UK Horse Racing Tips

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A handicap is a race in which each horse carries a weight according to its official rating, allocated by a team of handicappers at the British Horseracing Authority (BHA). The official rating expresses, in Imperial pounds, the ability of each horse, so it can be compared with others and handicap races can be framed to give each horse, at least in theory, an equal chance of winning.

To qualify for an official rating, a horse must typically run in at least three so-called ‘weight for age’ races. A weight-for-age race is one in which each horse carries a fixed weight, according to its age and sex, the race distance and the time of year. Of course, a horse may run better or worse from one weight-for-age race to the next, but the handicappers will typically focus on its best performance, unless there is reason to believe that the form of the race is unreliable.

Once a horse is qualified for handicaps, each subsequent performance is analysed by the handicappers and its rating may be raised, lowered or stay the same, depending on their findings. By definition, if a horse wins a handicap, it must have improved on its official rating to do so, so its rating may be raised by 6lb, 7lb or more, depending on the level of the race in question. In a large, competitive field, it may also be necessary to raise the official ratings of the placed horses, on the grounds that, by beating most of their rivals, they, too, have improved. Conversely, if a horse is deteriorating and runs to a level below its official rating on more than one occasion, its rating may be lowered; by how much depends on the profile of the horse but, as any trainer will tell you, horses typically go up the weights much faster than they come down.

In assessing the level of any race, the handicappers may make reference to a horse, known as a ‘yardstick’ horse, which has run to the same standard as its official rating in the race under scrutiny, or to the same standard in a series of recent races. Having identified such a horse, they use a sliding scale, ranging from 3lb per length for Flat races over the minimum 5 furlongs to 1lb per length for Flat races over 1 mile 7 furlongs and beyond, or National Hunt races, to determine how the margins between the yardstick horse and its competitors should be interpreted in terms of official ratings.

Even in his heyday in the early- to mid-Sixties, Arkle gained legendary status in his native Ireland, where he was often revered simply as ‘Himself’ or ‘The Champion’. Thanks, in no small part, to a Timeform Annual Rating of 212 – the highest awarded to any horse and 20lb superior to every steeplechaser, bar one, in the last five decades – his legend continues.

Arkle is best remembered for winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup three years running in 1964, 1965 and 1966. On the first occasion, he was involved in one of the greatest clashes in the history of National Hunt racing when he took on the reigning champion, Mill House, an exceptional steeplechaser who was, at the time, a poster child for the sport. Arkle prevailed by 5 lengths, beat the same horse by 20 lengths in the 1965 renewal and, in 1966, in the absence of Mill House – sidelined with back problems – beat the talented, but vastly inferior, Dormant by a record 30 lengths.

At that stage of his career, still only a nine-year-old, Arkle was widely expected to equal the record of five consecutive wins in the Cheltenham Gold Cup achieved by Golden Miller in the Thirties. Indeed, had his career not been cut short by an injury sustained in the King George VI Chase at Kempton later that year, Arkle may well have done so. Nevertheless, between 1962 and 1966, Arkle won 22 of his 26 steeplechases, with notable successes also including the Irish Grand National in 1964 and the King George VI Chase in 1965.

Unlike many modern steeplechasers, Arkle regularly tested his mettle in handicap company, often conceding two stone, or more, to his rivals. In that sphere, he won the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury in 1964 and 1965 and the Whitbread Gold Cup at Sandown in 1965, carrying 12st 7lb on all three occasions. Arguably his best weight-carrying performance was also at Sandown, in the Gallaher Gold Cup in 1965, where he beat his old rival Mill House, who was receiving 16lb, by 20 lengths in effortless fashion and smashed the track record by 17 seconds in the process.

The 2018 Grand National was the first renewal of the world famous steeplechase run on heavy ground since 2001, when Red Marauder beat three other finishers, two of whom had been remounted. On this occasion, twelve of the 38 starters completed the course, but those that didn’t included the previous year’s fourth Blaklion, who was brought down at the first, and the well-backed favourite, Total Recall, who lost all chance with a couple of bad blunders on the first circuit and was eventually pulled up before the second last.

In a finish dominated by Irish challengers, perennial Irish champion trainer Willie Mullins went very close to winning with his apparent second string, Pleasant Company, but ultimately it was Tiger Roll, trained by Gordon Elliott, who just held on to win in a dramatic photo finish. The race had looked all over when Tiger Roll swept into a six-length lead at the Elbow, but the diminutive eight-year-old tired close home and, at the line, was all out to hold his rallying rival by a rapidly diminishing head. Irish-trained horses filled the first four places, with Bless The Wings, also trained by Gordon Elliott, 11 lengths away in third and Anibale Fly, trained by Tony Martin, a neck further back in fourth.

Fresh from victory in the Cross Country Chase at the Cheltenham Festival, Tiger Roll was sent off 10/1 joint-second favourite for the National. His victory was a second in three years for owner Michael O’Leary after Rule The World in 2016 and a second for trainer Gordon Elliot after Silver Birch in 2007. Jockey Davy Russell, though, was riding his first Grand National winner after 13 unsuccessful attempts; his previous best finish had been third place on Saint Are, trained by Tom George, in 2017. Russell, the oldest jockey in the race at 38, said afterwards, “I was thinking of all the times my dad used to cut the grass and…I’d make National fences to jump over on my feet in the garden. I won the National a thousand times in the back garden, but never like that!”