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The language of racing is a subject worthy of an academic dissertation. The betting ring, the commentary box and the tack room all have their own idiosyncratic terminology.
Often it is a code by which insiders can communicate quickly and efficiently – the mime of the tic-tac men or the trainer's abrupt 6am instructions to a string of work riders.
Stalls handlers charged with ensuring a smooth start to a big-field handicap have no time for polysyllabic fripperies but there is poetry elsewhere, in the names of horses, jockeys, races and tracks.
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