The Saturday briefing
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER
YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED
Is there anything you’re yearning to know? Send your questions, on any subject, to the contacts given below, and we will do our best to answer them...
Q What year did racing silks become the standard issue for jockeys and how many different colours and designs have been registered?
Derek Lawton, Northallerton,
NorthYorkshire
A The practice of wearing silks dates back to 1762 and a meeting of the English Jockey Club in Newmarket, when it was decided owners should submit jacket and cap designs so horses could be made out in races.
There are just over 12,000 sets of colours registered with the British Horseracing Authority, including the purple and red jacket with gold embroidery King Charles has inherited from the Queen, which has been handed down through generations, starting with King George IV.
The BHA has 18 standard shades and 25 standard patterns, and you can make your own using the colours builder on its website, from £59. But they must not replicate a set already owned.
Owners can also have bespoke colours, away from these standard shades and patterns, which cost £5,000. Interesting designs include a dartboard from owner Tiffin Sandwiches, the Bradfordbased catering suppliers, which have been worn by jockey Tony Hamilton. There are also vintage colours, sold on by the original owners. And once a year, the BHA auctions off six sets – this year’s sale saw a set with a flame-red body and gold cuffs, collar and cap fetch £15,000. While red and yellow are popular colours, the luckiest at the
Grand National are blue and green, accounting for 43 per cent of wins.
Q How do guide dogs know where they are going?
Sue Johnson, Bebington, Wirral
A It’s down to their owner to know where they are and how to get about, especially if it is somewhere neither of them has been before. So, for instance, their owner will know that after leaving home, they need to cross three roads to reach the high street then turn left to get to the dentist.The guide dog finds the dropped kerbs at road crossings and avoids obstacles like people, bins and signs, and responds to verbal cues such as “forward” to set off, and “straight on” to carry on in a straight line. Owners can also ask them to find things, such as stairs and empty chairs to sit on. Dogs learn regular routes, such as to work or the shops. Many owners now use technology such as Google Maps with voice-over functions to help orient themselves.
There are more than 4,000 guide dogs currently working in the UK and each puppy takes two years to qualify.
The charity Guide Dogs has created more than 36,000 guide dog partnerships since 1931.
Q My husband said “bite the bullet” and pay our TV licence – did people really bite bullets? Joan Simmonds, Bridlington, EastYorks
A It is commonly believed this phrase, meaning to get on with something unpleasant, came from wounded soldiers biting down on bullets when they were being operated on, in the absence of anaesthetic.
But it’s more likely that it stemmed from trying to show no weakness when soldiers were flogged – a grim punishment normally handed out by a drummer or bugler.
It was mentioned in the 1788 edition of A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, by Francis Grose, which came 30 years after Samuel Johnson’s dictionary. A “Nightingale” is described as a soldier who sings out while being flogged, with the entry adding: “It is a point of honour in some regiments, among the grenadiers, never to cry out, or become nightingales, whilst under the discipline of the cat o’nine tails; to avoid which, they chew a bullet.”
It was also described in the Chicago Tribune in 1890, in a piece about punishment in the British Army. “It’s considered bad form to groan or cry out when under the cat,” said a Sergeant of the Connaught Rangers, “and you rarely hear a soldier hollering, particularly an Irishman.
“The poor fellow puts a bullet between his teeth and takes a firm grip of it, and this helps him to keep his mouth shut.
“Sometimes a man bites through the bullet in his pain, and I’ve seen some of them spit it out all chewed to lead dust when the flogging was over.”
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