UK Horse Racing Tips

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The Dovecote Novices’ Hurdle is a Grade 2 novices’ hurdle run over 2 miles at Kempton Park in late February. Open to horses aged four years and upwards who, at the start of the current season, have yet to win a race over hurdles, the race was inaugurated, as a Listed event, in 1988 before being promoted to Grade 2 status three years later.

Nicky Henderson, who saddled the inaugural winner, Over The Counter (1988), was also responsible for Flown (1992), Kimanicky (1996), Premier Generation (1999), Shatabdi (2007), Forgotten Voice (2013), Days of Heaven (2015) and River Wylde (2017) and is the leading trainer in the history of the race. Interestingly, Hampshire trainer Chris Gordon has won two of the last three renewals, courtesy of Highway One O Two (2020) and Aucunrisque (2022).

Aside from Flown, who won the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival on his next start, notable winners of the Dovecote Novices’ Hurdle include Granville Again (1991), who won the Champion Hurdle two years later, having fallen at the second-last flight when holding every chance in 1992, and Sire De Grugy (2011), who won the Queen Mother Champion Chase in 2014.

Just one of the last ten renewals of the Dovecote Novices’ Hurdle has attracted more than nine runners but, despite mainly single-figure fields, just three favourites, two of which were odds-on, have won in that period. That said, all ten winners featured in the first three in the betting, so the Dovecote Novices’ Hurdle is clearly not a race for rank outsiders either. Recent trends suggest that likely winners are five or six years old, are officially rated at least 130 and have winning form within the last six weeks or so. Previous experience of Kempton and winning form in Graded races, of any description, are less important.

Kempton Park racecourse, in Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey, is best known for its Winter Festival, which features three Grade 1 races, namely the Kauto Star Novices’ Chase, the Christmas Hurdle and King George VI Chase. The last-named has been a fixture of the Boxing Day programme since 1947 and, in terms of prestige, is second only to the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

Since World War II, some titans of the staying chasing division, including Arkle, Desert Orchid and Kauto Star, have won both races. That said, the chase course at Kempton is right-handed, practically flat and has relatively easy fences, making it a completely different test from the New Course at Cheltenham, which is left-handed, undulating and has notoriously stiff fences.

Having survived the threat of demolition, when the Jockey Club scaled down its proposed housing development programme, Kempton Park racecourse also stages 90 or so Flat fixtures throughout the year. In 2005, the course was closed for nearly a year for the construction of a floodlit Polytrack course, which was, in fact, the first right-handed all-weather track in the country.

The Flat course consists of two oval loops, with races over five, nine and ten furlongs staged on the sharper inner loop and those over all other distances staged on the outer loop. The principal Flat races at Kempton are the September Stakes, run over a mile and a half and open to horses aged three years and upwards, and the Sirenia Stakes, run over six furlongs and open to two-year-olds only. Both are Group 3 contests staged in early September.

I wrote an article a while back titled: What Happened to Nick Mordin? It’s one of my best post [according to Google] and top ranked No 1 on the said search engine. The article only came into existence because I had a reader contact me asking if I could forward Nick Mordin’s contact details.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t be of help.

So where is Nick Mordin?

No one knows.

Nick Mordin has always been a respected horse racing journalist and author, someone I’d always read alongside free bets uk.. In fact here are just a few books he has written over the years:

Betting for a Living, published by Aesculus Press Limited (1992)

A book where Mordin details how he won a £1000 a month from bookmakers just betting on week-ends and public holidays.

The Winning Look, published by Aesculus Press Limited (1994)

The sequel to Betting For A Living. Here Mordin explores with a bit of intelligent observation of horses in the paddock can help punters make a profit and form betting strategies.

Mordin On Time, published by Rowton Press (1996)

This is something of a collectors book with first editions going for £80. In this book Mordin attempts to answer the fundamental question of all punters: ‘Which horse is the fastest?’ He was taking sectional timings long before American books on speed ratings were published. This remains the only book in the world which allows readers to construct their own speed rating wherever they live.

Winning Without Thinking: A Guide to Horse Racing Betting Systems, published by Aesculus Press Limited (2002)

A book resulting from over 30,000 hours of researching race results over the years. This publication aims to uncover the principles that govern the betting market and racing results themselves. He shares the results of systems from himself, academics & professional gamblers. It’s a fascinating read.

Personally, I own Betting for a Living, The Winning Look & Mordin On Time. All excellent reads. I will be purchasing the other copy and writing a few articles about my findings.

Nick Mordin has always been respected for his search finding strategies and systems to make your betting pay. I’m sure many readers enjoyed the Sporting Life: The Weekender, which is released every Wednesday. As the blurb says: ‘It is designed to look at the best bets for British & Irish racing for the week ahead, with a particular focus on the biggest betting races of the weekend.’

I loved the good, old days when Nick Mordin’s Systems, often taking a double-page spread to get his valuable information across. In fact, it was one of my brother’s studies which put our research in the limelight when Mordin wrote: In a Class of their Own: How to Spot Top-Notch Two-year-olds.

It was published May 14^th 1994.

I’m not sure how many years Mordin worked for The Weekender but he was very well received.

If you know where Nick Mordin resides these days we would love to hear more. I for one miss his knowledge and insight, especially those systems.

I must admit I had never really thought about public relations with regard to bookmakers but it makes sense to imagine they are an integral part of business. In fact, I doubt I would have considered the subject at all if it hadn’t been for reading the late Ron Pollard’s biography Odds & Sods: My Life In The Betting Business, published in 1991 by Hodder & Staughton.

I’m over halfway through this book and it’s a terrific read. For those who are interested in hearing how Ladbrokes went from a minnow of a company to the giant it is today then it is worthy of your time. You won’t be disappointed. I found this copy on Amazon and it cost the princely sum of £3.34 including postage and packing. Originally priced at £14.99. The dust cover is a work of art and the 195 pages insightful and revealing from sports men and women, celebrities, professional gamblers and even royalty play their part in this world of betting and promotion.

I purchased this hardback from Goldstone Books.

There’s little doubt Ron Pollard was a man of the people. But not only your everyday punter but within the media a man who had friends in very high places. In fact, he was someone who had connections with most of Ministers of Parliament and on first name terms with Prime Ministers of the time. I’m pretty sure I can remember him back in the day. Ron Pollard was frequently quoted in TV, newspapers and radio about anything and everything when it came to betting odds.

It’s an interesting read because back in the early years of gambling 80% of betting surrounded horses racing, greyhounds and golf.

What Ron Pollard understood better than anyone else was that punters were keen to bet on ‘anything and everything’ and given the opportunity they did.

The staple of sporting action was limited until Pollard decided it was time to detail his thoughts and odds about the General Election after the Profumo Affair scandal which rocked Government at the time. Pollard realised that offering betting odds on all manner of news and media was not only a way to make money but gain global recognition for Ladbrokes.

His instinct for PR was an asset to Ladbrokes and Pollard was very much the man to go to for betting odds and quotes whether it was a price for Miss Uganda to win Miss World, the chances of a White Christmas or one of the Cabinet was actually an alien from outer space.

The book is very revealing about the bookmaking business of its time and how Ladbrokes went close to bankruptcy, how they saved the Grand National and sponsored many and varied sports bringing them to the prominence they hold today. He also was quite frank about how those early days of bookmaking (working for William Hill) sailed close to the wind.

Sadly Ron Pollard passed away in 2015 at he age of 89.

A truly fascinating read about a man who was trusted by so many and just respected by all he met.

If you want to know the truth about those early bookmaker days of William Hill and Ladbrokes you won’t find a better book.

Fascinating.