Jockeys’ amazing coats of many colours

For more than 250 years, the colour and design of silks worn by jockeys has been governed by strict rules. But now owners are to be allowed to choose an array of startlingly garish patterns in a bid to attract new money into racing. Marcus Armytage report

Racing is abandoning the rules that govern the colours and patterns on a jockey’s silks in an effort to attract new money. Owners will be allowed to dress their jockeys in wider variety of patterns, from the subtle to the garish, that could be used to promote business interests.

One of the things, apart from the horses, which make racing such a photogenic sport are the vast array of different “silks” worn by the jockeys. Can sport get more colourful than the sight of 40 horses in 40 different sets of colours setting off on a green canvass towards the first in the Grand National?

Of course, these days a set of silks is no more made of silk than my underpants or parachutes. They are far more likely to be actually made of polyester because as much as you want them to run well on a racecourse you don’t want them running at all in the washing machine.

But on the whole silks serve the same purpose that they did when, in 1762, the second order ever made by the then infant Jockey Club concerned the registration of silks “for the greater conveniency of distinguishing horses in running and also for the prevention of disputes arising from not knowing the colours worn by each rider”.

Despite the fact more people now watch a race on a big screen than through binoculars, the best silks remain those you can see or pick out in an instant at the far end of a racecourse on a murky day.

Hitherto there have been restrictions on patterns – seams, epaulettes, stripes, hoops, braces, quarters, halves, cross-belts, diamonds, chevrons, stars, diabolo, cross of Lorraine and so on – and colours, of which there are 18, though these include three types of blue (royal, dark and light) and three greens (light, dark and emerald).

There are roughly 12,500 sets of colours registered, and even restricted to two colours on the body, two on the sleeves and two on the cap, there are 12.6million different combinations. The most popular colour is red, the least popular is beige.

Therefore you do not have to be Stella Mccartney or Posh Spice to come up with your own set of silks which are distinctive, individual and instantly visible from half a mile to both you and the commentator.

Bold and bright therefore, is better than beige, boring, wishy-washy, halved colours which are one colour going right-handed, the other going left-handed, or what a load of professional designers come up with for the annual Magnolia Cup at Goodwood; too fussily intricate, patterns that might look good close up on a dress in the Royal Enclosure or a catwalk look indistinguishable from the 10 other runners at three furlongs.

But the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) or more particularly its marvellously named “Ownership Growth Pillar” is slackening the rules on silks in the hope that it makes the sport more accessible and, maybe, brings in a few new owners for whom a yellow cross of Lorraine just doesn’t quite cut the mustard.

Though the record price for a set of silks is £120,000 for plain silver (with the added bonus of a tassel on the cap), in a more egalitarian toe-dipping exercise last week the BHA sold a pair of “dartboard” silks, a bit of a dog’s dinner to my eyes, for £8,500, while the altogether more classy “playing card” silks – white with a heart, spade, club and diamond on it – achieved a price of £4,500.

Tomorrow at Uttoxeter Racecourse in Staffs, a bit like going straight from monkey to man, the evolution of silks takes another quantum leap when Captain Peacock, a hurdling debutant, is set to carry the bespoke “yellow and multi-flower” silks of Tom Joule, a first-time owner.

The fact that he considers it a “no-brainer” to use the trademark colours of Joules, his clothing design brand, on his first horse is a vindication of the OMG or OGP or whatever it’s called.

Of course when it comes to “colors” America is a bit of a mixed bag. The late Mrs Miles Valentine, an owner with Fred Winter, had the best silks of all time – pink with red hearts.

But around modern America’s racetracks the profusion of initials, emojis and, at Del Mar recently, an intricately embroidered terrier’s face, I am afraid does not really do it for me.