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Not all horse races are handicaps. As we learned at this handy summary of the sport, the term "handicapping" has two distinct meanings. Handicapping is the art using a number of factors (past performances, track conditions, current health of the horse, etc.) to predict which horse will win a race, and it is also a particular type of horse race. In a handicap horse race, varying amounts of weight are added to the horse saddles. This is an attempt to even out the competition, in case some horses are clearly more dominant than others. It makes the outcome more difficult to predict, which means the track makes more money. As this excellent
article by Laura Hillenbrand notes, Seabiscuit often raced in handicaps with an absurdly heavy load of 130 pounds. An extra weight of two to three pounds is usually enough to slow a horse by a length. Seabiscuit won the 1940 Santa Anita handicap on his third try. Forget Tobey Maguire -- check out the real thing. The Horse Racing Hall of Fame features video footage of the famous race. And this impressive PBS site offers visitors a glimpse of a typical day at Santa Anita Park during the 1930s.
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