Horse racing is one of those things that you’re either into or you’re not, and for the vast majority of people, knowing about the horse’s past form and whether the going will affect them in a particular race seems like a mystical art.
Of course, any of us could study different horses and their past performances and gradually over time, you’d get the hang of how to pick a winner, but you can’t force an interest where there isn’t one.
The races that seem to attract bets from all kinds of people are those big annual events in every nation’s horseracing calendar. If it’s something that’s televised on mainstream TV, the chances are that you’ll get an awful lot of people placing bets with betfair who don’t usually get involved.
The Grand National in the UK is a typical example. And actually it’s a great race to bet on if you have no idea about the quality and performance of the horses and jockeys taking part as it’s one of those races where it’s virtually impossible to pick the winner based on knowledge.
Winners of the Grand National come through a mix of experience and luck, as even if you have a perfect horse running the race, there’s no predicting if it will be caught up in another horse’s fall over one of the fences.
The Grand National is notorious for the difficulty of its fences, and it’s a really long race – 4 ½ miles – so there’s plenty of opportunity for things to go wrong during the race.
The race dates back to 1860 – and often only a quarter of the horses who take part will actually cross the finish line. That’s only 10 out of the 40 who start the race. That’s why although we’re not horse racing aficionados in our family by any means, we all choose a horse to back in our house come Grand National day.
Sometimes we don’t even actually put a bet on with a real bookmaker, but that being said it’s really easy to do place bets online at one of the exchanges, so we have done in recent years. But usually the day of the Grand National ties in with a family gathering of some sort and we’ll have an informal sweepstake where we all put the same stake in a hat and choose a horse’s name out of the hat.
It’s a bit of fun, and even the kids get to pick a horse – usually going with the name they like best. It adds to the excitement as you watch one of the biggest spectacles in the horse racing calendar.
