Today, August 1st is a special day for horses, especially those born in the north and south of the ball! Because today they are celebrating their birthdays.
August 1 is their standard birthday, and the Northern Hemisphere's Jockey Club celebrates this special day on January 1.
A uniform birthday is established for the fairness of the competition
Of course, not all northern and southern hemisphere horses were born on the same day, and they all have their own exact dates of birth.
It's just that because there are so many racehorses in the world, 30,000 foals are born in Australia alone every year, and it is impossible for each horse to increase its age according to its exact birthday. Because this adds an endless amount of work to the event organizers. For convenience, the world has unified January 1 and August 1 as the boundary between the birthdays of horses in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
So why are the southern and northern hemisphere foals separated into two unified birthdays?
This is also related to the horse's estrus period.
Because the females are in estrus in spring and summer, the seasons in the northern and southern hemispheres are exactly the opposite. Spring in the Northern Hemisphere at the beginning of the year, with increased sunshine, rising temperatures, and grass growth, is the best breeding time, horses need an average of 11 months to get pregnant, and in the spring of this year, there will be a baby horse born.
Also for convenience, the first day of the new year is set as the birthday of the northern hemisphere horses. Spring and summer in the Southern Hemisphere begin in August, so the first day of August is set as the birthday of the horses in the Southern Hemisphere.
A horse's gestation period is 11 months, and the breeding season begins in September of each year. Then from August to the end of December, the foals will land on the ground. It can be seen that all foals of this period were born in the same breeding season and therefore have the same age.
So, if both horses born in the northern and southern hemispheres in 2019 are playing in the same period in September, the horses born in January in the northern hemisphere and the horses born in October in the southern hemisphere are both three years old, but there is already a difference of ten months between them.
So from the horse racing point of view, the uniform birthday is to regulate horse racing. Some people call it "a bit like kids in school" — we divide students by grade, grouping students. Back to horse racing: This means that horses born after August each year will race together.
This is also the reason why it is required to have a unified birthday, in order to level the playing field.
The upcoming spring in the Southern Hemisphere also heralds the arrival of this breeding season, and when the first two-year-old thoroughbred race begins, it will be a grand carnival.
In recent years, with the development of the horse industry, many non-pure-blood horse owners will also celebrate the birthday of horses today.
Australian horse owners celebrate their foal's birthday
Finally, let's send warm wishes to all horses born in the Southern Hemisphere: Happy Birthday!
We also often see many horses born in the southern hemisphere, showing their heroic performances in the domestic arena. For example, every Saturday from May to September this year, dozens of Australian/New Zealand-born pure-blood racehorses are competing for the first horse on the Shanxi Youyuyulong Circuit.
This Saturday (August 6), the 12th race day of the 2022 Jade Dragon International Horse Racing Open is about to start, and there will also be colts born in the southern hemisphere with prominent pedigree!