All Thoroughbred Racehorses Share A Single Ancestor
From Secretariat to Seabiscuit, it turns out that all thoroughbred race horses were all related. They shared a single ancestor in the mid 17th century, whose "speed gene" was a genetic aberration:
Emmeline Hill of University College Dublin led a team that analyzed DNA in 593 horses from 22 modern breeds, as well as museum specimens from 12 historically famous stallions. Modern genetics have become sophisticated enough that they could tell, with considerable precision, what the horses had in common.
"The results show that the 'speed gene' entered the thoroughbred from a single founder, which was most likely a British mare about 300 years ago when local British horse types were the pre-eminent racing horses, prior to the formal foundation of the thoroughbred racehorse," said Hill in a prepared statement.
Shetland Pony Grand National
This steeplechase features children riding Shetland ponies.
Since its inception this yearly series of races, which culminates at Olympia, has raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for charity. This year the chosen charity is Great Ormond Street Hospital. Between 50 and 60 jockeys and ponies have travelled the length and breadth of the country during the season all hoping to be the lucky 10 who make it to the prestigious Olympia week.
Re the thrown rider, the announcer’s comment seems to be “These young children – they do bounce, they do bounce.”
Link, via Metafilter.
12 Essential Facts About the Folks Who Race Horses
1. At the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, NY, humans get less respect than their hoofed pals. Although 179 horses have been inducted there, only 91 jockeys have made the cut.
2. Being a jockey doesn’t come with a great benefits package, either. All jockeys are self-employed, so they’re responsible for their own business expenses, such as agent fees, travel costs, equipment, and some of the highest health insurance premiums in professional sports.
3. They also can’t own the horses they ride, or pick the colors they wear. Instead, jockeys use the registered patterns that belong to whoever hired them.
4. Of course, there are some pluses. While most riders make $35,000 to $45,000 a year, the best earn upwards of $2 million in prize money.
5. Frank Hayes is the only deceased jockey to ever win a race. In 1923, the stable hand somehow convinced one of the owners to let him ride at Belmont Park. To everyone’s amazement, he and the horse, Sweet Kiss, won. Unfortunately, Hayes didn’t live to see it. He died mid-ride from a heart attack, though his body somehow stayed upright through the finish.
6. Hayes’ victory was just as bittersweet for his horse. Sweet Kiss had to endure the nickname “Sweet Kiss of Death” for the rest of his life.
7. Speaking of funny names, the odd position that jockeys lift themselves into while racing is called the Monkey Crouch. The stance was universally mocked when American jockey Tod Sloan first introduced it in 1897, but it ended up revolutionizing the sport. Not only did Sloan win a remarkable 48 percent of his races the following year, but according to a study published in Science, “horse-race times and records improved by 5 to 7 percent in 1900″ as other riders began copying the position.
8. In horse racing, making weight is no joke. To compete in the Kentucky Derby, a jockey plus his equipment can only weigh 126 lbs. That means most weigh less than 118 lbs.
9. This results in some strange eating habits. In an effort to stay trim, Laffit Pincay, Jr., the world’s winningest jockey, would take a single peanut, slice it into slivers, and eat just half of it for lunch.
10. This wasn’t Pincay’s only secret to success. He also used to speed-walk instead of run to void putting on any extra muscle. (It’s a trick other riders still use.)
11. On the other hand, there’s no height limit for jockeys. The tallest rider on record is former NBA player Manute Bol, who stands 7’7″. He was licensed by the Indiana Horse Racing Commission to race in a charity event.
12. There are some pretty tall non-NBA riders, too. The next tallest jockey is Denmark’s Louise Moeller. She’s 6’1″.
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The above article was written by Rob Lammle. It is reprinted with permission from the Scatterbrained section of the July-August 2010 issue of mental_floss magazine.
Be sure to visit mental_floss‘ entertaining website and blog for more fun stuff!
Stud or Dud?
Racing is in the spotlight as the annual Kentucky Derby is set for tomorrow. Horse breeding and racing are expensive businesses which can pay off big or turn out to be a money pit. Mental_floss has several stories of studs that were duds, and some that succeeded way beyond the investor’s expectations.
When the auctioneers brought a colt who was only known as “number 153” to the auction block, a fierce bidding war broke out. Buyers weren’t afraid to open their wallets for a colt that was described as “perfect,” and when the hammer dropped the horse went for a record $16 million. The winning bidders quickly christened the colt The Green Monkey, and excitement to see how the horse would do in races began to build. After all, the colt had run an eighth of a mile in a blazing 9.8 seconds in pre-auction workouts, so anything was possible once he started racing.
How did The Green Monkey perform? Read and find out. Link
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How to Make a Horse Go Faster
After winning a horse race, the glory usually goes to the horse instead of the jockey. But the jockey makes a world of difference. A new study from the Royal Veterinary College in London says that how a jockey positions himself on a horse has a lot to do with how fast the horse runs. Bioengineer Thilo Pfau explains the physics.
Any “jockey-plus-horse system,” as the researchers call the racehorse-and-rider team, will start off essentially the same as any other: a combined mass of roughly 1,100 lb. (500 kg) of living flesh, with the horse representing about 87% of the total weight and the jockey making up the rest. One key to speed will be how lightly the horse can carry that 13% load. The investigators found that the horse’s back oscillates up and down about 6 in. (150 mm) throughout its stride, and fore and aft about 4 in. (100 mm). The jockey moves too — up and down through a cycle of 2.3 in. (60 mm), and fore and aft just 0.8 in. (20 mm). That small motion makes a very big difference.
“Whether the jockey is sitting in the saddle or not, the horse still has to carry his weight,” Spence says. “But by absorbing the jiggles of the horse, the jockey prevents the animal from having to make him go up and down with each stride. It’s the difference between the horse carrying a moving rider or simply a quantity of lead that weighs the same.” The crouched position the jockey assumes throughout pays an additional dividend by minimizing wind resistance.
In physics, however, nothing comes for free, and as the horse’s workload goes down, the jockey’s goes up. “The jockey’s legs oscillate in length while transmitting a vertical force,” the researchers wrote, “resulting in substantial mechanical work.”
That in itself should qualify a winning jockey as a champion athlete as well as the horse he rode in on. Link -Thanks, Alyson!
(image credit: Eadweard Muybridge)
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