Wikipedia:WikiProject Horse racing/Notability

This is an essay on notability. It contains the advice and/or opinions of one or more WikiProjects on how notability may be interpreted within their area of interest.

This information is not a formal Wikipedia policy or guideline, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community.

The existence of many horse racing-related articles has resulted in many stub articles. The following are guidelines created by Wikipedia:WikiProject Horse racing, to help assess the notability of articles on race horse topics, including guidelines for trainers, jockeys/drivers, owners, notable named horse biographies, race meets, race courses, and breeding farms.

These guidelines are meant not to supersede Wikipedia:Notability, but to act as a specific supplement to the overall policies and the further guidelines or policies at Wikipedia:Notability (sports), biographies, and organizations.

These guidelines are consolidated from various discussions amongst project members.

General points

Discussion of general concepts of WP:NOTABILITYClick "show" to read

Reliable sourcing and verifiability are the most important factors. Assertions of notability must be sourced from somewhere other than the individual or organization under discussion (see secondary sources). A single local newspaper article is probably not enough to assert notability, but national mention with some details or multiple local sources "make a case" for notability. A lack of any sources other than self-promoting or self-published material is a warning sign that a topic may not be notable enough for inclusion.

In general, local news coverage of individuals, events, or clubs (such as human-interest stories about local individuals or competitions) may not be sufficient by itself to demonstrate notability of the subject, although it may serve as a reliable source to document other claims to notability, such as when a local story is picked up by national news outlets. Similarly, results of many competitions are published by the organization sponsoring the competition; but such primary source results go to verifiability, and not necessarily evidence of notability of either the event or the participants. Likewise, an individual's (or organization's) own web site cannot be used to establish notability. See WP:BIO, which explicitly requires published secondary sources.

Google and other search engines are a useful tool for finding sources. Search results may sometimes be persuasive if a search has very high or very low result counts, but is not proof of whether or not something is notable (see WP:Google test). Using quotes around the search will look for only exact matches and using -Wikipedia at the end will remove self-references.

Note on terminology

See criteria in WP:ATHLETE. It is assumed that any person (or horse) who meets these criteria generally also meets the primary notability criteria. In the world of horse racing, there have been historic periods where participation in sport was deemed to be something to be pursued for the love of the sport and not money; hence in some times and places, people competing at very high levels may well be defined as "amateurs" as opposed to professionals. Be careful to avoid WP:RECENTISM in notability assessment.

At the other end of the notability spectrum, WP:MILL lists "little leagues" as examples of subjects with no inherent notability. In horse racing, the corresponding concepts will include pony races, claiming races, county fairs, developmental skill levels, or topics that are local in scope rather than national or international. Regional scope may be notable if the topic has additional reasons that WP:GNG applies.

Notability of individual people or horses

Criteria strongly supporting notability

As of December, 2021^[update], WP:NHORSERACING states as follows:

Shortcut

WP:NHORSERACING

Notability for people involved in sport horse disciplines other than horse racing are covered at WP:NEQUESTRIAN or WP:NRODEO

Not all participants in horse racing are athletic "professionals", particularly owners and breeders, but due to purse money and profit motive throughout the sport they are put in the professional sports category for convenience.

Horse racing figures, including horses and/or their human "connections" (horse trainers, jockeys, or horse owners and horse breeders) are presumed to most likely meet notability standards if they have accomplished any of the following:

Individuals who win a Grade I/Group I stakes race or the equivalent level in their respective nations. (Horses, due to their relatively short careers, at least once; humans best to have done so more than once)
Individuals who have won multiple significant Grade/Group 2 or 3 graded stakes races or the equivalent level in their respective nations.
Individuals who have won year-end championship titles, such as an Eclipse Award.
Members of a national Racing Hall of Fame.

