UK Horse Racing Tips

Archive for the ‘News’ Category

Racing is universally known as the sport of kings, and in the UK it’s certainly a sport that the nation holds close to its collective heart. With races like the Grand National and 2000 Guineas steeped in 100 years plus of history, and with royal connections to festivals such as Royal Ascot, there can be no doubting its appeal in the country.

Let’s not assume that a love of horse racing begins and ends in the UK though.  Horse racing holds truly global appeal, and many of the world’s most prestigious racecourses and races are abroad. Vast numbers of Australians for instance simply can’t wait for the Melbourne Cup 2019. Held on Tuesday, 5th November (and first held way back in in 1861!) this much loved racing spectacle is set to feature the cream of the crop of thoroughbred racing. With prize money of A$8,000,000 this jewel in the crown of Australian racing takes place in Flemington, Melbourne, Victoria and is known to be the richest two mile handicap in the world. Previous winners include the likes of the Godolphin owned and Charlie Appleby trained Cross Counter in 2018 and Rekindling the year prior. The race is part of the stylish and lavish Melbourne Cup Carnival.

If we travel around 7400km from Melbourne we find ourselves at the visually stunning Happy Valley Racecourse in Hong Kong. While the current problems in the area are lamentable, the Happy Valley course situated on Hong Kong Island offers a skyline view like no other, and is popular with both locals and tourists. With a 55,000 spectator capacity and dazzling views, especially during night-time racing, this is one for the racing casuals and purists alike. The course is one of two in Hong Kong, was built in 1845 and had its first race held there the following year.

If you’re less about the views and more about the dollars signs, you may want to check out horse racing in Dubai. Of course the interest from this area of the world within worldwide racing as a whole is ever apparent, but it’s on Dubai soil that the Dubai World Cup meeting is held. It’s the race day that holds the distinction of being both the richest day ($35 million dollars) and the richest race (the Dubai World Cup – $7.2 million dollars going to the winner in 2019). Held each year at the Meydan Racecourse, Godolphin has once again experienced much success here, registering its record seventh victory in 2018 with the Saeed bin Suroor trained Thunder Snow.

The reality is that wherever you find yourself in the world, you’re never far away from top class racing action, unmissable festivals, and big money races. And all of this is held up by a general public with a love of this, the sport of kings.

It’s been a dizzying few months of top quality horse racing of late, as is always the case at this time of year. In mid March we had the ever exciting Cheltenham Festival. This year we saw the performance of female jockeys go to another level, with Rachael Blackmore,  Bryony Frost and Lizzie Kelly heralding in a golden era for women in the sport (with two grade one wins between them during the 2019 Cheltenham Festival!). The event saw some big odds winners too, so was definitely one for the speculative bettor.

Then of course we had the Grand National last weekend (6th April). This prestigious race watched around the world by hundreds of millions, (and this year drawing almost ten million viewers to ITV alone) saw Gordon Elliot’s Tiger Roll rack up back to back wins in the Grand National – the first horse to do so since Red Rum in 1974. It was quite something to see Davy Russell and co soaking in an win they themselves couldn’t seem to quite comprehend. Bookmakers are set to pay out an estimated £200 – £250 million as result of the victory, with Tiger Roll being one of the shortest priced winners for decades at 4-1.

In other sports news, gambling regulators have clamped down on a roulette-like virtual cycling games available in some betting shops, which was seen as a way of working around fixed odd betting terminal rules. The game offered by one betting shop chain, involved a cyclist racing around a velodrome, who then stops on one of 36 segmented areas (much like a roulette wheel). Customer could bet up to £500, whereas maximum bets on  FOBT games was recently reduced to £2. Many casual punters are unhappy with such a dramatic restriction down to £2, and instead are switching to more open online betting environments, where websites welcome customers with generous bonuses and offers, as you see at the likes of Thumbsupbonus. High street betting shorts are increasingly outmoded in comparison, when numerous games such as bingo, poker and sports betting are only a mouse click away!

A final bit of racing news from Late February led me to wondering if bookmakers should start offering betting odds on who is going to win the latest racecourse brawl! A mass brawl, which was captured on film, broke out at Haydock Park between some 50 members of the public at the Saturday afternoon race meeting. Similar incidents happened at Ascot, Goodwood and Hexham in 2018. Haydock have declared a “zero tolerance position” in response tp the incident, though personally I’d say the chance of a repeat is around even money!  Place your bets now please!

Credit: Betway

Few jockey’s can boast of a CV that matches that of Richard Johnson. Decades in the sport have ticked almost every box there is to tick, with one notable exception, The Aintree Grand National. In this video interview he details some of his many attempt to win the Grand National over the years (including a close 2nd place efforts on both What’s Up Boys in 2002 and Balthazar King in 2014) and hopes for his upcoming National ride on Rock the Kasbah. With efforts over the years ranging from disappointments to close calls, could 2019 finally be Richard Johnson’s year?

Sky Horse racing presenter Hayley Moore (daughter of trainer Gary Moore and brother of Ryan) certainly had an unexpectedly eventful week. She made news across the world and lit up social media with her heroic display in singlehandedly stopping a loose horse; three year old Give Em A Clump. The horse had unseated his rider Fran Berr just a furlong into the race at Chepstow.

By name and by nature Give Em A Clump certainly didn’t go easy on Hayley when she attempted to stop it in its tracks. For a while it looked like she might be hurt, but in actual fact it ended up being more like some kind of Indiana Jones move, and where others stood back, she had the horse by the reins in seconds.

Moore, previously an amateur rider herself commented “I just couldn’t bear the thought of him going round again, especially on quite a hot day. He had the blinkers on and I think he was panicking a little, he was running on adrenaline.

“I’m used to catching horses, but not quite like that!”