Model Horse Racing In OTRMHRA
By Jeannie Burke, 1991
Revised By Amanda E. Dionne, 2000
On-Track Racing Forum is a club dedicated to the enterprise of Arabian, Quarter Horse, Appaloosa, Paint, Thoroughbred and Standardbred model horse racing. Our goal is to race in a realistic manner through meets, registries, sales, year end awards and breeding. All members are expected to uphold the rules and regulations listed in this booklet at their farms and tracks.
*Before we get started, while this is considered “model horse racing” most people do not actually have models backing these pedigrees. This allows people to readily expand their facilities without needing large monetary investments, such as a model for every horse. In fewer words – YOU DO NOT NEED TO OWN MODEL HORSES TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS CLUB AND ALL IT’S FUNCTIONS.
I. What’s In A Name?
Whether your horse is paper or plastic, it will need a name before you can do anything with it. Be creative and original, just don’t be obscene, there are younger members in this club. Many times in real and model horse racing, a horse’s name will be made up by combining it’s parent’s names. For example, if you bred Sock It to My Friend, you might name your foal My Socks. This however is not required. Feel free to name your horse whatever you like provided that they follow registry requirements and are not the name of a famous horse, ie *Bask, Secretariat, Man O’War, Nazeer, Dash For Cash, Three Bars etc. no matter how old and long gone that famous horse is.
Arabians
~17 letters/spaces/dashes
~No more than 3 words long
~No Jr. or Sr.
~No Prefix or Suffix
~No Punctuation
Appaloosas
~20 letters/spaces
~No Numbers
~Not to end in filly or colt
Paints
~Born Before 1999
18 letters/spaces
~Born 2000 or Later
21 letters/spaces
Quarter Horses
~20 letters/spaces
~No preceding or following single letters
~2 to 4 letter prefix or suffix allowed
~No Punctuation
~No Roman Numerals
Standardbreds
~18 letters/spaces
~No more than 4 words
~No Roman Numerals
~No name prefix or suffix
~no Jr. or Sr.
Thoroughbreds
~18 letters/spaces/punctuation
~No numerical designation
~No recorded names
~No commercial names
~No names of notorious people
~No initials
~No numerical names unless they are above 30 and spelled out
~No names ending in horse related terms
II. Parental Involvement
In addition to a name, your horse needs a pedigree in order to be of any use. Most people prefer to use four or five generation pedigrees when making certificates. The horses relatives or “bloodlines” are where they get many traits, including color and racing attributes like speed and distance preference. When a steward is carding a race, often they will examine your horse’s bloodlines, so generally you want to make sure they’re good and REALISTIC. Look at people’s Sire/Dam lists to find parents, or buy a foal already bred. If you decide to use real horses as your horse’s parents, there is quite a bit of research involved. When choosing a stallion, you will need to know his pedigree, color, year of birth, year of death(if passed) and the year of his first foal crop. If you have a broodmare that is to be born in 1980 and you want her sire to be Darkelly® that would not work because he was not even alive yet. Similarly for your dam, you need to make sure that the mare was alive and producing at that time. With mares however, you generally want to avoid using a year in which she had a famous foal. For example, do not make your foal out of First Prize Rose® born the same year as Corona Cartel®. Also, when using a real mare, to prevent four model foals being born to the same year on the same mare, you must register the mare with the OTRF Real Mare Book. You will need to send in the name, breed, color, year born, sire & dam and the year your foal is to be born. If the mare has already been submitted and that year is taken, you will be notified and asked to choose another year.
III. ET, AI and Breeding
Obviously, if you’re racing your horses you will be breeding your horses. To keep things simple, as registries have differing opinions in the real world, OTRF does not allow ET. Also, since it is just not sensible when horses can be mailed or e-mailed, AI is not accepted.
Stallions can have innumerable foals per year within reason AFTER they retire(they generally mature around age three). However mares can only have one foal per year after the age of four, or whenever they are retired. Mares cannot carry a foal and race, stallions may only breed test crops of one or two mares per year while they are still racing.
IV. Coloring Your Foal
To continue with realism, you are expected to follow color genetics. To be safe, it is generally a good idea to make sure one of your foal’s parents is the same color as the foal. For more information on that, please contact Andrea Frank at [email protected]
Each breed has certain colors that are accepted and are listed below. For color descriptions, you can again contact Andrea Frank.
