In horse racing, do colts generally run faster than fillies?

Nope, it depends on their breeding and training. Doesn't matter the gender at all.

No colts and filly run at the same speed, most of the male horses on the racetrack are geldings.

colts and fillies are the terms to use for what sex a foal is.. mare and geldings if they are geldered and stallions if they aren't are they correct terms.. however.. a lot of people race stallions as they believe that they still have the umph to race and win

Please restate the question. Fillies are female horses under 3 years old. Colts are not allowed to race in horse racing, because they are babies...under 1 year.

Well, most racehorses are males, (colts) and they are usually ended in their racing carrer by the time they are geldings. BUT if you ever saw Dreamer, Sonador was a filly, and she won. So I mean, it all depends on the training of the horse, not the sex.

I agree with the top answer. It has to do with breeding and training. Horses aren't like humans. Human males are generally faster because they're bigger and have more muscle mass. Not the same with horses. Size in horses depends on what breed they are...ie an Arabian colt is going to be smaller than a Thoroughbred filly.
Rachel Alexandra (filly) beat Old Fashioned's (colt) time for one mile at the same track just one race earlier, by a full second. So in short...not colts are not faster. It's breeding and training.

Yes, colts are generally faster. There have been a few fillies who could run with the boys. One of them paid for it with her life.

actually the question was generally as in a tendency. i was the first sprinter in grade school and the first time i got beat in the 5th grade was against a girl with stride, not speed. i want to know the tendencies myself for my handicapping because it gives me an edge with male horses, not because it guarantees me a win.(that's just fantasy)

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Colts are usually faster thatn fillies. Thats why they have the Oaks. It's the Kentucky Derby for fillies because most, not all, but most fillies can't compete. When a filly can compete with colts it makes news like Ruffian did when she had a match race with Foolish Pleasure, a colt. Everyone was rooting for the filly because they don't usually win. All the triple crown winners are colts. Fillies just can't run as fast! Too bad, so sad......

all of this is unture, it has to do with development. in the horse world, unlike in humans, males go through puberty faster than females. thus, 3 y/o males in the spring are more developed than females, until the fall, when females are again equally as developed as males. it also has to do with economics. a male can be bred 100X a year while a female only once or twice per year. it is more economical to keep a filly for breeding than racing, because racing takes away several years she could have turned out foals.


here is info from a newspaper as a legitimate reference:
So why do fillies appear so rarely in the U.S. Triple Crown races? Many years ago I talked with the late trainer Angel Penna -- who twice won the Arc de Triomphe with fillies -- about gender in thoroughbred racing. His explanation was a revelation. Just as with adolescent boys and girls, Penna said, young horses develop at different rates. As 2-year-olds, colts and fillies are relatively equal in strength. But by the spring of their 3-year-old year, the colts have spurted ahead in their development. The fillies don't catch up until the fall.

Penna's theory has held true over the years. Female racehorses can beat males late in their 3-year-old season or when they are older. Overall, males are better and faster, but the gap between the ability of the sexes is narrow when compared to human runners. The difference between the men's and women's world record in the mile is 29 seconds. By contrast, Secretariat's record for 1 1/8 miles at Belmont Park was 1:45 2/5 ; the filly Go for Wand ran the distance in 1:45 4/5 .

The Penna theory may partly explain why 3-year-old fillies so seldom run in Triple Crown races. However, there is another reason why owners and trainers are conservative in their management of fillies: money. U.S. racing gives fillies an abundance of opportunities to win big purses. Why run a top mare in the $3 million Breeders' Cup Turf, against the toughest males in the world, when she could find a soft spot in the $2 million Filly and Mare Turf? Why challenge the best males in the $750,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont when the $600,000 Beldame Stakes might be a cakewalk?

Unlike males, fillies who win a prestigious race don't get a big payoff when they retire to a breeding farm. Smarty Jones won two-thirds of the Triple Crown in 2004 and upon retirement he commanded a stud fee of $100,000. He could be bred to as many 110 mares a year -- earning $11 million in income. That's why every owner of a 3-year-old colt is obsessed with winning a classic race.

Actually colts are more likley to run faster than fillies,trust me Im a professional horse race gambler

I dont think it matters what the gender is. honestly, its all about the horses breeding and training. it also depends on that horses characteristics and talent as a race horse. yes, there have been moslty male kentucky derby winners and yes, all of the triple crown winners r colts, but. if u take a look at who is at the top of the racing world recently, they r all female horses. japan has vodka, canada has ventura, and there is goldikova and of course zeyatta and rachel alexandra. but im not trying to put the colts down. there r certainly some fine colts in the racing world, but i think that they r losing their edge. last yr didnt se very many talented three yr old and just bcuz a colt gets into the kentucky derby does not mean he is a good horse. if u think about it, the kentucky derby, despite the large feild and trying distance, is not all that hard for a horse to win. mine that bird won last yr, and he hasnt won a single race sense then. he got lucky. rele, i dont want to put the colts down, but ive been more impressed with the fillies in the past few yrs than i have with the colts. thats just my opinion tho. everyone has their own.