In watching a late night talk show, I heard one jockey say “I managed to carve her up” in reference to a fellow jockey. A bit later, her mum (it’s a british talk show) tells her “You’ve carved up Princess Anne.”
My googling about horse racing and “carved up” returned only results using carved up in the sense of distributed among many or served as a meal (i.e. like a turkey). Neither of which seems particularly appropriate for the context.
I don’t think it directly relates to horse racing; it just means to make fun of someone.
It has a lot of meanings; with reference to another jockey, the meaning of cutting someone off (as in traffic) seems likely, as does the connotation of a thorough victory. Google “carve up” and “slang.”
I watched that show. In this instance that is correct, she impeded Princess Anne’s horse by cutting across it’s path.
Nowadays usually In racing to"carve up" a race means to win handily, running the race to suit yourrself.
Here is Dick Francis using it in Nerve:
The utter joy in riding Template lay in the feeling of immense power he generated. Ther ewas no need to make the best of things, on his back, to fiddle and scramble, and hope for others to blunder, and find nothing to spare for a finish. He had enough reserve strength for his jockey to be able to carve up the race as he wished and there was nothing in racing, I thought, more ecstatic than that.
But in The Sporting Life in 1899, Tod Sloan is said to have carved up Morney Cannon by repeatedly hindering his mount. The ride is referred to as reckless.
Not a term that is often used in Australian racing often, though as Don’t Ask has mentioned it can be used to mean win easily. It can also be used to mean attacking a leading horse so as to take all the energy out of it- as in gassing it.
(I consulted a racing writer here in Australia and he was not aware of a usual specific meaning. Perhaps it is more an English term).
The most common way I’ve heard it used in Australia is in any sort of competition (sporting mainly, but possibly in business also), in the form of “it/he/she/they carved up the field/opposition,” meaning “it/he/she/they won very easily.”
Yes, in Britain it does mean “cut off”, as in traffic, and is not specific to horse racing. Drivers use it too.
I think it does also have this connotation, but it is probably derivative from the first. If you can carve up (cut off) the opposition in a race, you are likely to win handily.