Horse Racing Articles And Guides

How To Bet On Horse Racing

Our comprehensive guide to how to bet on horse racing has everything you need to know to add great value to your wagers.

Whether you’re a complete beginner or seasoned regular you will find something you didn’t know about betting on the sport.

In our guide to betting we explain starting prices, favourites, best odds guarantee, disqualification and non-runners, ante-post betting, totepool, race cards and more.

Top Horse Races, Meetings & Festivals

Don’t miss any of the best horse races in the UK with our comprehensive list of the major meetings and races.

Whether it’s the flat season or the jump season there is a quality horse race to look forward to.

We talk about the five Classic flat races, the St Leger, Epsom Derby, Oaks and 1000 and 2000 Guineas as well as the top festivals such as Cheltenham, Royal Ascot and the Champions day and not forgetting of course the Aintree Grand National, and more.

Horse Racing Terminology

The sport of horse racing can seem quite complicated to the amateur bettor with its various terminologies from furlongs to fillies and grades to Guinneas.

In this section we explain all of the aspects you need to know to get the most out of watching and betting on the nags.

We discuss flat racing and National Jump racing, distances, breeds, grades and classes, ground conditions (going), form, handicapping and other types and terms.

Cheltenham Festival 2024

Horse racing doesn’t get any better than the Cheltenham Festival, the biggest and best national hunt meeting of the year and the culmination of the jump season.

Unlike the Grand National this is more than about just one race, the package of 28 races at Cheltenham, including five of the very biggest in the calendar, make a exceptional 4 days of racing. Loved by punters, this is also the time of the year when you can get the absolute best value out of bookmakers.

Draw Bias In Horse Racing

Generally in flat racing horses are lined up in electro-mechanical stalls that release all of the runners at the same time. The numbered slot each horse is given is randomly assigned and is known as the draw. Number one is closest to the rail with the last number (which is different depending on the number of runners) being furthest from the rail.

This produces something known as draw bias that can have an affect on the chances of winning. Generally a number one draw is seen as the best as this is closes to the rail. Draw bias affects races differently depending on the distance, ground, number of turns and the angle of those turns. Naturally some courses have a bigger draw bias than others.

Handicapping In Horse Racing

With around 60% of UK horse races being handicaps it is worth knowing a bit about the system, how it works, how it is calculated and how it is used. Handicaps on the surface are self-explanatory, horses with a better track record are ‘handicapped’ more than horses that have performed worse in the past, the system therefore is designed to level out a field of runners.

Handicapping means the odds are more evenly spread than they would otherwise be and this should hopefully add more enjoyment for punters and spectators. It is the job of the handicapper to set a horses handicap, and while this is an effective system it is by no means fool-proof, if it was then you wouldn’t see 10/1+ horses winning handicap races, which you often do. Therefore knowing even a little about how a handicap is calculated can give you a serious advantage over time.

History Of Horse Racing

Discover the origins of the sport of kings from the ancient Egyptians to the modern day. Horses and humans have a longer history than any other animal and this culminates today in one of the biggest and richest sports in the world.

We will tell you about the early history from King James I, the banning of the sport by Oliver Cromwell, the role of Queen Anne and Ascot, the formation of the Jockey Club and the classics, where jump racing came from and how gambling on horse racing came about.

Horse Racing Grades, Groups And Classes

Getting your head around all the different grades, classes and groups in horse racing can seem like a mountain to climb for the uninitiated, especially considering they are different for flat and jump (National Hunt) racing.

Once you understand the basics however the system is fairly straight forward, so it’s a good thing to learn early on. In this article find details about all categories and types in UK horse racing today, explained in a simple and straight forward way.

Horse Racing Track & Ground Types

If you only ever watch the big UK and Irish races you could be fooled into thinking all racing happens on turf and grass. This is not the case, especially outside of Europe where the predominant ground type for racing is in fact dirt, in various mixtures of mud and sand.

Following on from some early failures better technology has seen synthetic all weather tracks now appearing at racecourses across the globe too. What effect does the ground type have on racing and will all racing end up on artificial surfaces?

How Does A Horse Falling Affect Its Next Race?

We’ve all had horses fall in jump racing, which is frustrating if you’ve backed it and don’t have faller insurance, but how does falling affect the performance of a horse in subsequent races?

In our article we look at two of the biggest jump race meetings on the calendar, the Cheltenham Festival and the Aintree Grand National, to see if horses that have fallen in these races either suffered poor form before the race they fell in or if their results are affected in the next races. Largely falling makes little difference to a horse, the most important thing is it’s form.

How Often Do Horses Fall

There is nothing worse than backing a runner in a race only for it to fall before the end, this is, however, part and parcel of jump racing due to its nature and most punters accept this can happen. Indeed there are many faller insurance offers out there from bookies for this reason.

The question is how likely is a horse to fall in a National Hunt race? In our case study we look at the Cheltenham Festival as an example of the incident rate in elite racing, which is where most of us bet the most money. Largely the data agrees with the anecdotal evidence that fallers are around one in twenty horses, although, there is huge variation depending on the race type, jockey experience and conditions.

