Off to a Flying Start » Touts http://offtoaflyingstartpress.com Horsing Around the Language -- The Book, the blog, and more. Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:38:09 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Touts http://offtoaflyingstartpress.com/2010/04/19/touts/ http://offtoaflyingstartpress.com/2010/04/19/touts/#comments Mon, 19 Apr 2010 20:25:39 +0000 bill http://offtoaflyingstartpress.com/?p=503 In horse racing to tout means to give out tips on a horse, usually for money or for the expectation of a share of any winnings. The word tout can also be used as a noun, meaning someone who gives out the tip on a race with an expected compensation. The word is Scottish in origin and originally meant to peep, to spy. It came to be used in horse racing when touts would secretly watch horses working out and sell or profit somehow from the ill-gotten information. So touts have had a bad rap from the very beginning of horse racing. If you follow this sport, these next few weeks before the Kentucky Derby are loudest and most lucrative for touts.

Oaklawn Park, Mar 01, 1960 . Photo: Francis Miller./Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

Oaklawn Park, Mar 01, 1960 . Photo: Francis Miller./Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

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