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30-440: The Forerunner Stakes was contested at a distance of seven furlongs from its inception in 1950 through 1985. From 1986 through 1988 it was raced at 1 1/16 miles and from 1989 through 2007, at 1 1/8 miles. The event was raced as an overnight allowance from 1950 to 1985. It became a Listed race in 1986 before being upgraded to a Grade 3 event in 1988. In 1999, it returned to Listed status. From 1996 thru its final running in 2007,

60-577: A Furlong, and 10 single square Chains an Acre, so that a square Mile contains 640 square Acres." —John Ogilby, Britannia, 1675 The official use of the furlong was abolished in the United Kingdom under the Weights and Measures Act 1985, an act that also abolished the official use of many other traditional units of measurement. In Myanmar furlongs are currently used in conjunction with miles to indicate distances on highway signs. Mileposts on

90-420: A recommendation that the meter be defined in atomic terms (specifically in terms of the orange line of krypton-86 ). To secure identical values for the yard and pound in precise measurements, representatives of six English-speaking nations—Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, United States and United Kingdom—agreed to adopt a common 'international yard and international pound'. According to that agreement,

120-658: A square furlong in extent (eight to a mile, which explains the series of freeway exits: 19th Ave, 27th, 35th, 43rd, 51st, 59th ...). Much of Ontario , Canada, was originally surveyed on a ten-furlong grid, with major roads being laid out along the grid lines. Now that distances are shown on road signs in kilometres, these major roads are almost exactly two kilometres apart. The exits on highways running through Toronto , for example, are generally at intervals of two kilometres. The Bangor City Forest in Bangor, Maine has its trail system marked in miles and furlongs. The furlong

150-414: A team of oxen pulling a heavy plough was difficult. This offset the drainage advantages of short furrows and meant furrows were made as long as possible. An acre is an area that is one furlong long and one chain (66 feet or 22 yards) wide. For this reason, the furlong was once also called an acre's length , though in modern usage an area of one acre can be of any shape. The term furlong, or shot,

180-450: Is a measure of distance in imperial units and United States customary units equal to one-eighth of a mile , equivalent to any of 660  feet , 220  yards , 40  rods , 10  chains , or approximately 201  metres . It is now mostly confined to use in horse racing, where in many countries it is the standard measurement of race lengths, and agriculture, where it is used to measure rural field lengths and distances. In

210-461: Is also a base unit of the humorous FFF system of units. The exact length of the furlong varies slightly among English-speaking countries. In Canada and the United Kingdom, which define the furlong in terms of the international yard of exactly 0.9144 metres, a furlong is 201.168 m. Australia does not formally define the furlong, but it does define the chain and link in terms of the international yard. The United States previously defined

240-581: Is approximately one furlong in length. City blocks in the Hoddle Grid of Melbourne are also one furlong in length. Salt Lake City 's blocks are each a square furlong in the downtown area. The blocks become less regular in shape farther from the center, but the numbering system (800 units to each mile) remains the same everywhere in Salt Lake County . Blocks in central Logan, Utah , and in large sections of Phoenix, Arizona , are similarly

270-547: The Old English words furh ( furrow ) and lang (long). Dating back at least to early Anglo-Saxon times, it originally referred to the length of the furrow in one acre of a ploughed open field (a medieval communal field which was divided into strips). The furlong (meaning furrow length) was the distance a team of oxen could plough without resting. This was standardised to be exactly 40 rods or 10 chains. The system of long furrows arose because turning

300-604: The United Kingdom and the United States . The agreement defined the yard as exactly 0.9144  meters and the avoirdupois pound as exactly 0.453 592 37   kilograms . In October 1834, the British Houses of Parliament were destroyed in a fire . Among the items lost were the objects that defined the imperial standards of length and mass. New prototypes were subsequently created to replace