Buying And Owning Shares In Race Horses

While it was once the preserve of the rich and powerful, racehorse ownership is no accessible even to those on very average incomes. Ok, so you will only own a very small percentage of said horse, but many of the benefits are still included such as a share of any winnings, access to inside info and the opportunity to visit the stables, not to mention owner’s badges on race days.

There are many shared ownership schemes out there, all operating slightly differently, but for racing fans it is a brilliant way to enjoy the sport on a different level.

How To Read A Race Card

There are few sports where the bookies will give you a massive dossier of key information for the contestants, but in horse and greyhound racing the race card, which is available online from top bookies and in the meeting programme or in the newspaper, is a critical piece of kit for those that want to study their bets.

To begin with a race card can seem daunting, containing countless numbers, letters and abbreviations, this can be very off putting to the occasional bettor. There really isn’t however a lot to it and with a few basic pointers you can be getting the best out of the race card in no time. Read our guide to how to read a race card for UK racing to help you bet online and at the track.

Most Successful Horse Racing Families

Horses are obviously bred in families but when you look at horse racing as a sport you could assume in many cases that the jockeys and trainers are too. Horse racing tends to run in families because of the access limitations that naturally mean those that grow up around elite horses are more likely to go into horse racing as a profession.

While there are lots of families in racing there are of course some that have gone on to dominate the sport. We look at the most prestigious families to grace horse racing, such as the Mullins’, the O’Brien’s and the Walsh’s, and why they have excelled so much in the sport.

Rule 4 Explained

Rule 4 is system by which bookmakers deduct winnings when non-runners are announced in horse and dog racing as well as other events with more than two contestants in a field.

The rules, defined by the Tattersalls Rule of Racing governing all horse racing is designed to protect bookies in the event of a withdrawn selection. Deductions are based on the odds price of the withdrawn selection and can range from no reduction at all for a 14/1+ withdrawal up to 90% deduction in winnings if a 1/9 or longer odds selection is withdrawn.

In days gone by more complicated types of betting such as full cover, forecast and spread betting were the reserve of those few in the know. These punters mainly wagered their bets in a shop and these types of bets were usually restricted to horse racing. One big effect of online bookmaking has been to open up these betting systems to a range of different sports and ultimately to a diverse breed of bettor.

Full cover betting and other betting types can have a very diverse naming structure that can put some punters off. The likes of Lucky 15 betting, Heinz, etc. There is nothing to be afraid of with these types of bets, many are effectively multiple accumulators. The articles in this section break down these bet types to help you as the punter understand the format and ultimately decide if these types of bets are for you.

• Conditional Betting – A conditional bet is a bet that requires a set of conditions to be met for the bet to carry on. The simplest form of this is an ‘any-to-come’ (ATC) or ‘if cash’ bet. In this situation you may wager on Tottenham and Newcastle both to win but instead of two single bets you do an ATC bet. Here, if Tottenham win your initial stake is re-wagered on Newcastle and vice versa. This way you can win twice if both win, but the negative side is if only one selection wins you will lose your stake.
• Forecast Betting – This type of bet forecasts the final order of a set of selections. This again is common in horse racing but can be used in most sports. There are many types of forecast bets, a common type may be to predict the exact order of say the top three in a horse race. Another type of forecast may predict the horses that will finish in the top three but in any order, and so on.
• Handicap Betting – These bets provide an advantage or disadvantage to a contestant. This is often used to equalise odds in events where there are firm favourites. A Handicap can be physical such as weights on a horse in handicap racing or virtual such as applying a goal advantage to a football team before the game.
• Full Cover Betting – This type of bet is a combination of multiple bets giving you more possibilities to win from a given number of selections. For example a Yankee is a full cover bet with four selections. This actually consists of 11 bets made up of a 4 fold accumulator, 4 treble bets and 6 doubles. In full cover betting only two selections need win to get a return.
• Spread Betting – This is a form of non-fixed odds betting. Here you make a prediction on a given result and the reward you receive is related to the accuracy of your prediction. In financials this is logical, you bet on say the value of a currency at a certain time and you will get more money the closer your prediction is. This can be a little more complicated with sports and is common particularly with American Sports such as NFL and basketball.
• Speciality Betting – This isn’t betting on specials but rather a special type of bet. There are many betting systems around and far to many to cover here. Speciality bets generally run based on a mathematical algorithm or matrix. These can be very complicated but also quite fun once understood. Click here to read about a couple of examples of special bets such as the Union Jack.
• Banker Bets – This is a specific type of multiple bet offered by a small number of bookmakers. It allows you to set one or more selections in an accumulator to be your ‘bankers’ (these have to win) and then allows you to pick how many of the remaining selections need to win for the bet to be successful. This is a bet package, like full cover bets, and the number of selections you set to win defines how many bets you need to place.