Q: Thoughrobred Birthdates

Apr 03, 2010

Thoroughbreds are raced according to age, so they use the standardized date of January 1 of the year they were born in as their birthdate to alleviate confusion when entering horses in races so all horses born in a certain year are eligible for all the races for their age group. Its basically just a way to standardize their ages for comparison. Also, Jan. 1 is the standarized birthdate in the northern hemisphere only. In the southern hemishpere, the date is Aug. 1.

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Apr 03, 2010

Kelly is right. Even though their true birthdate is different, it is done strictly for racing purposes. That is one reason why the breeders try and have their foals due as early in the year as possible. This is not a practice that matters other than in the racing industry.

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Apr 03, 2010

kelly is correct. the problems with this is that some of them mybe months younger then others and way to young to race

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