196 HII^DBOOK OF THE TURF. 



Pony. [Eng.] The sum of £25. 



Pool. The combination of a number of persons, each 

 staking a sum of money on the success of a horse in a race, the 

 money to be divided among the successful layers according to 

 the amount put in by each. The box in which tickets on a 

 race are placed, is called a pool-box. 



Port. The tongue-groove of the mouth-piece of a bit. 

 Its use prevents the horse from taking the pressure on his 

 tongue, as he might do if the bit were straight, and thus become 

 heavy or dull in the hand. 



Port-bit. A bit having a curved or open place in the 

 center of the bar. In a perfect bit this groove or opening 

 should be about two inches wide at the bottom and one inch at 

 the top. 



Position. The station of the horse when standing atten- 

 tion, or awaiting the rider's or driver's orders and signals. 



Position of Horses. Placing, or ranking. The posi- 

 tion of horses in a heat or race has reference both to their 

 position as starters and at the finish. As starters, positions are 

 given by the judges, the place of each horse being determined 

 by lot. This is overruled, however, on the racing turf by giv- 

 ing the judges the right to place an unruly or a supposed vicious 

 horse, where he cannot injure others. At the finish the win- 

 ner of a heat has the inside j)osition in the following heat, and 

 the others take their positions on his right in the order in 

 which they came out in the previous heat. See Drawing for 

 Position, and Placing Horses. 



Post. [Eq.] The act of rising and sinking on the sad- 

 dle, (when the horse is at the trotting gait), in accordance with 

 the motion of the horse. 



Post. A pole or post marking a boundary, or certain 

 division or point of the course ; as starting post, distance post, 

 winning post. 



Post stake ; Post Race ; Post Match. By the old 

 rules of the turf, those by which the New York Jockey Club 

 governed its races fifty years ago, a post stake was an amount 

 or sum named at the starting post; and a post match for 

 horses of a certain age, was one in which the parties had the 

 privilege of bringing any horse of that age to the post, ready for 

 starting, without having previously named him. The Turf 

 Congress rules define a post race as one for which the sub- 

 scribers declare at the usual time before a race for declaring to 

 start, the horse or horses they intend to run, without other 

 limitation of choice than the racing rules and the conditions of 

 the race prescribed. 



