Word Smith: Here’s Mud in Your Eye
Question: What is the origin of the drinking expression, “Here’s mud in your eye?”
According to Wikipedia the expression was first spoken in American taverns around 1890.
One explanation of the saying is that it comes from horse racing: When someone says, here’s mud in your eye, he’s really congratulating himself. In horse racing, the winning horse will kick mud into the eyes of those riders behind him. With a relatively clear face, the winning jockey raises his glass and toasts those who placed, showed and “also ran” behind him in the final stretch.
Sign of an angry winner? Or perhaps smirking at sad losers? We often hear this expression without thinking of its meaning or origin.
Informally, the idiom is used to express friendly feelings toward a drinking companion.
Henry E. Hooper 