Can mixed breed horses race in official races?

Question

I'm writing a story and in it a horse whose mother was a thoroughbred mare that escaped from a racing and breeding ranch and bred with a wild mustang. In the story her young daughter is captured to be a rodeo horse by the same people who owned her mother. Anyways she is later sent to an English ranch to be broke after proving to be too wild and there she shows amazing skill and speed on the track so they enter or well try to enter her in a race.

Also her mother would've had papers and proof of lineage.

Answer 1

Virtually all major race meets require that horses have to be registered Thoroughbreds with valid foal papers (this is part of the registration papers the owner gets when he/she registers a foal or buys a registered Thoroughbred). This effectively prevents non-registered horses or horses of other breeds from racing at virtually all major racing centers.

The reason for this isn't snobbery, but to protect the bettors who wager on the horses. Millions of dollars a day can be wagered at a major race track, and the governing bodies of racing (The Jockey Club, the various horsemen's groups, the state racing boards that oversee pari-mutuel wagering, and the track managements) know it is in their best interests to try to assure that the races are conducted fairly. Part of this means assuring that the horses entered in races are correctly identified and that their pedigrees are known.

Pedigree isn't necessarily an assurance that a horse will perform well, but it is something that many racing patrons use in handicapping races to wager on, particularly maiden races where horses are making their first starts. Handicappers who see a colt sired by Storm Cat out of champion Serena's Song, for example, may feel that in the absence of other things to judge by, a colt with such parentage has a better chance of winning first out than a colt with a less vaunted pedigree.

The thing that racing authorities want to avoid at all costs is the possibility of someone running a "ringer" in a race. This is where one horse is substituted for another with the idea of making a betting coup. So before each race, the track identifier checks the identity of each horse: verifies the lip tattoo and markings and so forth. This sounds routine, but every year there are errors that occur when the wrong horse gets sent to the paddock before a race or it's discovered during routine identification procedures that halters got switched at some time and one horse has been racing under the name and pedigree of another.

The only situation where something like you propose could occur would be in a betless exhibition race run by special permission of the Stewards of a racetrack. On a normal race with wagering allowed, the Stewards and others would feel that there was insufficient protection of the betting public and wouldn't allow it.

Answer 2

While there are breeds other than Thoroughbreds that do race such as Quarterhorses, Appaloosas, Paints. The anwer to your question is no. Registered Thoroughbreds cannot be bred to anything other than another registered Thoroughbred to have their offspring registered as a Thoroughbred. Without registration papers the horse cannot be in an official race.

Answer 3

In order to race in the US the horse must be registered with the Jockey Club and be lip tattooed. They check at the track for the tattoo. In order to be registered with the Jockey Club the horse had to be bred from two registered thoroughbreds and it had to be done by live cover. JC does not allow any atrificial insemenation or embryo transfer horses to be registered.
A horse could be raced at like county fairs and things like that but not a a race track sanctioned by Jockey Club.

It sounds like a very good story.

Answer 4

well the northern California fair circuit runs mules,quarters Appaloosa ,thoroughbreds.Arabians but i have not see a Hinze# 57 yet great question