Playing the Field.

[Jemisa]

We all know what this expression means, but where did it come from?

Jem

[Buenchico]

One way to reduce any potential losses at the races is to back several horses in the same race. Doing so is called 'playing the field'.

Chris

[Buenchico]

Jem:
I've just spotted that, on a different thread, you've asked how to display a photograph on AB.

The answer is that you can't do so directly. However if you want us to view a picture, you simply need to upload it here:
http://www.tinypic.com/
and then paste a link to it within your post on AB.
(You can, of course, put your picture on other image-hosting sites and do exactly the same thing. The advantage of using Tinypic is that it's specifically intended for single images, rather than for galleries, and no registration is required).

Chris

[Jemisa]

Of course, why didn't I think of that? Doh!

(my head is too filled up with Gruffelo's at the mo.)

jem

[Jemisa]

Good Morning Chris thanks for the link, what a good site I've put it in 'My Favourites' for now and will have a good look later.

jem

[fredpuli47]

'The field' is the term for all the horses in a race. We also use it for all the horses except the one(s) just mentioned as in 'The betting is 6 to 4 Harry Home, 5 to 1 Fancy Dan and 8 to 1 the field', meaning the rest are at 8 to 1.(If they are at least 8 to 1 and some horses are at longer odds than that we say '8 to 1 bar')
Playing the field is, literally, betting on all, or nearly all, of the horses there are available to choose from, hence the figurative use of trying to seduce everyone available rather than just one..