DOWN TO THE WIRE

What’s so funny about this? Americans love sports idioms. Baseball and Football especially, have added many idioms to the English language such as, a “ballpark estimate”; or a “Hail Mary” play, which means a last desperate attempt. Gambling is also very popular, for example, “roll the dice”. Horse racing is a gambling sport so it’s the best of both worlds, so to speak, and has provided more than its share of idioms, such as the title of this joke, referring to the finish line of a horse race. But the idiom we’re going to look at today is “home stretch”. A horse race is run at certain lengths. Some horses are better at sprints, or short distances, while others are good milers and run routes, or races longer than a mile. As you know, a race track is circular; the horses leave the gate at a certain point depending on the distance and then gallop around the track. But the finish line is always in front of where the spectators sit and the last part of the race is known as the “home stretch