Welcome to the BettingChoice Horse Racing Blog. Here you'll find all the tips, insights and opinions for the world's biggest races including: Cheltenham, Breeders' Cup, Dubai Racing, the Grand National and more.
He’s gotten the better of some solid horses in the past - beating out Astracad - but it’s worth noting that Present View got the better of him at festival time last year. He’s trading around 10/1 right alongside Johns Spirit who probably carries the best run of form in his previous outing than most others in the ante post market.
Johns Spirit was able to triumph at Cheltenham in a high-priced Class 2 handicap chase when sent off as the 5/1 favourite in a field of 11. It was a pretty wide open contest and he acquitted himself very well in the grand scheme of things to get home by a one length margin. He...
As we near the kick-off of one of the biggest National Hunt events of the early portion of the season, it appears as though Present View is the outright favourite to take down the Paddy Power Gold Cup at Cheltenham next Saturday. He got off to a rather inauspicious start to the season, switching back to hurdles in a novice contest where he was only able to finish second to Vicente by a head.
That result isn’t likely to worry Jamie Snowden and the rest of the team as he will be back over proper fences here and the bookmakers don’t seem perturbed by the result one bit as they have him floated at a 15/2 price tag...
Just The Judge justified her trip over from England by capturing the EP Taylor Stakes at Woodbine, following her third place finish in the Beverley D at Arlington Park during Arlington Million day. Euro Charline and Stephanie’s Kitten both finished ahead of her that day but she justified her favourites position in the Taylor and relished the going at Woodbine that day.
Some of the best female contenders from Europe are going to be contesting the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf and you can count on this being one of the most fascinating races of the Saturday card even though it’s not usually considered a marquee race. The forecast in sunny Southern California actually calls for a rare instance of rain and the weather sites show a 40% chance of rain that could soften up the rock hard Santa Anita turf course.
As it currently stands, most punters seem to be thinking that Dank is the one to beat here but there hasn’t really been a lot of buzz about her aside from the...
Close Hatches has emerged as the 4/1 second choice after being considered a co-favourite with Beholder throughout much of the ante post market of 2014 for this race. She has established herself as a filly that can take on virtually anybody, anywhere and some of her lopsided victories have been absolutely nothing short of breathtaking.
Plenty of punters simply wrote off her poor effort last time as a much overdue loss and the Juddmonte-owned distaffer will boast a much larger price this time around.
Look out for Close Hatches to race prominently but off...
The Breeders’ Cup Distaff (formerly known as the Breeders’ Cup Ladies Classic) saw its field given a very significant shake-up when it was announced that high-profile California-based filly Beholder was withdrawn from contention for the race. After winning the contest last year in front of an emphatic crowd with top jock Gary Stevens in the irons, Beholder put together a great volume of work since then and stamped her role as one of the major players on the west coast female division.
It’s not often that you see an American two-year-old contender looming as the betting favourite for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf. Nine times out of ten, it’s a hotshot European shipper who ran well at Glorious Goodwood or somewhere at the Doncaster meeting that ships in to a significant amount of fanfare.
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These are always very tricky situations as two-year-olds from across the pond often struggle with their American counterparts who tend to be much larger at an earlier stage in their life cycles.
This year, we have the unique prospect of an American-trained colt entering as the Juvenile Turf favourite after having taken a significant scalp at Royal Ascot this summer. Trainer Wesley...
As it currently stands, punters will find Feb Biz priced at a 4/1 margin and looking good to make a bold statement here and capitalize on any mistakes that Goldencents happens to make.
One of the others to keep your eye on is the Steve Asmussen-trained Tapiture, who had other options going into the race and could have run in the Classic but the dirt mile (a weaker race by a good distance) loomed as the easier scalp for team Asmussen. He is trading at a 6/1 margin and will likely feature as a wise guy play on opening day of the Breeders’ Cup for at least...
Easily one of the most intriguing races on the four-race Breeders’ Cup card on the Friday at Santa Anita is the dirt mile, which will see the reappearance of California stalwart Goldencents as he seeks to capture the contest for the second year in a row. As usual, there is always a bit of controversy when a horse trained by Doug O’Neill is involved and, with his suspension prohibiting him from conditioning any horse at this year’s event thanks to an overage at New York track Saratoga for Wind of Bosphorus, Goldencents will run under the tutelage of his assistant Leandro Mora.
Since that race actually happened about a month and a half ago, he will likely have come on a bit and grown some - which could intimidate his opponents as his last effort was a solid one and there remains the potential for him to show even more here.
Though it was a comfortable victory on the day at Haydock he actually started a bit slowly, which was also on display in his debut victory at York when he started poorly and had to make a late run. That day, he was sent off at a 16/1 price tag and paid a nice dividend for his backers as he toppled that field of 13...
