In order to be able to race, a horse needs a gate card and 2 timed works. The gate card consists of the horse allowing the gate crew to handle it. The horse needs to go into the gates, stand quietly and break out straight from the gates with another horse next door breaking out as well. So they need lots of schooling to make them comfortable with the gates. The noises and the movement around them. There is a guy who is above their head to the side of them. There is a lot for the future race horse to learn.
Aria has been going in and out of the gates since she started under saddle. So she's not concerned about going through them. She got her gate card at her first try and she got a timed work as well coming out of the gates.
Timed works. The track requires that the future race horse have 2 official timed works before racing. The crew at the gap, where the horses enter the track take the name of the horse, the trainer and how far it will work. All this is written down along with the time the horse works. It is recorded by the track. The track reports it to equibase.com where you can find timed works or workouts of horses on the official tracks on a daily basis. These stats can be emailed to you if you set up a virtual stable.
Race horses also have to have a lip tattoo to id them for the races. This is usually done as the horse gets close to getting timed works. In the Arabian, we have to send our papers back to the Registry in order to convert them over to racing papers. The markings and hair swirls have to be drawn in for the new papers. Colors must match so some of the lighter, not so blacks could be changed to bay. After the tattoo, the papers are turned into the track to be kept. They keep a file of the trainer's horses papers. These move from track to track as the horse races. A sheet of paper is attached to the back of the Arabian papers to have any races won recorded on it.
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