With a few billion people on the planet the collecting of memorabilia probably covers just about every single object and subject on the planet. From collecting the obvious like stamps, dolls, vases, even DVD’s, to the slightly weird like cars, used drink cans, bottle tops, celebrity underwear! So I guess horse racing memorabilia comes somewhere in the middle, not a well followed hobby, but not weird either.

Although I never set out to collect any of it, being a professional gambler for over a decade, if I look around the house I have many pictures of horses, videos, books, etc, so have been collecting without realising. At least I haven’t gone nuts to the point of collecting stuff that takes over your life as it does with some folk. It probably either annoys the spouse and leads to divorce, or the other half is happy is it keeps the other person out of the way!

Anyway, horse racing memorabilia, what is it, what does it include, blah, blah, blah.....

Basically it can include anything to do with horse racing, whether it be photo’s you have taken yourself, fine art you have purchased, a book collection on all things to do with the subject such as betting, breeding, training, etc, you can even collect items from winning horses such as bridles, horseshoes, blinkers, and items from jockeys and trainers such as whips, saddles, winning trophies, the list can be pretty long.

If you want to start collecting or add to what you already have one good thing is that when visiting a racetrack, go into the local town and find an art shop or gallery. You will often find one-off paintings of horses at the local track. It does not matter who the artist is, just buy it. The bigger the collection of these, the more valuable it becomes, and if you have enough you can even arrange to have the collection displayed at the British Horse Racing Museum in Newmarket, England, although most tracks around the world do this type of display as well.

Horse racing memorabilia around the world is really big business if you wish to get into the buying and selling side of things, especially if you can pick something rare up at say Kranji in Singapore, and sell it in the USA.

If you are new to collecting horse related items, the cheapest way of getting into it is the racetrack programs they give out each race day, as they are unique to that day. You can obviously pick them up at the track, but if you are lazy the course may sell you some leftovers by post. Other places for rarer items is EBay and other auctions sites, for the really rare stuff you need to check out specific horse racing memorabilia auctions, but make sure you have a deep wallet for some of the stuff.

Remember that you can duplicate stuff, as in the future you may be able to exchange one you have with another collector for one you do not have.

If you are at the racetrack yourself and buy the program, hang around the jockey’s changing rooms and get a few signatures, that will increase the value straight away.

Whatever items of horse racing memorabilia you decide to collect, enjoy it, and with so much of it available your collection is likely to be unique.