Do racehorses really have confidence?

Dictionary.com defines "confidence" as:

1. full trust; belief in the powers, trustworthiness, or reliability of a person or thing:
2. belief in oneself and one's powers or abilities; self-confidence; self-reliance; assurance:

Do racehorses really feel the same levels of certainty as we humans do? Do horses even have levels of certainty?

How does confidence increase in horses because he has won two races in a row?

How does running a horse in the "wrong/correct" races affect his confidence?

He is just an animal running with the herd which someone coined "herd mentality". He knows he is running but he doesn't even know he is racing.

Behaviour plays a part, like shying from the whip, because that means pain. Or if a horse sees a snake. Or an aggressive noise towards him then he knows he needs to flight.

But as for confidence I dont think so. He has no confidence.

Mac a very good question I am sure we need a "horse whisperer " to answer?

I don't think it's a great life being a racehorse.

"Only fools and horses " work

I think the short answer is no, confidence is a human construct.

Very interesting question... Confidence doesn't nessesarily mean winning, it's more a state of mind in preperation, all animals exhibit confidence to some degree. Confidence is derived from emotion which to some extent is based on experiences, bad experience = less confidence, show jumping horses display this confidence quite often. My simple answer to the question... yes of course race horses have different levels of confidence, they all have some ability but that is only displayed when trainers expose their horses to positive experiences.

books.google.co.za/books?id=MmJsScSIdzMC...20confidence&f=false

It is amazing I was speaking to one of the best trainers in the country last week and the topic was about confidence in horses. Animals are like humans it is very quick and easy to break the confidence in people and it is the same with horses. If you hang with people that are not go getters and not exposed to the real world they will not progress and it is the same with horses.

Yes they do - Watch a bunch of dogs - You can see the confident tenacious ones early in a litter or the ones that are quick to bark at intruders while others hide or wait to see what the confident dog does- Same with horses - You can learn confident behavior by positive reinforcement - Often horses that have a bad experience in a float or the stalls are not "confident" enough when presented by these obstacles. Confidence could also equate to experience - The more a horse experiences an event the more comfortable and confident he is.

Is class not a factor that can differentiate a Group winning horse from an ordinary handicapper.

Who can define class and what are the characteristics of a classy horse?

Ps
When a trainer or jockey is very bullish and say that today the horse will win, my take is that it's coming from the horse's mouth?

When I first started racing the old experts like Ernie Duffield used to talk about horses with "winning attitude " and even though MR is not dependent on number of wins , if I was choosing between 2 horses with equal ratings , I would favour the one with most wins!
That is an old habit from early days but it has been reinforced by hearing MdK talking about horses having "winning mentality"-some horses definitely have more fight.......whether that is "confidence" I don't know!

You often hear a trainer say that will give it more confidence but is it the horse that thinks that or the trainer ? Maybe we should ask Mr Ed

This could be the answer

Confidence and ability should never be confused - A confident horse does not necessarily make a winning horse but the confident one will show his true ability while the less confident one might not always give his all BUT his 80% could well be better than the confident one. I equate it to the dog ugly guy that is first to try to chat up the hottest girl in the bar - He may not score very often but eventually he'll hit the mark purely because he has the confidence to try.

Some have a lot of confidence.