330-589: The Yangon–Mandalay Expressway use miles and furlongs. In the rest of the world the furlong has very limited use, with the notable exception of horse racing in most English-speaking countries, including Canada and the United States. The distances for horse racing in Australia were converted to metric in 1972 and the term survives only in slang. In the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, and

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360-554: The measuring chain in the 1620s led to the introduction of an intermediate unit of length, the chain of 22 yards, being equal to four rods, and to one-tenth of a furlong. A description from 1675 states, "Dimensurator or Measuring Instrument whereof the mosts usual has been the Chain, and the common length for English Measures four Poles, as answering indifferently to the Englishs Mile and Acre, 10 such Chains in length making

390-788: The "industrial inch" as it came to be known. In 1946, the British Commonwealth Scientific Conference recommended that members of the British Commonwealth adopt the inch as exactly 25.4 mm, and the 36-inch yard as exactly 0.9144 meters. The British Commonwealth Scientific Conference's recommendations were accepted by the Canadian Standards Association in 1951. In October 1958, the International Committee on Weights and Measures made

420-561: The Forerunner offered a purse of $ 100,000. As recently as 2002, it was listed as an official Triple Crown Prep Race. Your Host , owned by Hollywood film producer and studio executive William Goetz , won the 1950 inaugural Forerunner Purse. Ridden by future Hall of Fame inductee Johnny Longden , Your Host broke the Keeneland track record for seven furlongs on dirt with a time of 1:22 2/5. Retired to stud, Your Host most notably sired

450-565: The U.S. survey foot, with effect from the end of 2022. The furlong in U.S. Customary units is thereafter defined based on the International 1959 foot, giving the length of the furlong as exact 201.168 meters in the United States as well. International yard and pound The international yard and pound are two units of measurement that were the subject of an agreement among representatives of six nations signed on 1 July 1959: Australia , Canada , New Zealand , South Africa ,

480-459: The United States, races are still given in miles and furlongs. Also distances along English canals navigated by narrowboats are commonly expressed in miles and furlongs. The city of Chicago's street numbering system allots a measure of 800 address units to each mile, in keeping with the city's system of eight blocks per mile. This means that every block in a typical Chicago neighborhood (in either north–south or east–west direction but rarely both)

510-523: The United States, some states use older definitions for surveying purposes, leading to variations in the length of the furlong of two parts per million, or about 0.4 millimetres ( 1 ⁄ 64 inch). This variation is small enough to not have practical consequences in most applications. Using the international definition of the yard as exactly 0.9144 metres, one furlong is 201.168 metres, and five furlongs are about 1  kilometre ( 1.00584 km exactly). The name furlong derives from

540-795: The foot of the international 1959 agreement . When England changed to a shorter foot in the late 13th century, rods and furlongs remained unchanged, since property boundaries were already defined in rods and furlongs. The only thing that changed was the number of feet and yards in a rod or a furlong, and the number of square feet and square yards in an acre. The definition of the rod went from 15 old feet to 16 + 1 ⁄ 2  new feet, or from 5 old yards to 5 + 1 ⁄ 2  new yards. The furlong went from 600 old feet to 660 new feet, or from 200 old yards to 220 new yards. The acre went from 36,000 old square feet to 43,560 new square feet, or from 4,000 old square yards to 4,840 new square yards. The furlong

570-481: The furlong, chain, rod, and link in terms of the U.S. survey foot of exactly 1200 ⁄ 3937  metre, resulting in a furlong approximately 201.1684 m long. The difference of approximately two parts per million between the old U.S. value and the "international" value was insignificant for most practical measurements. In October 2019, U.S. National Geodetic Survey and National Institute of Standards and Technology announced their joint intent to retire

600-547: The international yard equals 0.9144 meters and the international pound equals 0.45359237 kilograms. The international yard was about two millionths of a meter longer than the imperial yard, while the international pound was about six ten-millionths of a kilogram lighter than the imperial pound. The metric-based international yard and international pound were adopted by the United States National Bureau of Standards effective 1 July 1959. In Australia,

