenched.
You’ll hear that expression uttered frequently on election night as the announcers mention, “She’s still in the running,or “He’s not out of the running yet.
Photo Finish
Finally, a saying that didn’t originate in the mid-1800s. This one is dependent on technology, hence the late arrival.
The photo finish didn’t appear until the mid-1930s, when they began using cameras to capture the winning horse as it crossed the finish line.
These photos were then consulted so the judges could arrive at an informed decision. The phrase was quickly adopted by many others, including (you guessed it) politics. When a race between candidates is too close to call, you may hear the announcers say it will come down to a photo finish.
The phrase has now moved on to other sports as well. Often times you’ll hear commentators say, “This will be a close one. It looks like it may end in a photo finish.
A Run for One’s Money
How many times have you heard this phrase? It may have been twisted to suit gender such as “a run for his money” or “a run for her money” or even gender neutral: “a run for their money.”
Regardless, to give someone “a run for their money” means to offer a strong challenge.
Whether it’s a physical race, a game of cards, or a boxing match doesn’t matter. If it’s a close competition, the phrase is appropriate.
It originated in the early to mid-1800s, and it meant the same thing back then. It referred to a horse that was wagered on having (apparently) made a strong attempt at winning the race. “It gave me a run for my money.”
Running Mate
It shouldn’t surprise you to know that “running mate” is one more political term that comes from horse racing.
“Running mate” comes from the practice of a stable entering a second horse into the same race as a faster horse so it could set the pace.
It also referred to a horse used as a running mate or companion to another horse for workouts and exercise, and finally, as a partner to a faster horse if they were used in harness racing.
Now it is more commonly known in politics to refer to a person striving for political position as the running mate of someone else seeking election to a higher office. To explain it better—Joe Biden was Barack Obama’s running mate.
It’s also sometimes used to describe someone a person is frequently seen with.
That’s his running mate. He’s always with him.
Ringer
A “ringer” is someone more experienced at a sport or game than others are led to believe. For example, perhaps a professional poker player attends a local high-stakes poker game pretending to be someone’s cousin, and he wins much of the money.
He is said to be a ringer. Another example would be if a professional boxer enters an amateur fight under an assumed name.
There are plenty of examples, but the thing they all have in common is that they stem from a term originally used in horse racing. It was during a time when the sport was not as well monitored as it is now.
Back then an owner might substitute a faster but similar-looking horse in a race pretending to be a slower horse they owned to change the outcome of the race.
What was thought of as the “slow” horse would start the race at higher odds, then the owner would place wagers on it and collect a lot of money when it won.
Shoo-In
To begin with, shoo-in should be hyphenated, so it’s shoo-in,
not shoo in.
The term shoo-in has its roots in the early twentieth century in the sport of horse racing. It was before strict enforcement of rules, and races were often fixed.
Shoo-in
was used to refer to a horse many people knew would win, as he was going to be “shooed” (urged on) into the winner’s circle.
In those days, a jockey often allowed a slower horse to win by holding back the reins on their own, faster, horse. They would do this in exchange for money or for a tip of what was going to happen so they could place a large bet on the slower horse, who would begin the race at longer odds and, therefore, pay more if it won.
It became common terminology to refer to a sure winner as a “shoo-in.” And since horse racing was a popular sport, it soon spread to the rest of the public. Soon the term came to be associated with any sure winner. Politicians (especially if the race was fixed) were often referred to as “shoo-ins,” as were many other forms of competition.
Somewhere along the way, the term shoo-in sneaked into the vocabulary. It even came with its own etymological story—that a shoe salesman might wedge his foot in the door to get his foot into the room, so to speak. Below is an Ngram screenshot displaying the results for both shoe-in and shoo-in, as well as the unhyphenated version.
As you can see, the outlook for shoo-in is still good, even though shoe-in shows a significant amount of usage.
And if you notice, the term shoo in without a hyphen dominated the search results during several ten-year stretches. It wasn’t until about 1970 that shoo-in began to take the lead.
In the early days of horse racing, things weren’t always on the up and up; in fact, things often weren’t right. Races were frequently fixed. You could make a lot of money if you knew which horse to bet on, especially if the odds were right.
It soon became a badge of honor, or at least a recognition of your contacts, if you got a hot tip on a long shot. And everyone was eager to do just that.
Is a Shoo-In Always a “Fixed” Situation?
“Shoo-ins” aren’t always fixed. It has become such a commonplace term it often applies to a person or thing that appears to be a surefire bet. Sports and politics abound with this saying, though many people don’t even know the origin of the phrase.
In the early days, saying something or someone was a shoo-in almost always carried with it the implication that the race or game had been rigged; nowadays it’s not as true.
And as we mentioned earlier, shoe-in has come to be used by many who aren’t familiar with the original expression.
The next time you’re tempted to mention the word shoo-in, make sure you get it right.
Starting from Scratch
Nowadays, horses are placed in a starting gate as shown in the picture below.
In the old days (before electronic starting gates), officials would scratch a line in the dirt to indicate the starting point of a race. When the race began, all entries had to have their hooves at or behind the line.
This saying has been adopted by people in a variety of roles, but in each instance, it means the same thing: to start from nothing or at the beginning (and without an advantage).
Suppose a project isn’t going well. The project leader may declare, “This isn’t working. We’re going to have to start from scratch.”
She won fair and square. She started from scratch.
Win by a Nose
This is an expression used in almost all competitions when referring to a hard-fought contest. If it is a close competition, the winner is said to have “won by a nose.”
It came about because the horse’s nose is the first thing to cross the finish line. In a race with humans, it may be their feet or even their chest, but seldom would it be their nose (assuming they didn’t fall across the finish line).
When judging was done by human sight, the judges always watched the nose to determine which horse crossed the finish line first. When the judging switched to cameras, the picture was taken with the camera focused to capture that part of the horse.
Summary
There are more expressions that derived from horse racing, but these are the ones that have spread to the majority of everyday life and permeated our world—especially politics.
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Giacomo Giammatteo is the author of gritty crime dramas about murder, mystery, and family. And he also writes nonfiction books, including Simply Put: The Plain English Grammar Guide and the No Mistakes Careers series as well as other books on grammar, fantasy, publishing, writing, and children’s fiction and nonfiction.
When Giacomo isn’t writing, he’s helping his wife take care of the animals on their sanctuary. At last count, they had forty animals—seven dogs, one horse, six cats, and twenty-five pigs.
Oh, and one crazy—and very large—wild boar, who used to take walks with Giacomo every day. He lives in Texas, where he and his wife have an animal sanctuary with forty loving “friends.”
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Giacomo Giammatteo
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