Happy birthday Borderlescott

[fintron]

Now aged 8 as of today. However, under the current system, every horse has their birthday today as all increase their ages by a year on 1st January, regardless on whether they were an early or late foal born March, April, September or December etc. This leads to an interesting dilemma if you have a foal that is due late December - the breeder is at a huge disadvantage if the foal arrives that month as it will still be classed as 1 at the turn of the year, just like an early foal born April. It gives rise to an interesting novel for the Dick Francis fans out there - Silks. I guess the breeders try and cover the mares so that they arrive as early into the year as possible, but there must be instances when there are late arrivals. What happens to them? Do they mostly have non-racing careers, thats if they have a career at all, do they get a delayed introduction to the track, or do they mainly race with the disadvantage of lagging behind in their development?