Cheltenham World Hurdle 2011 Potential Winners

20 March 2011

The Cheltenham World Hurdle will be the fourth race of day three, and is by far the biggest race of the day. It is a three mile run and is a grade 1 hurdle race and allows horses over the age of 4 years.

For 2011, the horse which appears to be standing out with a very good chance of winning the title is Big Bucks, trained by Paul Nicholls. Big Bucks has always been a favourite for the Cheltenham Festival races, and won the World Hurdle at 2009 and 2010’s Cheltenham Festival events.

Big Bucks is now an eight year old, and very soon after the win of last year’s Cheltenham World Hurdle, he was already being marked as the favourite for 2011 - 12 months before the race. The trainer, Paul Nicholls is a champion trainer who has trained many of the successful horses in the UK.

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The Cheltenham Gold Cup

18 March 2011

The Cheltenham Gold Cup is a National Hunt chase race. It allows horses to enter who are age 5 and over. There are 22 fence obstacles over a distance of 5,331 metres. The race takes place at the annual Cheltenham National Hunt Festival in Prestbury Park, Cheltenham.  The Gold Cup race has always been one of the most exciting races, with the top horses and jockeys racing.

It was established in 1819 but at that time it was a flat race. This changed and it became a jump race in 1924. It has been a jump chase race every year since. The Gold Cup is the most prestigious of all of the National Hunt races, and in the past it has been dubbed the ‘Blue Riband’ of horse racing.

The Gold Cup has been canceled on a number of occasions, including 1931 due to frosty weather, 1937 due to flooding, and then again in 1943 and 1944 because of World War II. Then in 2001 after an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in bovine animals across the UK, dubbed  ‘mad cow disease’, the Gold Cup was canceled once again.

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Preparing for Cheltenham Ladies Day

18 March 2011

Cheltenham Ladies Day is a wonderful event for women to join in with the horse races. It is also well known for the dress code of women sporting fancy hats and dresses or suits. SO what should you wear if you’re attending the Cheltenham Ladies Day event?

The event takes place in March, and British weather can be rather unpredictable at that time of year so it is difficult to judge whether to go for a dressed up look, or something more comfortable and warm, especially with prizes on offer for the best dressed ladies.

Many women go for extremely dressy hats and matching outfits, commonly dresses and even heeled shoes. Others opt for classy outfits with tweed or designer suits, covered with warm fur coats which would seem to be the safer option if you don’t want to catch a cold on the day, or spend the event shivering. So what you wear really depends on what you’ll be getting involved in. If you want to join in with the best dressed competitions and have a go at winning a prize for your outfit, you can opt for a strappy or well fitted dress, a stylish hat matching the colour of the dress along with a nice clutch bag and some sexy high heels. Beware though, as it won’t be easy walking about the grass with heels on.

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Cheltenham Race Types Explained

17 March 2011

At the Cheltenham National Hunt Festival you’ll see a wide variety of different types of race, but you may not fully understand what they all mean. So what are they?

Chase Horse Races

A chase is a kind of race which is run by horses over fences. In chases, the minimum fence height is set to 4.5 feet (just over 1.37m). The fences are fairly wide and are designed to look like box hedges. If a horse jumps incorrectly over chase fences, it is common to see them fall down. The distance of chase races can be anything from 2 miles to 4.5 miles. Famous chase races include the Queen Mother Champion Chase at the Cheltenham Festival, the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the world renowned Grand National horse race.

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The History of Cheltenham National Hunt Festival

16 March 2011

The Cheltenham National Hunt Festival is an extremely well known and high class horse racing event, which takes place annually in Cheltenham in March. Today some of the finest British and Irish horses race against one another, and the event therefore attracts many affluent spectators. Many of the spectators are Irish due to the Irish horses racing and the fact that it often falls on or around St Patrick’s Day.

The official name of the festival is the ‘National Hunt Meeting’, and it started in 1860 at Market Harborough. At this time it was called the Grand National Hunt. Then in 1861 the event was held in Cheltenham for the first time. The following few years the National Hunt Meeting was held at various locations, before finally returning to Cheltenham again in 1904 for two years. After this time, the National Hunt Meeting was held in Warwick until 1910, and the following year it returned to Cheltenham where it has been held ever since.  Prestbury Park in Cheltenham is the grounds where the festival takes place every year.

