Search everything

GET /v1/search

One lookup across horses, trainers, jockeys and courses.

Available on

Free key 24h – 7d

Live today + 3 days

Archive back to 2017

Complete 2017 → upcoming

Complete + Analyst 2017 → upcoming

Send your key in the X-API-Key header, or as ?key= if your tool cannot set one. A date outside your plan's window returns 403 outside_window naming the window, never an empty array.

Parameters

Name	In	Type	Required	Description
q	query	string	yes	At least two characters. Matched against names; a prefix match sorts above a match in the middle.
type	query	string	no	Restrict to one of horse, trainer, jockey or course.
limit	query	integer	no	Per type, 1 to 25. Defaults to 10.

Request

curl https://api.apihorseracing.com/v1/search \
  -H "X-API-Key: $AHR_KEY"

$ch = curl_init('https://api.apihorseracing.com/v1/search');
curl_setopt_array($ch, [
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
    CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER     => ['X-API-Key: ' . getenv('AHR_KEY')],
]);
$data = json_decode(curl_exec($ch), true)['data'];

const res = await fetch(
  'https://api.apihorseracing.com/v1/search',
  { headers: { 'X-API-Key': process.env.AHR_KEY } }
);
const { meta, data } = await res.json();

import os, requests

r = requests.get(
    "https://api.apihorseracing.com/v1/search",
    headers={"X-API-Key": os.environ["AHR_KEY"]},
).json()

Response

200 OK application/json harvested 8 days ago

{
    "meta": {
        "request_id": "8b19eca4187e3ed3",
        "data_as_of": "2026-09-12T05:10:27+00:00",
        "plan": "analyst",
        "window": "2017 → upcoming",
        "query": "Well",
        "count": 32
    },
    "data": [
        {
            "type": "horse",
            "horse_id": "hs_1VBHGS3",
            "name": "Well Above Par"
        },
        {
            "type": "horse",
            "horse_id": "hs_1RN0YGN",
            "name": "Well Accustomed"
        },
        "… 30 more"
    ]
}

A real response from /v1/search?q=Well, captured by calling the live API rather than written by hand.

Response fields

Each field is described once and rendered on every endpoint that returns it, so the wording cannot drift between pages.

Field	Type	What it is
horse_id	string	Opaque horse identifier.
name	string	Race title as published, sponsor and all.
trainer_id	string	Opaque trainer identifier.
jockey_id	string	Opaque jockey identifier.
course_id	string	Opaque course identifier.

Errors this endpoint returns

Code	Status	When
unauthorized	401	No key, or one we do not recognise. Check the header name and that the key has not been rotated from your account page.
invalid_param	422	A date that is not YYYY-MM-DD, a by= dimension we do not have, or a cursor that did not come from us. The message names the parameter.
rate_limited	429	Past your per-minute rate. Retry-After is set, and X-RateLimit-Remaining tells you where you stand on every successful response too.
server_error	500	Ours, not yours. Every response carries a request_id; quote it and we can find the exact request.

Run it live

A real request from your browser straight to api.apihorseracing.com with your own key. Nothing is proxied and nothing is logged by this page.

Your API key

Remembered in this browser so you do not paste it on every page.

type optional

limit optional

What this is for

One lookup across horses, trainers, jockeys and courses, for the very common case of having a name and needing an identifier. Making somebody guess which of four endpoints holds the thing they typed is a poor first experience.

Results are ordered so that a prefix match beats a match in the middle, which is why searching Frank puts Frankel above Hurricane Frank.

Common uses

A single search box

Type-ahead over one endpoint rather than four, with the type on every row so you can group the dropdown.

Resolving a name from a spreadsheet

Pass type= when you know what you are looking for, and you will not have a trainer named after a horse come back first.

Notes

Horse names repeat across jurisdictions and generations. More than one result for a name is normal, and the career figures are how you tell them apart.