no horse in this race
1
8.4
- idiom
- Informal
:
no tengo interés en esto
- Since I don't know the candidates well, I have no horse in this race.
Examples
-
I really don't care who wins; I have no horse in this race.
-
As an outsider, I feel that I have no horse in this race regarding the decision.
-
I've got no horse in this race.
Blog text (29)
Antonyms
30
3.8
A person or group that benefits from the current situation and tries to keep it
How Involved
79
3.5
- Informal
1
8.4
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase uses a straightforward metaphor: if you have no horse entered in a race you have no stake or interest in its outcome, so a learner who knows the literal words can often infer the intended meaning. However, this inference depends on pragmatic/cultural knowledge about horse racing and metaphorical use of 'having a horse' as supporting a side, so the relation is not purely compositional or universally obvious to all B1 learners.
Etymology
No horse in this race comes from real horse races: if you did not own or bet on any horse in a race, you would not win or lose anything. So the phrase now means 'not having a personal interest' in the outcome.