Category: News

One of the best things about being a horse racing fan is that there are many events and races to get excited about every year. Horse racing festivals usually remain a big calendar event each year for fans and require a lot of preparation and excitement in the lead-up. Some of the various 2021 horse racing events in the UK consist of the Cheltenham Festival, The Grand National, the Epsom Derby Festival and the Guineas Festival. All of these are a staple for horse racing fans and bring people from all over the world together to tune in to watch the races. Keep reading to find out a bit more about them.

Cheltenham Festival

One of the more famous horse racing events situated in the UK is that of the Cheltenham Festival. Taking place in March 2021, the grand festival prize is the Gold Cup – worth £625,000. This festival tends to be the highlight within the horse racing community and becomes the epicentre for fans to enjoy the sport each year. It takes place in Cheltenham in the Cotswolds in England and lasts for four consecutive days. The festival consists of some of the world-class jumpers and chasers, allowing it to reap millions of spectators either sitting at home or in the crowds.

The Grand National

Taking place in Aintree, Liverpool, from 8-10 April 2021, The Grand National serves as one of the world’s most infamous horse racing events. Online casino sites and other betting and sports betting services become very popular at the time of this event taking place as horse racing fans seek to place their bets on their favourite horses. The Grand National is known as one of the more luxurious horse racing events to exist in the UK, primarily because of its prize fund. The winner of the Grand National is expected to win £1m at the end of the three-day event. It is considered one of the more difficult races, but this makes it all the more exciting for punters!

Epsom Derby Festival

At the Epsom Derby Festival (located in Epsom, Surrey, in June 2021), there are two different prizes – The Oaks and The Derby – made up of different winning amounts. The Oaks prize money sits at £500k and The Derby sits at £1.5m. The prizes of the Epsom Derby Festival are what makes the festival one of the most elite horse racing festivals in existence. Experts note that those who are successful in the races have reached the peak of their career and horse racing as a whole.

The Guineas Festival

The Guineas Festival (Newmarket, Suffolk) taking place in May this year serves as the embodiment for infamous horse racing fixtures for the whole world; they tend to be imitated in various events because of their prestige and popularity. What’s great about The Guineas Festival is that the races can be ultimately career-defining for the jockey, horse and trainer, making the festival a strong staple in horse racing careers.

What event will you tune into?

If there’s one race that every man, woman and child, has heard of and enjoyed its the Grand National. On April 10th 2021 we will all once again get to cheer on our own selections as the (non virtual!) cream of the crop of horse racing go head to head for the top title in racing. It’s hard to deny that half of the battle in excelling at the Grand National is getting there in the first place.

Shockingly, until two years after the Sex Discrimination Act passed in the mid 70’s, female jockeys had never even competed in the Grand National. Following the change in law they had a good showing through the 80’s, and since 2000 the likes of Nina Carberry, Bryony Frost and Rachael Blackmore have all graced the race. The best placed female jockey however is none other than Katie Walsh, who placed an impressive third on Seabass in 2012. In the above Betway video, Walsh talks about female jockeys’ road to the Grand National and their trials and tribulations along the way.

There are lots of types of bets you can place while betting on sports events or games at a casino (non payment). Proposition ones are one of the most popular options. These are those bets that are placed on the outcome of a particular event. Before it finishes, there will be no payouts. Typically such bets don’t affect the result of an event, but sometimes they can.

 

As for sports, the most popular proposition bet is to decide who will become the first team to score a goal during the match. It doesn’t matter if the team you have selected wins the game. The only thing that matters is if it scores earlier than its rival.

Are Prop Bets Profitable?

Proposition bets are popular among both newcomers and professional bettors. The reason is that they can bring real results.

 

The most essential thing to remember before placing such bets is to remember that there are two types of them: those that are placed for fun and those that require some skills. To place such bets professionally, a bettor has to understand the rules of a particular game, know how sportsmen in particular teams play and what results they show.