630-417: The items lost in the fire, among them a new "yardstick" ruler in 1855, and with it a new formal definition of the yard. Two copies of the ruler were subsequently presented to the United States, which in turn adopted the measure for the United States national standard yard. In 1866, the U.S. Congress passed a law that allowed, but did not require, the use of the metric system in trade and commerce. Included in

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660-492: The law was a table of conversion factors between the customary (i.e. English-derived) and metric units, among them a definition of the meter in terms of the yard, and the kilogram in terms of the pound. In 1893, the Mendenhall Order changed the fundamental standards of length and mass of the United States from the customary standards based on those of England to metric standards. There were two factors that influenced

690-511: The legendary Kelso , a Hall of Fame inductee who won American Horse of the Year honors five straight times from 1960 thru 1964. In 1959, Tomy Lee also won the race in another track record time of 1:21 3/5 for seven furlongs on dirt. Tomy Lee then won Keeneland's Blue Grass Stakes and the 1959 Kentucky Derby . Speed record: Most wins by a jockey : Most wins by a trainer : Most wins by an owner: Furlong A furlong

720-647: The length of the international prototype meter in terms of light waves. In 1927, the International Bureau of Weights and Measures provisionally adopted the 1908 light-wave definition of the meter as a supplemental standard. In 1930, the British Standards Institution adopted an inch of exactly 25.4  millimetres (mm), based on the 1927 light-wave definition of the meter. The American Standards Association followed suit in 1933. By 1935, industry in 16 countries had adopted

750-503: The meter and kilogram in terms of the yard and pound. As a practical matter the British definitions were reversed, resulting in a de facto definition of the imperial yard as 36/39.370113 meter. In the 1890s, Albert Michelson began conducting experiments in interferometry that led in 1903 to demonstrating the feasibility of using light waves as units of linear measurement. In 1908, two teams of researchers, one led by Michelson, defined

780-565: The mile, and 1½ miles to the league . A league was considered to be the distance a man could walk in one hour, and the mile (from mille , meaning "thousand") consisted of 1,000  passus (paces, five feet, or double-step). After the fall of the Western Roman Empire , medieval Europe continued with the Roman system, which the people proceeded to diversify, leading to serious complications in trade, taxation, etc. Around

810-613: The order: for one, the imperial standard yard of 1855 had been found to be unstable and shortening by measurable amounts. Secondly, the United States was a co-signee of the Treaty of the Metre of 1875 and had received two meter prototypes on which to base a new fundamental standard. In the United Kingdom, a similar situation developed with the Weights and Measures Act 1897 legalizing the metric system, and Order in Council 411 (1898) defining

840-537: The year 1300, by royal decree England standardized a long list of measures. Among the important units of distance and length at the time were the foot , yard , rod (or pole), furlong, and the mile . The rod was defined as 5 + 1 ⁄ 2  yards or 16 + 1 ⁄ 2  feet, and the mile was eight furlongs, so the definition of the furlong became 40 rods and that of the mile became 5,280 feet (eight furlongs/mile times 40 rods/furlong times 16 + 1 ⁄ 2  feet/rod). The invention of

870-540: Was also used to describe a grouping of adjacent strips within an open field. Among the early Anglo-Saxons, the rod was the fundamental unit of land measurement. A furlong was 40 rods; an acre 4 by 40 rods, or 4 rods by 1 furlong, and thus 160 square rods; there are 10 acres in a square furlong. At the time, the Saxons used the North German foot , which was about 10 percent longer than

900-647: Was historically viewed as being equivalent to the Roman stade ( stadium ) , which in turn derived from the Greek system . For example, the King James Bible uses the term "furlong" in place of the Greek stadion , although more recent translations often use miles or kilometres in the main text and give the original numbers in footnotes. In the Roman system, there were 625 feet to the stadium , eight stadia to

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