In 1924, the Cheltenham Gold Cup began, which was the first championship race event. Three years later the Champion Hurdle was established, and then 32 years after this the Queen Mother Championship Chase was introduced. In 1972 the first Stayers Hurdle took place.

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The Bookmakers Top Choices for the Cheltenham Festival 2011

15 March 2011

The Cheltenham National Hunt Festival is just around the corner once more, and preparations are well under way. But who are the favourites for this year’s event? In this article we take a look at the bookie’s favourites for 2011.

The first day is the Supreme Novice’s Hurdle where the favourite is Cue Card. Cue Card has had an impressive record throughout 2010 and is now expected to win the Supreme Novice Hurdle on the opening day of the Cheltenham Festival. Other favourites from this race are Zaidpour after odds were cut when Zaidpour made it 2-2 over the hurdles at the Royal Bond Novice Hurdle in December 2010. Hidden Universe is the next favourite for this race.

Also on the first day of the Cheltenham races will be the Arkle Trophy, William Hill Trophy, Champion Hurdle, Cross Country Chase, Dave Nicholson Mares Hurdle and the Centenary Novices Chase. The favourites for these retrospectively are Blazing Bailey, Binocular, Garde Champetre, Quevega and Quel Esprit.

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Tattersalls Horse Auction - The Birth of Bookmaking

02 March 2010

Richard Tattersall did far more than open up an auction house for horses in 1766; he also enabled the invention of bookmaking. All around the world, and on a variety of sports, people lay down their money every single day on sporting events ranging from football and cricket to dog and horse races. The art has been popular for millennia and shows no signs of slowing down.

At Hyde Park Corner on the outskirts of London, Richard Tattersall set up shop for various horse auctions. On the premises also were two subscription rooms, supposedly reserved to only members of the Jockey Club. However, these rooms would become famous for something else entirely, despite Tattersalls original intentions.

Around 1780, a different type of member started to frequent these subscription rooms. Instead of jockeys filling the ranks, Tattersalls was inundated with men wishing to bet on a variety of horse activities. The bets would cover everything from popular horse races of the day to even which lucky stallion would be studded out and for how much.

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The Horserace Betting Levy Board - a major figure in the betting industry

01 October 2009

The Horserace Betting Levy Board (HBLB) significantly predates online gambling. Although the two are tied in this day and age, the HBLB has been around since the 1960s. Originally, the levy was established-along with the HBLB-to provide a means of compensating racing for the loss of fanfare that experts anticipated after off-course betting shops started to pop up after they were legalized in 1961.

Although the fans still poured in to the live tracks, a percentage was still lost to racing houses throughout the UK. Today’s HBLB applies levy funds to various schemes in order to directly support horseracing.

The HBLB is a statutory body in the UK that was established along with the Betting Levy Act of 1961. Although many aspects of the board’s duties have changed, it still operates as a non-departmental public body and is sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

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The Grand National Horse Racing Event

01 April 2009

Known as the world’s foremost steeplechase, The Grand National is the most valuable National Hunt horse race around. National Hunt racing is a UK specialty, and no event draws in the spectators and betters like the Grand.

Unlike regular horseracing, where a better or fan is interested in things like the horse’s speed, its power, and the statistics of the jockey, National Hunt racing is a different game entirely. Instead of a circular track that the horses sprint around, there are 30 obstacles in this horses’ path that must be cleared.

Obstacles in horseracing have given European racing a huge advantage over American racing. Throughout the race with the many hurdles and fences, the endurance of the horse and the skill of the rider are put to the ultimate challenge.

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A history of the Kentucky Derby

15 October 2008

The Kentucky Derby is an annual horse race held in Louisville, Kentucky on the first Saturday in May. This Grade 1 stakes race is for three-year-old thoroughbred horses, and it caps the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The total length of the race is one and a quarter miles and it is ran at Churchill Downs.

In the U.S.A., the Derby is coined "The most exciting two minutes in sports," and it often considered being the primary horse race in the world. The Kentucky Derby, like so many other races, didn’t start out as prestigious. Although today the Derby is the first leg of the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing, it has rather humble beginnings.

