UK Horse Racing Tips

There are and continue to be countless characters in horse racing, the sport of kings, over the years. From all angles, the riding, the training, the owning, right through to the colourful peripheral characters that have made their mark on racing over the decades (a nod to the late great John Mccririck!). With the magnificent and much awaited Cheltenham Festival just around the corner, it feels like a good time to centre in on someone who has more than made their mark in this prestigious event. And that individual is none over that talented jockey, Davy Russell.

Beyond horse racing circles, David ‘Davy’ Russell is of course best known for his association with Tiger Roll, whom he rode to back-to-back victories in the Grand National in 2018 and 2019. However, the 41-year-old Corkman has an enviable record at the Cheltenham Festival too, where he has ridden a total of 22 winners and ranks and impressive sixth in the all-time list of most successful jockeys. He features in many Cheltenham Guides such as cheltenhamguides.com and for good reason.

Russell rode his first Cheltenham Festival winner, Native Jack, trained by Philip Rothwell, in what is now the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase and, with the exception of 2019, has ridden at least one winner at every Cheltenham Festival since. In 2018, he rode four winners, including Presenting Percy in the RSA Insurance Novices’ Chase and Balko Des Flos in the Ryanair Chase to win the Leading Jockey Award for the one and only time. A record viewed by many to be beyond impressive.

Of the four main ‘championship’ races at the Festival, Russell has won just one, the Cheltenham Gold Cup (though what a race to win!), aboard Lord Windermere, trained by Jim Culloty, in 2014. However, he in fact was completing a notable double, having won the RSA Insurance Novices’ Chase on the same horse in 2013. Indeed, that year he also rode Tiger Roll to the first of his four victories, so far, at the Cheltenham Festival, in the Triumph Hurdle.

Russell is also, jointly, the leading jockey in the history of two of the most competitive handicaps at the Cheltenham Festival, the Coral Cup and the Pertemps Final. So far, he has won both races three times, in the case of the former on Naiad de Misselot in 2008, Carlito Brigante in 2011 and Diamond King in 2016, and of the latter on Mall Dini in 2016, Presenting Percy in 2017 and Delta Work in 2018. It will take a jockey of quite some talent to overshadow the achievements of Davy Russell.

Guess who’s number one?

If you’re here, we no doubt have one thing in common – you love a flutter. A ‘flutter’ of course is a bet, be that on the races, football or any sport really. But much like a fingerprint we each have our own approaching t0 betting that is very particular to us. Some of us simply can’t go long without having a win (be it due to the need to keep motivated, or to feel things are going your way). Others though are more geared towards value bets, and so are less inclined to go for short odds selections and more likely to opt for outsiders.

Of course even in opting for outsiders this can be a broad area. Some look for value bets that are a little beyond the rest of the field (say 15-1 to 20-1 kind of range) whereas others are looking for that one memorable win where they spot something that other punters simply don’t (say 100-1 selection). The same is true of the other side of the odds spectrum where some bettors frequently opt for short priced selections from say even money to 3-1, whereas others want win after win and so are no strangers to odds on shots.

Such a strategy (opting for odds-on shots) is of course a risk because you’ll need a very high hit rate. Any disappointment will mean that your betting bank takes a hit, whereas on the other end of the scale if you opt for outsiders your success rate is certainly going to be lower, but when you do have a win your betting bank will receive a significant boost. It’s important also to remember that there are a great many horse racing bookmakers and so you’re often able to ‘shop around’ for the best betting odds (or even get involved in arbitrage betting). Of course not all punters go for an either / or approach, with some spotting value in both big and short odds selections. There are as many approaches as there are gamblers, and if your approach to betting works for you, then that really is the sole factor of importance.

Unfortunately, the result of the 1981 Derby will forever be overshadowed by events at Ballmany Stud, Co. Kildare on February 8, 1983. However, while the winner, Shergar, was subsequently spirited away, in the dead of night, by a gang of masked gunmen and never seen alive again, his performance at Epsom still stirs the blood of many in the racing fraternity.

Having won the Sandown Classic Trial by ten lengths and the Chester Vase by twelve lengths, much lie someone aceing the highest payout online casino games, Shergar was sent off at 10/11 favourite at Epsom. In the absence of the Dante winner, Beldale Flutter, who had beaten Shergar in what is now the Vertem Futurity Trophy as a juvenile, the pick of the opposition was the Dante Stakes runner-up, Shotgun, ridden by Lester Piggott. However, once the race was underway, the opposition, which looked weak on paper beforehand, became almost irrelevant.

Rounding Tattenham Corner – the sharp, downhill bend that leads runners into the home straight at Epsom – Shergar easily moved upsides the leaders, Riberetto and Silver Season and as soon as he took up the running, with three furlongs to run, the race was all but over. Approaching the furlong marker, BBC Radio commentator Peter Bromley exclaimed, ‘There’s only one horse in it. You need a telescope to see the rest!”

Shergar sauntered home in splendid isolation, with jockey Walter Swinburn looking around for non-existent dangers, to win, eased down, by ten lengths. In fact, such was his margin of victory – still the widest in the history of the Derby – that John Matthias, who rode the second horse, Derby Italiano winner Glint Of Gold, actually that his horse has won. We can only hope luck would go the same way for us in a  newzealandcasinos environment. The race was later described by Timeform as ‘arguably the most one-sided Derby of modern times’; Shergar was awarded a Timeform Annual Rating of 140, placing him co-eighth in the all-time list of the Timeform era, alongside Dancing Brave and Sea The Stars, among others.