market horse

English

Noun

market horse (plural market horses)

1. (horse racing, slang, obsolete) A horse kept in the betting-lists for the sole purpose of being betted against.
   • 1892, James Glass Bertram, A Mirror of the Turf, page 271:

     [N]othing is easier than to make sure […] that the horse selected, in the event of the public fancying him, shall be made a market horse, and be “milked” for the benefit of those interested: the losing of a race may at any time be ensured, and there are scores of “turf dairymen” who are reputed adepts in the use of the milking pail.

References

• John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary