The world of horse racing memorabilia is an exciting one that can keep you engaged for hours. Warning! Collecting horse racing mementos is extremely addictive. It is also endlessly fun, so prepare to have a blast! Pretty much any piece of horse equipment that is used by or could be used by a horse at a race is collectible, however here are some other things to consider collecting.
Racing memorabilia comes in all forms. One of the cheapest and most fun things to collect are postcards. Racetracks around the country issued postcards every year and frequently for every major race, so there are a lot of postcards to find and collect. You can get past champions on postcards too, like Citation, Kelso and Man-O-War.
Another giant thing to collect are the racetrack shot glasses. Drinking and horse races go together like flies and manure, so racetracks sell shot glasses to commemorate special races. The Kentucky Derby is one such race where the past shot glasses are in high demand.
Regular size glasses are equally popular. These are almost always issued for specific races, such as the Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes and the Breeders Cup. Jim Beam has issued quite a few glasses too, in conjunction with the Spiral Stakes.
In the same theme of drinking, decanters are also a very popular collectible. Some of them are hollow figurines of horses, either with or without their jockeys, and some of them are a regular bottle shape with a stopper or lid. All of them celebrate special races or special racehorses and many of them are works of art.
Recently, bobble head dolls have begun to accrue popularity. These dolls are of famous jockeys, trainers and horses so they are quite exciting. Many of these were actually given away as promotions to fans who came to the racetracks, but occasionally you find one that never made it that far and is be auctioned on eBay.
Another collectible to look for are games. Board games of every strategy have been invented for race fans to play when there are no races to attend. Some of these games date back to the early 1900s but most are from the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s.
If you want a real challenge, start collecting the saddle cloths that are worn by the horses in their races. If you are very fortunate, you might even get a hold of a blanket that is given to a winner after the race, however most of these are in museums. Race-worn saddle cloths are expensive to collect too, and the best way to get them is to go backside at the track and bribe a groom.
We have touched on just a few of the horse racing memorabilia that’s available for you to obsess on. Try not to go crazy and bankrupt yourself in the process, but do remember to have fun. Collecting is a great hobby for stress relief, and eventually you might have such a valuable collection that you will open your own museum!

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