Vintage Horsie-Horsie Eight Track Edition Board Game Pepys Horse Racing Bingo POWs WWII 1944

Horsie-Horsie Eight Track Edition is a vintage horse racing board game with a unique history. Designed and invented by Allied prisoners of war (POWs) at Marlag und Milag Nord, a German POW camp in Lower Saxony, Germany, during 1944, the game was later released commercially in 1947 as part of the Pepys Series by M.G.

Horsie-Horsie is a game that blends elements of bingo with horse racing. Players place bets on numbered horses, and the outcome is determined by drawing numbers, similar to a bingo game. The Eight Track Edition features eight different playing boards, each with a unique horse race, and includes 120 checkboard counters, 32 player counters, a bag, and a rules sheet. 

The game was developed by POWs at Marlag und Milag Nord, a camp primarily for British and Canadian merchant seamen and Royal Navy personnel captured during World War II. These prisoners, seeking to alleviate the monotony of camp life, created the game as a form of entertainment and morale booster. The design of the game, particularly the Eight Track version, may have been inspired by the packaging of Bar One Cigarettes, a popular brand in the 1940s.