UK Horse Racing Tips

There is a common conception that horse racing is a peculiarly English pursuit. Given the sideshows that take place around the Grand National, Royal Ascot and the Cheltenham Festival, with the traditional finery and the royal pomp, that is perhaps unsurprising. However, the rise of internet streaming, online bookmakers and global TV coverage has been an eye opener to an equally buoyant horse racing culture in some far flung lands.

Australia is a case in point. Most people’s knowledge of antipodean racing begins and ends with Phar Lap, but over recent years that has started to change.

Horse racing in Australia

Australia has 360 registered racecourses, more than any other nation on the globe, and they welcome some two million racegoers every year. The country is behind only the USA and Japan in terms of total prize money on offer. Australians bet more than AU$15 billion (£8.5 billion) on racing every year, and a growing band of international punters are signing up to join them. BettingPro.au is a specialist site offering free Australian horse tips to all comers, and is the perfect place to start. Here are their recommendations for the top Australian race meetings over the coming months.  

The Melbourne Cup Carnival

Think of the Cheltenham Festival but without the rain, and you have a good picture of the Melbourne Cup. It has all the swankiness, fashion and excess of any top UK race meeting, and is rapidly garnering an international following. The week-long festival takes place every November, and last year, thousands flocked to the historic Flemington Racecourse to be part of the spectacle. They were treated to a classic race in the showpiece event, when Rekindling shot to victory. The four year old gelding is already the bookmakers’ favourite to win again in 2018.

Another race held during the spring carnival in Melbourne is the Victoria Derby. Carrying a prize pot of AU$1.5 million, this takes place on the opening day of the festival, and last year, a tightly contested race was won by bookmakers’ warm favourite Aces High.

The Caulfield Cup

If the Melbourne Carnival can be likened to the Cheltenham Festival, the Caulfield Cup is Australia’s answer to the Grand National, albeit on the flat. With a purse of AU$3 million, it is the richest race run over 1.5 miles in the world. It takes place at Flemington in October, and

last year, rank outsider Boom Time caused one of the biggest upsets in Australian racing history by winning from nowhere.

The Golden Slipper Stakes

Not every major race meeting takes place in Melbourne. The Golden Slipper Stakes is the richest race in the world for two year old thoroughbreds, and is held every April at Sydney’s Rosehill Gardens racecourse. The first ever Golden Slipper was won in 1957 by legendary Australian racehorse Todman – the horse went on to sire the next four consecutive winners and his bloodline can still be found in many of today’s top winners.

The Betway Live Casino Handicap (4.40) at Southwell on Tuesday is a distinctly ordinary contest, as might be expected for the lowly grade, and probably best left to Star Ascending, who’s won two of his last four starts at Southwell. Despite a 4lb rise in the weights for his most recent success, over 1 mile 3 furlongs, last month, Jennie Candlish’s 6-year-old is only 1lb higher than when winning at Wolverhampton two years ago, and 2lb lower than when beaten a head at Southwell later that same season. Four of his opponents are out of the handicap proper and all six of them are fully exposed as moderate, at best, so anything better than even money about Star Ascending looks good value. His jockey, Joe Fanning has also been in good nick, with a 6-19 (32%) strike rate in the last fortnight, so he should not be beaten for lack of confidence in the saddle.

Selection: Southwell 4.40 Star Ascending to win – Even Money

Richard Johnson has won the the Stobart Jump Jockeys Championship for the last two years and, with 135 winners already this season – 23 ahead of his nearest rival, Harry Skelton – is well on his way to collect his third successive title. Johnson won the Conditional Jump Jockeys Championship in 1995/96 but, for the next 19 years it was a question of “always a bridesmaid, never a bride” for the Hereford-born jockey.

Unfortunately, his career coincided with that of a certain Anthony Peter “A.P.” McCoy – now, of course, Sir Anthony – who is the only jockey in the history of National Hunt racing to ride over 4,000 winners and was Champion Jockey every season from 1995/96 until his retirement at the end of 2014/15 season. During that period, Johnson finished runner up in the Jump Jockeys’ Championship no fewer than 16 times.

Nevertheless, Johnson, 40, speaks highly of the former champion, without whom he would almost certainly be talked about as the greatest jockey in the history of National Hunt racing. He has admitted, however, that McCoy was a thorn in his side for a long time and, with all due respect, expressed his delight at his former arch-rival’s absence from the weighing room.

Johnson rode his 3,000th winner at Ludlow in January, 2016 and, at the time of writing, has a career total of 3,363 winners. That figure is still some way short of McCoy’s record total of 4,348 winners, but streets clear of the likes of Richard Dunwoody, John Francome and Peter Scudamore, who won the Jump Jockeys Championship between them. Of course, “Dicky”, as Johnson is popularly known, is still riding as well as ever, with the same level of commitment he’s shown over the last two decades, so he’s likely to be Champion Jockey a few more times before he finally hangs up his boots.

There are so many paid for online tips services nowadays. It appears that with the advent of the internet, suddenly everyone is the next expert in waiting, or at lest perceives themself as such. It’s not as if it’s difficult to throw up a nice looking web template and a soothsayer like list of 50-1 and 100-1 winners. Of course though, it can often be the case that as soon as you input your credit card details or click on the paypal button, the results that start flooding in for you are about the same as what ‘Dave down the pub’ gets by throwing a dart at his daily copy of the Racing Post.

Let’s not get too cynical though, because the internet is home to all, both snake oil salesman and legitimate and proven betting experts. And also, and this might surprise some, making the most of online tip selections isn’t always about putting your hand in your pocket and paying for them. In fact much the same as the offline betting world, some of the top tipsters are happy to offer their selections without any caveats or hurdles to jump over to get to them.

So with that being the case it can all come down to spotting the best sources of top free racing tips. I have to admit I do tend to go the tried and tested route (again on account of the fact that anyone can just set up a site or twitter account), so it certainly does often bode well if the website, service or twitter account in question already has a good following. This can easily be ascertained by looking at follower numbers, web stats, quality of the domain name and website and the like. Sometimes a combination of factors.Web properties with a bit of history to them have likely already seen a few tipsters come and go and so have often acquired the cream of the crop in that regard, likely having enough money in the bank to get top tipsters on board.

If you’re looking for additional guidance, here’s a site that basically fits the description of what I’ve set out above by offering free tips on hundreds of races, in the form of daily tips, guest tips, video tips and more.

It also goes without saying that on this very site, we’ll be offering a whole array of horse racing tips over the course of the year from short odds selections to ambitious outsiders. Whatever approach you take, let’s make it a winning year for all of us. Good luck!