301 articles
Bow Echo (horse)
Bow Echo (foaled 1 March 2023) is an Irish-bred Thoroughbred colt by Night of Thunder who retired unbeaten in 6 starts, winning the 2000 Guineas, St James's Palace Stakes, and Sussex Stakes in 2026 for trainer George Boughey.
Breeders Crown
Breeders Crown: annual series of 12 championship harness races for Standardbred trotters and pacers, run by the Hambletonian Society since 1984; richest series in the sport, over $239 million in purses, 2026 at Eldorado Scioto Downs.
Breeders' Cup
Breeders' Cup World Championships, annual Thoroughbred racing championship founded by John R. Gaines, announced 1982, first run 1984 at Hollywood Park; now a two-day, 14-race Grade 1 event with rotating host tracks and over $34 million in purses.
Breeders' Cup Classic
Breeders' Cup Classic: Grade 1, 1 1/4-mile dirt race for 3-year-olds and up, richest Breeders' Cup race at $7 million since 2024. Founded 1984 at Hollywood Park; weight-for-age; recent winners Sierra Leone (2024) and Japan's Forever Young (2025).
Breeders' Cup Turf
The Breeders' Cup Turf, also known as the BC Turf, is a Grade 1 Thoroughbred race on grass for horses three years old and older, first run in 1984.
British flat racing Champion Jockey
British flat racing Champion Jockey: the jockey with most winners in a British flat season, decided by wins, historically Lincoln-to-November, since 2015 from the 2000 Guineas to British Champions Day; Gordon Richards won 26 titles and 269 wins in 1947; Oisin Murphy has five recent titles.
British Horseracing Authority
British Horseracing Authority (BHA), founded 31 July 2007, is Britain's unified governing and regulatory body for horseracing, merging the British Horseracing Board and Horseracing Regulatory Authority; it licenses participants, runs the Rules of Racing, and leads equine welfare.
Calandagan
Calandagan, Irish-bred 2021 bay gelding by Gleneagles out of Calayana, Aga Khan Studs, trained by Francis-Henri Graffard; 2025 Longines World's Best Racehorse (130), Japan Cup record 2:20.3, five Group 1 wins.
California Chrome
California Chrome, foaled 2011, Cal-bred Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner trained by Art Sherman, two-time Horse of the Year, 2016 Dubai World Cup victor, richest North American racehorse, Hall of Fame 2023.
Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame
Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame (CHRHF), founded 1976, a charity at Woodbine Racetrack honouring Canadian Thoroughbred and Standardbred racing; 44-member inaugural class, annual August inductions, Legend category, 14-member 50th Anniversary Class of 2026.
Caulfield Cup
Caulfield Cup: Group 1 Australian Thoroughbred handicap over 2400 m at Caulfield, Melbourne, run by the Melbourne Racing Club since 1879; first winner Newminster; key Melbourne Cup lead-up.
Cesario (シーザリオ) (horse)
Cesario (シーザリオ), Japanese-bred filly by Special Week out of Kirov Premiere; won 2005 Japanese Oaks and American Oaks (G1), first Japanese-bred winner of a North American Grade 1.
Champion Bumper
Champion Bumper (Weatherbys Champion Bumper), Grade 1 National Hunt Flat race over 2m 87y at the Cheltenham Festival, first run 1992, no obstacles jumped, record 14 wins for Willie Mullins, 2026 winner The Mourne Rambler.
Chariot racing
Chariot racing, the ancient Roman and Byzantine hippodrome sport of ludi circenses, run by four color factions (Reds, Blues, Whites, Greens) at venues like the 150,000-seat Circus Maximus, with star drivers such as Diocles earning 35 million sesterces.
Charismatic (horse)
Charismatic (1996-2017), American Thoroughbred by Summer Squall, won the 1999 Kentucky Derby and Preakness for Lewis/Lukas/Antley, broke down third in the Belmont, and was 1999 Horse of the Year.