 

Yet, prop bets can be just a fun entertainment. If you choose who scores first, you don’t need to be aware of any rules or even know athletes’ names.

Long-term and Specific Bets

Prop bets are also divided into long-term and specific ones. The first type includes bets on the winner of the entire championship or get the MVP award. All this requires some skills.

 

Specific prop bets are placed on particular matches. For example, you can guess who will run first on one of the distances. Being such an easy and fast option this type attracts a great number of amateur bettors.

Bets on Player’s Performance

The most common prop bets are centered on a player’s performance. For example, the number of yards a NFL quarterback will throw in a match or the number of receptions a receive could have.

 

This also goes to MLB baseball with a pitcher’s number of strikes in a match or the number of points scored by an NBA basketball player during one of the college games.

 

Maybe, the most common prop bet is “which team will score first?”. This type offers odds on which team will score the first points of a particular sports event.

Honeysuckle won the Champion Hurdle by a dominant margin at 2021 Cheltenham Festival. Henry de Bromhead’s charge was the leading contender for the crown, but delivered on expectations with a brilliant performance, defeating the 2020 champion Epatante in the process. The thoroughbred has been imperious in her career to date, winning all 11 of her races.

The question now looms will she be able to retain his crown at the 2022 Cheltenham Festival. You can already find horse racing bets that have established De Bromhead’s charge as the favourite for the 2022 Champion Hurdle.

However, Honeysuckle not only has to remain at the peak of her powers over the next year, but the bay mare must also fend off challenges from rising starlets. Appreciate It was marked in the Cheltenham race card as a winner in the first event of the 2021 Festival in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle. It was an impressive run by Willie Mullins’ charge and the odds are already in place for Appreciate It to challenge Honeysuckle for the Champion Hurdle in 2022.

It’s clear to see why Honeysuckle has already been earmarked for successive triumphs, although similar musings came about last season when Epatante cruised to victory at Cheltenham. Nicky Henderson’s charge won by three lengths in the event ahead of Sharjah. However, in the three races since, the French thoroughbred has mustered only one triumph. At Newcastle, the seven-year-old was on form to win the Fighting Fifth Hurdle.

However, Epatante took a dramatic step back at the Christmas Hurdle when she was beaten by her old adversary Silver Streak at Kempton Park, finishing behind her rival by six-and-a-half lengths. Therefore, she lacked momentum to take into the Festival and it was evident that Honeysuckle was the superior horse on the day, easing down the stretch to canter over the line.

Epatante had to settle for third place as Sharjah claimed second place for the second year in a row in the Champion Hurdle. The decline of Epatante is a warning for Honeysuckle and highlights the difficulty in securing back-to-back crowns at Cheltenham, Buveur d’Air was the last horse to achieve the feat in the Champion Hurdle in 2017 and 2018.

Appreciate It streaks away to win the Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle Race and in some style #ITVRacing #CheltenhamFestival pic.twitter.com/0uzKLgvLtX

— ITV Racing (@itvracing) March 16, 2021

What Does the Future hold for Appreciate It?

There’s no guarantee that Appreciate It will take the road into the Champion Hurdle as there are many avenues that he could travel, including the Arkle Chase, Marsh Novices’ Chase, Stayers’ Hurdle and Triumph Hurdle. The 2020 winner of the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, Shishkin made a seamless transition to become a chase horse, winning the 2021 Arkle in the process. Should Appreciate It take that road, it would lead him out of the potential pathway of Honeysuckle. However, there could be other challengers that are more than capable of winning the event.

When the National Hunt season resumes in the autumn it will be curious to see how De Bromhead deploys Honeysuckle during the early stages of the campaign. Honeysuckle herself could be shifted away from hurdling. It would be unlikely and considering her dominance in the Champion Hurdle, De Bromhead will be keen to maintain his hold on the event considering that Honeysuckle’s victory was his first in the prestigious race.