The poem explores the art of writing poetry through the extended metaphor of betting on horse racing. Duffy connects the random nature of betting with the quality of some words succeeding or failing, with Duff connecting the horse race with writing, the woman pictured sitting at home and enacting the same strategy when writing poetry. Duffy argues the importance of breaking down their name into syllables and individual sounds, this is how she decides on which racehorse she wants to choose.