Cross Breeds

Wouldn't it be great to see a horse race with all white horses?

I've never seen a white racehorse. Are they out there? Is it because you can't see them very well on the racetrack?

Public Comments

1. There is actually no such thing as a white horse, which is why you haven't seen one. The gene that controls white color is lethal and is causes Lethal White Foal Syndrome. There are gray horses, though, which sometimes lighten to white as they age. They are born darker, though. There is one race run at Meadowlands in New Jersey that is for gray horses only. It is called the Gray Ghost Handicap and is run traditionally on Halloween. It is named for the Gray Ghost himself, Native Dancer. His gray color made him easy to spot on the black and white televisions of the 1950s.
2. The reason you don't see them is hysterical PC correctness. It is thought that white horses would offend the PC crowd. So you see horses of black or brown persuasion or even mixed colors. Also, in movies about the Old South, the plantation owner is always riding a white horse in the fields, lording over his slaves. This Hollywood image has carried forward into the San Francisco/Berkeley PC mindset.
3. on melbourne cup week the australians have a race only for greys, white horses are those greys that have got really old. it is a blood gene
4. A friend of mine always bets a light gray/almost white horse in a race. A race composed of all light gray/white horses would drive him crazy =)
5. A white thoroughbred is extremely rare but there have been a few dozen whites registered by The Jockey Club over the last century. Enclosed is an article on rare whites: http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/49606/a-horse-of-a-different-color Here is a picture of Yukichan, a white who races in Japan. http://www.equinecolor.net/v/other/Yukichan.jpg.html Here she is winning a race http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q15-s5XFhBY And here is her pedigree. Notice that her mare was a also a rare white http://www.pedigreequery.com/yukichan
6. I believe the reason why you don't see white horses race is because Thouroughbreds are the horses typically used in races, and Thouroughbreds don't usually come in 'white'. The more common colors for Thouroughbreds is black, bay, chestnut, gray(which can lighten to white when they are older, but by that time a racing horse is more than likely retired) but they pretty much come in the normal everyday colors. It would be very cool to see a race run with just white horses though:)