Betting Glossary - Essential Betting Terms beginning with F

Faces

The bookmakers slang for a punter with inside information about horses.

Fade

When a horse begins to fall back in the field due to exhaustion

Favourite

The selection that the bookmaker rates as most likely to win the event.

FC

Short for Forecast.

Fence

Large upright obstacle

Field

Some bookmakers may well group all the outsiders in a competition under the headline of 'field' and put it head to head with the favourite. This is known as favourite versus the field betting and is common in horse and golf betting. When a bookmaker calls '3/1 the field', he means that the favourite is 3/1. Also used to describe all the runners in a race.

Field Against

A situation where a bookmaker increases the odds about a horse.

Field Money

The total amount a bookie has taken in bets for a race is the 'field-money.' See 'Field'

Figure

The amount owed to or by a bookmaker

Filly

A female horse about to the age of 4.

Firing

Betting a lot. A player who is "firing" is wagering large sums

Firm

Ground condition between good to firm and hard

First time out

The first time a horse has run during a racing season

Fit

In suitable condition, ready

Fixed odds betting

Staking a set amount to win a set amount by multiplying the stake by the odds. As opposed to spread betting where the amount you can win or lose on a single bet may vary.

Flag

Race marker in point to point, or start/abandon race

Fold

A three fold accumulator means that you have a bet with three selections, and they must all come in for you to win the bet. The same principle applies to other numbers.

Forecast

In a forecast you elect to name, and bet on, the correct order of first and second horses in a race. A reverse forecast means that you are specifying the first two horses to finish, irrespective of which order they come in - so that if you get the right two horses, you will win.

Form

The basis of some punters betting is "form" - i.e., the previous performance of a horse in the races into which it has been entered. There is a guide to recent form in all the major racing papers, where a form entry may read something like: 011123-UP. This would mean the horse had been unplaced, first, first......unseated rider and pulled up in its previous runs. Runs in the last season are after the dash, and all runs are historically older the further right you read.

Fractional odds

See Odds.

Furlong

An eighth of a mile (220 yards, 201 Metres)

Futures

Wagers made, or lines/odds posted on an event or outcome taking place in the future. For example, betting on who will be next year's Derby Winner.