Arabians
Grey, Bay, Brown, Black, Chestnut, Rabicano Roan and Sabino
Appaloosa
Base – Bay, Brown, Black, White, Buckskin, Chestnut, Dun, Grey, Grulla, Red Roan, Bay Roan, Blue Roan, Palomino
Patterns – Leopard, Blanket, Snow Cap, Semi-Leopard, Varnish Roan
Paint
Base – Red Roan, Blue Roan, Bay Roan, Bay, Brown, Black, Chestnut, Sorrel, Grey, Grulla, Dun, Red Dun, Buckskin, Palomino, Cremello, Perlino
Patterns – Tobiano, Overo, Splash White, Sabino
Quarter Horse
Red Roan, Blue Roan, Bay Roan, Bay, Brown, Black, Chestnut, Sorrel, Grey, Grulla, Dun, Red Dun, Buckskin, Palomino, Cremello, Perlino
Standardbred
Grey, Bay, Brown, Black, Chestnut, Roan, Body Spotted
Thoroughbred
Roan, Bay, Brown, Black, Chestnut, Grey, Buckskin, Palomino, Cremello, Perlino, White(maximum sabino), Sabino, Body Spotted
V. Registries
Before you can begin racing or breeding, all horses must be registered with their appropriate breed registry. The following information will be needed for each horse:
Name
Year Born
Color
Gender
Sire (Sire x Dam)
Dam (Sire x Dam)
Breeder
Owner
AR – Arabian Registry
ApR – Appaloosa Registry
PR – Paint Registry
QHR – Quarter Horse Registry
SR – Standardbred Registry
TR – Thoroughbred Registry
Each horse registered will be assigned a # (ie AR1234 or TR0897) which must be visible on their race card or they will not be allowed to race.
VI. Types of Races
Maiden
For horses who have never won a race.
*May be divided by age, gender and/or distance
Allowance
For horses who have won their maiden, but are not yet ready to move up to Handicaps or Stakes.
*May be divided by age, gender and/or distance
Handicap
For horses who have won their maidens and are ready to move up from Allowances. Racing Secretary will assign weights to equalize winnings.
*May be divided by age, gender and/or distance
Stakes
For horses who have won their maiden and are ready to move up from allowance or handicap.
*Stakes may be graded from III, II and I with a GI Stake being the toughest competition.
*May be divided by age, gender and/or distance
Claiming
Any horse may enter. All horses will be for sale at a stated price and each race entrant will have the option to purchase a horse in the race and sell their own. Claiming is done before the race is run and afterwards the race card is sent to the new owner.
VII. The Speed Index and Lifemark
The Speed Index, often times abbreviated SI-##, is a measure used to determine a stock bred horse’ s best running distance and evaluate stock performance. In the real world of racing, each track will have it’s own SI chart, however for the purpose of ease in running a track, OTRF has a single chart that all racing stewards use.
The Lifemark is a similar concept in STB racing. Placed at the end of a horse’s name it will look like 2, 1.57.2h. The first number (2 in the example) designates the age of the horse when it ran it’s fastest time. The second set of numbers (1.57.2 here) is the horse’s fastest time ever run. There may or may not be a letter after the time. An “h” designates the time was run on a ½ mile track, an “f” designates a 5/8 mile track and in rare cases a “z” designates a 7/8 mile track. If there is no letter following the time, then the time was run on the standard 1 mile tack.
VIII. Racing & Retiring
Stock breeds, Thoroughbreds and Standardbreds all begin racing at two years of age. Arabians, because they tend to run much longer distances do not begin racing until they hit three years old. Generally speaking most horses will race for two to three years and then be retired to the breeding shed. An exception is made to geldings, which cannot be bred, so often times they are raced much longer, with the mandatory retirement at 15 years old. When racing the two year old, it is sensible to keep distances short and meets far apart, at least for the beginning of the year to minimize stress on their still developing skeletal system. As they get older you can increase the amount of meets they race in, however keep in mind that most real horses only run between six to fifteen races per year. Also, when entering meets, a horse cannot run at two different tracks in the same weekend.
Another thing to keep in mind when deciding when to retire a horse is earnings. To keep this as real as possible, it is preferred that your horses not go too far above and beyond what the real breed top money earner has made. Below are some estimated figures per breed not to go above –
Arabians - $300,000
Appaloosas - $300,000
Paints - $200,000
Quarter Horses - $2 Million
Standardbreds - $4.9 Million
Thoroughbreds - $9 Million
VIIII. Entering A Race
When entering a race, you will email your horse’s race card to the meet holder in .txt or .rtf format. You MUST list at least four past races if your horse has been in that many, however if they have been in more it is at your discretion which ones you list.
Your horse’s race card should be as follows –
Race Entered
Name/Year Born/Color/Gender/Breed/Reg #
Sire x Dam – Dams Sire
Owner
Breeder
Trainer
Jockey
Sire (Sire x Dam – Dams Sire)
Sire’s Family Notes
Dam (Sire x Dam – Dams Sire)
Dam’s Family Notes
Trainers Notes
Race Record Summary
Previous Races (Include date, track, weight, conditions, race name, time, SI[if available], number of horses run, racing secretary’s comment)
Club President (Membership & General Questions)
Amanda E. Dionne
[email protected]
Arabian Registry
Tanya DiMarco
[email protected]
Appaloosa Registry
Olivia Frizzle
[email protected]
Paint Registry
Tanya DiMarco
[email protected]
Quarter Horse Registry
Amanda E. Dionne
[email protected]
Standardbred Registry
Olivia Frizzle
[email protected]
Thoroughbred Registry
Amanda E. Dionne
[email protected]
Real Mare Registry
Amanda E. Dionne
[email protected]
Genetics & Color Questions
Andrea Frank
[email protected]
Info on Opening A Track & How To Card Races
Tanya DiMarco
[email protected]
Obtain A Copy of The Standard Weight Chart and The Standard Speed Index Chart for OTRF
Amanda E. Dionne
[email protected]
