Nice joke,
isn't it! It plays with the pronunciation of the terms horse and whores. In
General British (GB) the former is (phonetically) hɔˑs and the latter hɔːz̥.
(Some General American (GA) might have hoʊɹz̥ or hʊ(ə)ɹz̥ for whores.) As you know, in horse the vowel is clipped (= shorter,
pronounced more quickly) because it is followed by the fortis consonant s (hence the symbol ɔˑ in the transcription). In whores, on the other hand, the vowel
tends to be longer as it is followed within the same syllable by the lenis z, which is devoiced because it is on
the end of the word and there is no other voiced sound coming after it: z̥. Have a look at this amusing YouTube video clip.

Readers of
my book can practise pre-fortis clipping and devoicing of the English lenis
consonants on p. 13 of my L'inglese medico-scientifico: pronuncia e comprensione all'ascolto (EdiSES, 2014):
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