All thoroughbreds from the North Hemisphere share the same birthday of 1st of January. No matter what month or day in which a horse was foaled, they advance in age on the same day.
Races frequently center around gender, but not always. Every race always addresses the issue of age. Age is the central issue in all racing conditions. Horses run where they belong, or at least that is the idea, when it comes to age, which is the first reason for the using the same birthday.
A two-year old never races against a horse age three or older. Throughout the balance of the calendar year, the three year olds will get a break in weight.
Derby races are good examples for age conditions. In most of the country, the once-a-life Derby match is a challenge for three-year olds to compete against the same age group. In some non-thoroughbred-breeding areas, such as Hong Kong and Singapore, this race is restricted to four-year olds.
“If you sit around the table at the track with a group of experienced players you will often here two year olds called babies, the three year olds are often called sophomores, and all others are generally referred to as older horses.” Horse expert, Art Parker, said.
“The second reason for this is that we control the breeding season based upon the gestation period of broodmares. Generally, a mare will drop a foal after eleven months of pregnancy. The idea is to bring a new runner into the world sometime after January first.”
“For the most part, all thoroughbreds are foaled in January, February and March. We will see some late foals in April and even a rarer May foal pops up every now and then. This is a very intriguing part of managing the breed; a breeder knows a horse foaled early in the year has a better chance of maturity than others in relationship to race time as a two year old.”
For horses in the Southern Hemisphere, the birthday system works similarly, but the big date is 1st of August.