The origin of the term ‘Yankee’ is unknown, but is believed to have its origins ined the Dutch word ‘Janke’, the dimunitive form of Jan or, in English, ‘John’. It was recorded as a derogatory nickname for natives of New England, specifically those in the army of Major-General James Wolfe during the Seven Years’ War, and later popularised by the song ‘Yankee Doodle’ during the Revolutionary War, in the late seventeenth century.
Even the ‘modern’ lyrics of song ‘Yankee Doodle’, which first appeared in ‘The Nursery Rhymes of England’ by James Halliwell in 1842, have nothing to do with horse racing or betting. Any such connection may be the result of a later, but different, song, ‘The Yankee Doodle Boy’, written by George M. Cohan for the Broadway musical ‘Little Johnny Jones’, which tells the tale of a fictitious American jockey – based on James Forman ‘Tod’ Sloan – who travels to England to ride in the Derby. The later song, which is set, in part, to the same tune as ‘Yankee Doodle’, was famously performed by James Cagney in the film ‘Yankee Doodle Dandy’ in 1942.
Even so, any connection with the popular ‘Yankee’ bet – which combines four selections in six doubles, four trebles and an accumulator – is tenuous at best. Interestingly, in Australia, the term ‘Yankee tournament’, which first appeared in 1961, is used to describe what is known elsewhere as a ’round robin’ or, in other words, a tournament, or part of it, in which every player or team competes against each of the others in turn. Likewise, a ‘Yankee’ bet couples every selection with each of the others, so it is not difficult to see how its name could have been derived in similar fashion, without any direct connection to America.