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Key takeaways
- A hood in horse racing is a fabric cover over a racehorse's head and ears, with the eyes left open, used to muffle noise and help a keen horse settle.
- A British or Irish racecard shows a hood as h, and h1 marks the first time a horse races wearing one.
- Hoods suit free-going horses, nervous loaders and horses that get worked up before a race, and can help in big fields and at busy festival meetings.
- A hood is often combined with other headgear, and a racecard shows both letters when a horse wears a hood and a tongue tie together.
- 32 runners are declared in first-time headgear today, and the free first-time headgear page shows ten seasons of hood results.
Does a hood cover a racehorse's eyes or its ears?
A racing hood covers the ears and the top of the head, with openings for the eyes, so it muffles sound rather than blocking vision like blinkers.
The ear covers are usually padded or quilted to dampen noise from the crowd, the loudspeakers and the start. Because the eyes are left open, a hood does not change what the horse sees, which makes it a different tool from blinkers or a visor. That is why a hood is often used on horses that are keen rather than lazy, the opposite problem to the one blinkers usually address.
Hoods are sometimes confused with the blindfold that stalls handlers use to load a reluctant horse. That is a separate item used only at the start and removed before the stalls open.
Why would a trainer put a hood on a horse that pulls hard?
A horse that pulls hard burns energy early and has less for the finish, and a hood helps it relax by shutting out the noise that winds it up.
Racing is loud: hooves, crowds, loudspeakers and the stalls opening. Some horses react by fighting their rider in the early stages, known as racing keenly or pulling hard. If a hood lets that horse drop its head and travel calmly, it can find more at the finish.
Hoods are also used for horses that get stirred up in the preliminaries, such as sweating up in the paddock or boiling over on the way to post. A calmer horse at the start usually runs a more even race.
First-time headgear, Flat
| First-time cheekpieces | 18,434 | 1,607 | 1,917 | 150 | 1,865 | 183 | - | |||
| First-time blinkers | 11,999 | 1,027 | 1,155 | 121 | 873 | 77 | - | |||
| First-time visor | 7,095 | 588 | 663 | 71 | 610 | 58 | - | |||
| First-time hood | 7,653 | 550 | 835 | 50 | 656 | 42 | - | |||
| First-time tongue tie | 10,594 | 767 | 1,193 | 101 | 1,052 | 100 | - | |||
| Any first-time headgear | 54,440 | 4,460 | 5,611 | 486 | 4,912 | 445 | - | |||
| Headgear removed | 30,591 | 2,567 | 3,072 | 298 | 2,649 | 238 | - | |||
| All runners | 727,309 | 75,995 | 73,720 | 7,904 | 62,905 | 6,801 | - |
British and Irish Flat, turf and all-weather.
Additional research statistics and historical returns are in the RaceWatch app.
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What does h1 mean on a racecard?
On a British or Irish racecard h1 means the horse is racing in a hood for the first time, while h means it has worn one in a race before.
The first-time marker is shown for each headgear type separately, so a horse that has raced in blinkers still shows h1 the first time it wears a hood. Combinations are common: a first-time hood worn with a familiar tongue tie shows the 1 against the hood only.
Some horses wear a hood only to go to the start or to load, and the rules on how that is declared are set by the regulator. The headgear shown against the runner is the guide to what it races in.
| Code | Headgear | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| b | Blinkers | Cups block side and rear vision |
| v | Visor | Blinkers with a slit in each cup |
| p | Cheekpieces | Sheepskin strips partly block the view behind |
| h | Hood | Covers the ears to muffle noise |
| e/s | Eyeshield | Mesh cover protecting the eyes |
| t | Tongue tie | Holds the tongue to keep the airway clear |
| 1 after a code | First time | e.g. b1: blinkers for the first time |
Do hooded horses settle better in big fields?
Hoods are aimed at the conditions in which keen horses struggle to relax, such as big-field handicaps and noisy festival meetings, where noise and crowding are greatest.
A big field means more horses around a keen runner, more noise and more chance of being caught in a pace battle. Settling in behind others is often the key to running well, and a hood can make that possible. The benefit is hard to isolate, because trainers choose hoods for exactly the horses most likely to pull.
The table below shows first-time headgear on the Flat, including first-time hoods, over ten seasons and the latest season The live page adds jumps figures and lists today's first-time runners every morning.
Can a horse wear a hood with blinkers or a tongue tie?
A horse can race in a hood with other equipment, and combinations such as a hood with a tongue tie are familiar on racecards.
A hood deals with noise, a tongue tie with breathing and blinkers with vision, so they solve different problems and can be used together. Where the combination changes, the racecard shows it, and a 1 marks whichever item is new.
When reading a horse's form, note which runs came in which combination. A horse that ran best in a hood alone and poorly once blinkers were added is telling you something about what suits it.
How should you read a first-time hood on a racecard?
Read a first-time hood against the horse's recent race comments: if it has been pulling hard, racing too freely or boiling over before the start, the hood is aimed squarely at the problem that has been costing it.
A horse that raced keenly and faded in its last run can improve a lot for settling, and the hood is the trainer's attempt to make that happen. A horse that was simply outclassed will not be helped by a hood, because its problem is ability, not temperament. The comments in the form, such as took a strong hold or raced too freely, are the evidence.
The pace of the race matters too. A keen horse drawn to sit behind a strong pace has cover to settle, while the same horse in a slowly run race may still pull even in a hood.
- Look for keen or free-going comments in recent runs
- Check whether the horse faded after racing prominently
- Note the draw and likely pace
- Compare the trainer's record with first-time hoods
Keen horses in context
Members see FormLines+ race pages with pace maps, Speed+ speed and sectional data race shape on British runs and an RWS score for every runner on the racecard.
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Questions people ask
What does a hood on a racehorse actually cover, the eyes or the ears?
A racing hood covers the ears and the top of the head, with the eyes left open. It muffles noise rather than blocking vision, which makes it different from blinkers.
Why would a trainer put a hood on a horse that pulls hard?
A horse that pulls hard wastes energy early and has less left for the finish. A hood shuts out noise that can wind the horse up, helping it settle and travel calmly.
Can a hood be taken off before the start of a race?
Some horses wear a hood only to go to post or to load, and the regulator's rules decide how that is declared. The headgear printed against the runner is the guide to what it races in.
Does h1 on a racecard mean the horse has never raced in a hood before?
An h1 means the horse is racing in a hood for the first time. A plain h means it has worn a hood in a race before.
Do hooded horses settle better in big fields?
Hoods are aimed at keen horses, which tend to struggle most to relax in big fields and at noisy meetings. The effect varies by horse, so the horse's own form in and out of a hood is the best guide.
Keep reading
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