How to chose your horseracing colours

Her Majesty the Queen favours a purple jacket with scarlet sleeves and gold braiding topped by a black velvet cap with a gold fringe. Sir Winston Churchill opted for pink with chocolate sleeves and cap, while Lord Astor’s choice was a pale blue jacket with a pink sash and cap.

We are, of course, talking about horseracing silks, the distinctive colours worn by jockeys when representing a particular owner.

Choosing a set of silks is a subject that has occupied most race horse owners’ minds at some point – certainly those who, unlike the Queen, have not been bequeathed particular colours by their ancestors.

This being the technological age, all British owners need do is go to the British Horseracing Authority’s (BHA) website and experiment with the 18 available colours on a classic jockey-shaped template… no trial and error scenarios required with tailors.

A search facility then tells them if their chosen colours are available and, if they are, they’re ready to register.

There is another way, however. If you’ve got your mind set on something particularly distinctive you could see what’s available at a sale of historic colours.

The choice of 18 generally permissible colours may seem fairly extensive, but it would rule out, for example, the ‘straw’ colours worn by jockeys riding for the Duke of Devonshire or the apricot of Lord Howard de Walden. Decoration on sleeves, caps and bodies is also limited to certain designs such as stars, hoops and stripes.

A conventional option

Paull Khan, racing director at Weatherby’s Racing Division – which oversees the sales – explains: ‘Official sales of racing colours began in the mid-1990s. 

At that time, to the 18 existing allowable shades were added seven more. These were termed ‘Cherished Colours’ and have only been – and will only ever be – released in very limited numbers, to maintain their rarity value.

‘Sales have normally been in conjunction with an auction house – for the most part Sothebys and Bonhams – and have typically taken place once or twice per year.

‘What is being bought is the right for a registered racehorse owner to have their jockey wear the silks in question when their horse is taking part in a race under the Rules of Racing. This right is offered by the governing authority of horseracing in Great Britain, the BritishHorseracing Authority.’

Braid: a rare sight these days

Weatherbys, which has a number of commercial interests in horseracing, provides the registration authority for thoroughbreds in Britain and Ireland and is contracted by the BHA to provide a range of services, mainly administrative, for British racing.

Khan adds: ‘When the restrictions were introduced, owners with existing sets of colours which did not conform to the new rules were allowed to maintain their registration. But, until  recently, the Rules of Racing precluded their sale – they could only be transferred between close family members.’

That restriction has now been lifted and it’s possible to apply to the BHA to have the right to register such ‘Historic Colours’ included in one of their auctions.

An auction of 15 sets of silks at Newmarket in 2011, for example, included: ‘Pea green, with a mauve cap’, ‘Green, white sash, cuffs and cap’ and ‘Straw with heliotrope sleeves’.

The latter, registered to Mr Gerald Cooper, were a feature at race meetings in the 1960s while the other two sets are deemed historic because neither the colour pea green, nor a sash, nor cuffs remain available as design alternatives to new applicants.

Khan says: ‘The most coveted racing colours are those of a single shade, with no pattern or design. And silks that comprise just two shades can often prove saleable. 

For this reason colours which go under the hammer in any one sale will likely include a combination of ‘Cherished’, ‘Historic’ and ‘Distinctive’ colours.’

Prices paid for silks at auction vary considerably, from under £1,000 to well over £50,000. The latter price is believed to be close to the sum Mrs Sue Magnier paid for her plain navy blue colours – a scheme carried by horses such as George Washington, Hawk Wing and Galileo.

Incidentally, Mrs Magnier’s second set of silks, in plain pink, are reputed to have cost more than the plain navy blue.

What a colourful bunch

Another distinctive combination is that belonging to Lord Derby, whose family name is linked with the famous Epsom race and whose colours are registered as ‘black, white cap’.

That is not quite the whole story, however. The colours also include one white button among the black. This addition can be traced back to 1924 when the then-Lord’s horse Sansovino was set to run in the Derby.

Jockey Tommy Weston was getting changed to ride in the black rig when he nervously got part of the white stock he was wearing around his neck caught around a button on his jacket – so it ended up looking as though he had one white button. 

The horse duly won and Lord Derby’s silks have unofficially carried the white button ever since.

There is also a tale in how Godolphin came to acquire its famous royal blue silks. 

Cheshire-based trainer Alan Bailey originally bought these when he started training in 1980. In due course, they caught the eye of Godolphin’s racing manager, Simon Crisford, before the hugely successful stable duly paid £26,000 for the right to wear them.

Racing colours can survive in other ways, too. Those of Sir Winston Churchill, who did not become a racehorse owner until the grand age of 75, still endure on the scarf, rowing blades and cricket jumpers of Churchill College, Cambridge.