ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. A surprisingly large number of people make a living from horse-racing: jockeys, trainers, stable staff, valets, clerks of courses and their staff, racing journalists, bookmakers, settlers, tic tacs, betting-shop managers and counter clerks, compilers of form guides, and even a few professional punters. The racing connections stretch on and on, each group having its own stock of words and phrases which make up the language of horse-racing. Some words or phrases in the general language seem to come from the world of horses or the racing of them, but turn out to have no such origin. A last ditch effort describes very well a chaser trying to keep up with the pace as the field jumps the last open-ditch, and flying colours exactly evokes the spectacle of the race seen from the rails, but both phrases really come from the battlefield. Daisy cutter described a horse's action long before it was used about balls which keep low in cricket.
