“one for the money, two for the show, three to get ready and four to go”

After posting the above rhyme the last four days I decided to google it. It was something my parents said and something I remember from childhood but didn’t know why. This is the trivia I found regarding this rhyme:

What is the origin of: One for the money, two for the show, three to get ready and four to go?

This seems obviously a four-count countdown to start a race. Using a query program on the Net produces a number of efforts to elucidate this count, and Mother Goose seems heavily involved. So does horse-racing, in which the first three to cross the finish are respectively regarded, by bettors, as Win, Place and Show. “One for the money” would seem to go with “Win,” although nowadays, at least, two would go with “Place,” not “Show.” Here’s a bit of variation found in one version of Mother Goose.

In “The Annotated Mother Goose” p 259 the following rhyme is included
One to make ready
And two to prepare
good luck to the rider
And away goes the mare.

The annotation says this is ‘a race starting jingle, the forerunner of the
modern ‘one for the money, two for the show, three to make ready and four to go!’

OK SO AWAY WE GO with todays FOUR TO GO – I just love the font in this set! And I love the selection of greetings.

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