Charles S. Howard
Charles S. Howard, San Francisco Buick magnate and racehorse owner, bought Seabiscuit for $8,000 in 1936, co-founded Santa Anita Park, and won the 1938 Pimlico Special.
Cheltenham Festival
Cheltenham Festival, the four-day National Hunt jump racing meeting each March at Prestbury Park, Gloucestershire; 28 races including the Gold Cup (first run 1924) and Champion Hurdle (1927); over 200,000 attendees and £274 million economic impact (2022).
Cheltenham Gold Cup
Cheltenham Gold Cup: Grade 1 weight-for-age steeplechase at Cheltenham, first run 12 March 1924, won by Red Splash; also a 1819 Cleeve Hill flat race. Run 3m2½f, 22 fences, New Course; Golden Miller won five straight 1932-36.
Cherie DeVaux
Cherie DeVaux (born 1981, Saratoga Springs, NY) is an American Thoroughbred trainer; first woman to train a Kentucky Derby winner (Golden Tempo, 2026, 23-1) and 2024 Breeders' Cup Mile winner.
Churchill Downs
Churchill Downs is the Louisville, Kentucky Thoroughbred racetrack that has hosted the Kentucky Derby every year since its first running on May 17, 1875, founded by Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr. on land leased from the Churchill family, now undergoing its largest expansion.
Coolmore Stud
Coolmore Stud, the world's largest thoroughbred breeding operation, headquartered at Fethard, County Tipperary, Ireland, owned by the Magnier family; home of champion sires Sadler's Wells and Galileo, with farms in Kentucky and Australia.
Copano Rickey (コパノリッキー)
Copano Rickey (コパノリッキー), Japanese dirt Thoroughbred stallion (2010, Gold Allure), won 2014 and 2015 February Stakes G1 as first back-to-back winner, 2015 JRA Best Dirt Horse, 16/33 wins, at stud since 2018.
Cox Plate
The Cox Plate, formally the W. S. Cox Plate, is a Group 1 weight-for-age Thoroughbred race for horses three years old and older, run over 2,040 meters at Moonee Valley Racecourse in Melbourne.
Croix du Nord (クロワデュノール)
Croix du Nord (クロワデュノール) is a Japanese Thoroughbred colt by Kitasan Black, champion 2-year-old of 2024, winner of the 2025 Japanese Derby, 2026 Osaka Hai, and 2026 Tenno Sho (Spring), with 7 wins from 11 starts.
D. Wayne Lukas
D. Wayne Lukas (Darnell Wayne Lukas, 1935-2025), American Hall of Fame horse trainer, "The Coach"; won 15 Triple Crown races, record 20 Breeders' Cup races, four Eclipse Awards, first trainer to $100m and $200m earnings.
Daiichi Ruby
Daiichi Ruby (ダイイチルビー), Japanese Thoroughbred mare (1987–), by Tosho Boy out of Hagino Top Lady; won the 1991 Yasuda Kinen and Sprinters Stakes, JRA Best Older Filly or Mare and Best Sprinter or Miler, 18 starts, 6 wins, ¥431,711,600.
Danon Decile (ダノンデサイル)
Danon Decile (ダノンデサイル), Japanese Thoroughbred colt (2021) by Epiphaneia out of Top Decile, winner of the 2024 Japanese Derby and 2025 Dubai Sheema Classic, Best Three-Year-Old Colt of 2024.
Dark horse
Dark horse: idiom for a previously little-known person who emerges to prominence in a competition. From horse racing slang; earliest use in Disraeli's The Young Duke (1831); first political use for James Polk in 1844.
Darley Arabian
Darley Arabian (c.1700–1730), bay stallion imported from Aleppo, Syria in 1704 by consul Thomas Darley to Aldby Park, Yorkshire; one of three Thoroughbred foundation sires, never raced, yet ~95% of Thoroughbreds descend from his male line via Eclipse and Phalaris.
Defunct horse racing venues
Defunct horse racing venues are permanently closed racecourses, as US thoroughbred tracks have fallen to roughly 75 from more than 300 in the late 1800s.