How can you tell if a thoroughbred has raced before?

Question

I'm thinking of getting a thoroughbred, a 9yo gelding, and i want to know if it has raced before. How can you tell? The owner doesn't know.

Answer 1

Have the vet check out the horse for racing related injuries and tattoos in his mouth for a racing registration number.

Answer 2

If you look at the inside of your horse's upper lip, and you see a tattoo, then you will know that your horse at least got to the point where he was close enough to racing to require an ID, and most likely did make at least once start at a recognized race track.  (There are "bush" tracks, mostly in the south and southwest of the USA, where non-sanctioned racing takes place.)

A fair number of horses go into training for races and never make it far enough to be tattooed-- they get injured before they get to that point, or just plain aren't fast enough to warrant training costs-- so it's possible your horse could have had some race training even if he doesn't have a tattoo.

Answer 3

If you have his papers look on the back of them... if he had won a race it will be on there.. also they should have his tattoo number on them and, you can go to http://www.jockeyclub.com and look up his racing record

Answer 4

see if it's registered with the jockey club. a quick (but maybe unreliable) way is to look on pedigree query. There's usually a race record on the top of each horse's page. What's the horse's name?

Answer 5

But a tatoo doesn't mean a horse has raced.  When we got our yearling she was already tatooed.  If he does have a tatoo you can find out what you want to know at the following:

Do you own a lip-tattooed Thoroughbred but don't know

its registered name, pedigree, and racing history?



The TRPB is the source for this information.



Research is conducted for a reasonable fee.

For further information, contact TRPB at [phone].



or E-Mail [e-mail]

Hope that helps.

Answer 6

If he's raced he will have a tattoo number inside his upper lip.  Just take your hand and flip his upper lip up and see if he has a tattoo.