Notability for horses or persons associated with horse racing who were not competitors or do not meet the criteria above may be presumed notable if they meet GNG for any of the following:

Individual humans who were significant for new advancements or trailblazing achievements. (examples: Andrew Beyer, Florence Nagle, Diane Crump)
Horses that may not have raced to any significant degree (usually due to injury), but had multiple significant progeny, such as Tapit.
Horses who are ranked the leading sire or broodmare for a given year in their respective nations (again, see Tapit)
Breeding farms or farm owners that do not race many horses themselves, but have produced or currently stand horses who became notable winners. (i.e., Adena Springs)
Agents, race track announcers (e.g., Larry Collmus), racing journalists (e.g., Steve Haskin), venue owners (e.g., Frank Stronach) and other business professionals with a significant connection to horse racing.
Horses and individuals involved in highly publicized thefts or other crimes, e.g., Shergar, scandals, or other nefarious activities, such as substitution scams, e.g., Fine Cotton.
An individual person with a connection to a notable horse is not inherently notable for that reason only, see WP:BIO1E, though if the individual's role is a large one, a significant connection to a single notable horse might justify a spinoff article (e.g., Eddie Sweat, groom of Secretariat). Conversely, a horse is not presumed notable just because the owner is famous – of Jim Rome's racehorses, Shared Belief is notable, Gallatin's Run is probably not.

Additional criteria generally supporting notability

Discussion at WP:NSPORTS encouraged conciseness in the criteria included on that page. WP Horse racing also considers the following as also supporting notability:

Notability for individuals who are not notable for their own competitive accomplishments, but have contributed significantly to horse racing:

Most owners of multiple horses who win Grade I stakes races or the equivalent level in their respective nations. Example: Ken Ramsey, Ogden Phipps
Horses, jockeys, or trainers who were not successful in horse racing but became notable in another field of equestrian sport. Examples might include horses who go on to compete in the Olympics.

Criteria generally supporting deletion

Individuals fitting these criteria below do not have to be deleted if WP:GNG provides other good reasons to keep, but the following generally indicate non-notability:

A horse is not notable simply for the fact it is owned by a celebrity or famous person outside of horse racing; usually if the famous person's horse played a role in that person's life, it can be mentioned in the person's article. As noted above, examples include the horses of Jim Rome, only some of which are notable in their own right, e.g. Mizdirection is notable, Gallatin's Run is not. The race horses owned by Jane Smiley are, so far, not notable.
Similarly, an individual person with a passing connection to a notable horse is not inherently notable for that reason only. An individual with a significant connection to a single notable horse might be. For example, Eddie Sweat is notable, but as a rule, most horse grooms are not. WP:GNG should be applied.
A horse or horse racing personality of only local fame.
Any horse or individual for whom the main sources are self-published materials.
Fictitious farms, horses or horse racing personalities are not individually notable unless closely linked the artistic/critical value of the work in question. i.e. The Black Stallion is notable because it is a major work of children's literature (though the eponymously-titled series article covers the individual character as well); the horses who are characters in Horse Heaven are not.

Notability of organizations

This section does not encompass breeding farms

Criteria supporting notability

A governing body or authority responsible for organizing or administering horse racing in a nation
A breed registry or sport governing organization that is national in scope e.g. the Jockey Club
A governing body or authority responsible for organizing or administering horse racing in a governmental region where there exists no national authority or where there is concurrent national and sub-national authority (example: USA, racing organized at the state level, parimutuel gambling is governed by federal law)

Criteria supporting deletion

An organization that is only local in scope, hosting no major races, such as the turf club that supports a county fair
A rescue organization for horses unless they meet the general guidelines of WP:NOTABILITY, such as Old Friends Equine.

Notability of competitions

A racetrack, individual race or a race meet that may be questionable by the general WP:GNG criteria may be notable or not by assessing the following additional factors:

Criteria supporting notability

A group 1, grade I or equivalent race is presumed notable.
A race that previously was a group 1, grade I, or equivalent race is presumed notable even if it is no longer held or no longer in that class.
A race track or meet with multiple graded stakes races or the equivalent.
A race track or meet offering races with large amounts of purse money for the region in which they are held.
A race or race meet that is unique in some fashion that generates coverage from neutral third-party news sources, even if not national in focus. Examples may include pony races for young riders, mule races, races for horse breeds that have limited racing opportunities.
A race meet, even if small, if it is one of a very few that exist in the given area (state, region or nation).
Races or meets that are in some fashion a significant historic first (the competition itself, not the participants).

Criteria supporting deletion

These criteria do not mandate deletion, but may indicate that a competition is not notable:

A race meet with no graded stakes races, such as a county fair meet, unless the meet or type of race has characteristics noted above in criteria supporting notability.
Imaginary horse races or fictional horse race meets.
Races or meets merely named after a famous individual without otherwise meeting any indicia of notability.