The region of Kentucky slowly climbed to horse racing prominence in the 18th century. The Bluegrass Region was considered a breeding ground for great thoroughbred horses. In 1872, Col. Meriwether Lewis Clark, Jr. traveled to England and visited the Epsom Derby, a famous annual horse race.

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The King of Horse Races at Royal Ascot

13 September 2008

The Royal Ascot is the Kentucky Derby of England. Held over a five-day period in June, this British race is one of the most popular in the world, and definitely tops the English charts. The origin of the Ascot goes back to Queen Anne, daughter of King James II, who was an enthusiastic horse lover.

In the village of East Cote (which would later become known as Ascot), she spotted a beautiful flat field. Only a few miles south of Windsor Castle in Berkshire, Queen Anne felt this location would be ideal for a racecourse. The land was immediately turned into a racetrack, and the inaugural race was held on August 11, 1711. Queen Anne planned and attended the festivities.

The races at Ascot thrived for decades to come, but they weren’t the most popular races in England. In 1760, when George II was on the throne, the Royal Ascot was transformed and subsequently became the second most popular race in England. The most popular race in England at the time was the race at Epsom, which started back in the 17th century. With George II overseeing the annual event, the Royal Ascot gained a reputation for being the race of royalty.

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A little about The Melbourne Cup, the leading horse racing event in Australia

20 August 2008

The Melbourne Cup is Australia’s largest annual thoroughbred horse race. It is one of the world’s top races, and completely brings Australia to a standstill. All three-year-olds and over are eligible to compete in the race, and it covers a distance of 3,200 meters. It is regarded as the most prestigious 2-mile handicap in the world, and is held on the first Tuesday in November by the Victoria Racing Club on the Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne.

The race was originally held over two miles, but after Australia’s adoption of the metric system in the 1970s; the current race distance is 3,200 meters, knocking off the extra 18 which equaled the 2-mile mark. The record is presently held by Kingston Rule, who ran the race in 3:16.3.

The inaugural race was held in 1861 and was comprised of 17 horses competing for 170 in cash and a gold watch. It is rumored that the winner of the race, Archer, walked over 800km to participate in the race from Nowra, New South Wales. A crowd of over 4,000 watched the opening race, and the numbers would have been larger had it not been for the untimely death of explorers Burke and Wills.

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What are the top ten horse races in the world

28 July 2008

10) The Cheltenham Festival. This race matches Ireland against Britain in a race for pride. The Cheltenham Festival is the most prestigious meeting in the National Hunt racing calendar.

9) The Melbourne Cup. Since 1861, this Australian race has brought the country to a complete standstill. Said to be the most prestigious 2-mile handicap in the world, this race brings out crowns from every corner of the continent, and even some interested tourists.

8) The Dubai World Cup. A newer race than others on the list, the Dubai World Cup takes place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates annually. Since 1996, this race has been building a loyal following. Like the Kentucky Derby and Royal Ascot, the Dubai World Cup is as much about fashion as it is horseracing.

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GRAND NATIONAL HIGH FIVE FOR bet365

07 April 2006

If recent money at bet365 is anything to go then the 2006 Grand National result will read, Clan Royal first, Garvivonnian second. The latter has been well-backed all week and is now 16/1 from 20/1, while Jonjo O’Neil’s runner looks sure to go off favourite - currently 5/1 joint with Hedgehunter. Garvivonnian landed the Becher Chase back in November, the form of which amounts to little, but at least it shows he can handle the National fences. His latest run behind Forget The Past has been franked by the winners’ run in the Gold Cup, and he must have sound each way prospects, especially as we’re paying out down to five places here at bet365.

bet365 - each way � odds, 1.2.3.4.5 on the Grand National!

5/1 ROYAL - THIRD TIME LUCKY ?
As for Clan Royal, it could be a case of third time lucky in the National for the eleven-year-old, but he now looks very short in the betting considering his tendency to pull hard in his races. Besides, it’s debatable whether he would have beaten impressive winner Hedgehunter last year if he hadn’t been carried out by a loose horse, so there has to be better value further down the bet365 betting list.

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