Sports Then and Now

The Kentucky Derby will hold its 145th edition on May 04, 2019 in the dirt track of Churchill Downs, Louisville, Kentucky. All horse racing fans are expecting to see a lot of three-year-old thoroughbred racers to compete in the Grade 1 Stakes category. This year’s edition of the Kentucky Derby will also hold the toughest contenders of horse racers across the country.

While there are lots of options to look and choose who should be the real Kentucky winner is, it important that you bet for the odds you think will be in favor. It is true that there are several factors you need to consider especially when picking the right horse winner. By simply doing your research while we are a few weeks away from Kentucky will still help you in taking part in profitable betting.

Hence, as you go along and do your research in line with the probability and statistics of winning of your horse entry, we’d like to add up some essential ingredients you can apply to make sure you pick the right Kentucky Derby winner. These tips will also ensure you that you can take part in a more bankable type of betting. Let’s get it started!

One of the most iconic sporting events of the year is upon us – the Grand National. In horse racing terms it’s the biggest of the lot, with punters all around the world tuning in for what usually tends to be an incredible spectacle and a must-watch event, even for onlookers who aren’t usually into horse racing.

Held at Aintree racecourse in Liverpool, England, it’s a handicap steeplechase over 6.907 km with horses jumping 30 fences over two laps, with the winner receiving the most lucrative payout of any horse racing event anywhere in Europe, bringing home a staggering £1million in 2018.

With the 172nd edition of the race fast approaching, many punters are planning their long-term predictions in order to secure their bets and make a more profitable return in the process. There’s plenty of value to be found in the Grand National, partly because there are so many runners and any horse can reign supreme on the day, although that does make it incredibly hard to predict too.

The ancient spectacle of horse racing hasn’t essentially changed in the past 3000 years—but the settings sure have. If you don’t count chariots, the sport of flat racing has reached its zenith in the modern era. There are full seasons and championships across the globe, with billions of gambling dollars following the thunder of hoofs.

A few truly epic spectator events highlight each season. Each of these race meetings are international happenings that feature the best horses and jockeys, and each shines with its own unique flavor. The excitement and drama of these events not only help keep the love of horses alive in our technological age, these top competitions are poised to continue exciting the public imagination for many years to come.

The following 5 top horse racing meetings are listed according to their annual calendar date:

The Dubai World Cup

The Dubai World Cup is the youngest race meeting on our list, and is run annually on the last Saturday in March. It began in 1996 as the world’s richest horse race and will hit $12 million in 2019. There are eight Thoroughbred races and–unusually–a contest for purebred Arabians.

The race is already a favorite of many fans, and has become the biggest sporting and social event in Dubai. As with many top races, there is a heavy fashion component to the celebration. The Dubai World Cup is held on the new Meydan Racecourse which has the world’s first track-side hotel, offering luxury spectating from your own room.

Cheltenham hasn’t always been the location for the festival, with both Market Harborough and Warwick racecourses hosting the event in the 19^th century. Since 1911, the permanent home of the festival has been Cheltenham’s Prestbury Park, although it had been held at Cheltenham on a few occasions prior to this.

The Cheltenham Festival always sees plenty of closely fought races, and the Cheltenham odds certainly suggest that this year will be no different. There are plenty of races to focus on at this year’s event, but what about races which no longer exist? We’ve taken a look at five of the races that are no longer run at Cheltenham.

You have to go all the way back to April 2015 to find a race in which Altior was defeated. It was just his 3^rd outing, a national hunt flat race at Punchestown, and the 14/1 Altior was well-schooled, finishing 6^th in a race that had several prominent horses of today, including Bellshill, Supasundae and Disko.

17 races later and Nicky Henderson’s Altior hasn’t missed a step. It’s a run that has included the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, the Arkle and, of course, last year’s Champion Chase. A hat-trick of Grade 1 wins at Cheltenham, achieved with the minimum of fuss.

Legacy can be a strange thing to witness in horse racing, as sometimes we are not fully aware that history is unfolding in front of our very eyes. Altior’s effortless victories perhaps clouds the fact that we are seeing one of the greats in action. Few horses have given him a real battle: the last time a horse finished within 4 lengths of Altior was back in 2015, when Ch’tibello finished just over a length behind in a Grade 3 hurdle.

It’s perhaps unfair to judge Altior’s career over those he has beaten, but it’s natural to lament that he did not come up against, for example, Douvan when he was at his best. On the other hand, the likes of Min and Un De Sceaux – remarkable horses in their own right – have challenged and been swatted aside with ease. Read the rest of this entry →

One of horse racing’s prestigious yearly events is just around the corner which is to be held on the third Saturday of the month of May, Preakness Stakes is hoping to deliver an encore after the exhilarating Kentucky Derby. Whether you are cheering up for the top favorites or you’re gunning for the ace rookie, the Preakness Stakes is surely a great entertainment which provides awesome betting experience.

Of course, this means you’ll be splurging out some money, so the big question here is whether you go home broke, or as a victor who turned his bet into a profit. While one cannot guarantee and hand out the exact winner for the race, the certainty to nudge you in the right directions will surely be helpful in your picking horses.

Studying the Field

Surely you have heard that knowledge is power, right? thus brace yourself and read up some past information that you can gather, because, above anything else, you are going to want to know what you are doing. Part of the information that you could gather is knowing all the prospective horses that could race this year’s horse racing at the Preakness Stakes.

This means that there might be some instance that the horse who won in the Kentucky Derby or some other top contenders will choose to sit out the Kentucky Derby and race with either Preakness or Belmont instead. By knowing this, you can pick out who to bet on earlier and plan out ahead of time.

Additionally, not all horses are the same, thus you should know how horses run on different tracks and how they perform in bad weather conditions and how they have fared against stiff competitions. Knowing these types of information will help you decide how to bet. Also, knowledge about horse pedigree, training, ownership, talent, jockeys, and running style plays a vital role in how and who you should bet on. Read the rest of this entry →