UK Horse Racing Tips

The late Greville Starkey, who died from cancer at his home near Newmarket in 2010, rode 1,989 winners on the Flat in an illustrious career lasting 33 years. In fact, Starkey is considered, by many, the most talented horseman never to be crowned champion jockey. However, despite his successes, which included five British Classics and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, he is still best remembered for failing to win the Derby on Dancing Brave in 1986.

Having won the Craven Stakes and the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket, Dancing Brave started hot favourite for the Epsom Classic but, despite making relentless progress from the rear of the field throughout the final half a mile, failed by an ever-diminishing half a length to overhaul Shahrastani, ridden by the late Walter Swinburn. Starkey was roundly criticised for setting Dancing Brave an impossible task, but Swinburn said, “It’s a fine line. Had he got up by a head or a neck then all those who came out and tried to hang him for his ride would have been shouting his name from the rooftops.” Starkey made amends for his Epsom display by steering Dancing Brave to a comfortable victory in the Eclipse Stakes at Sandown, but protracted criticism for his earlier failure was to over shadow the rest of his career.

Starkey rode his first winner, Russian Gold, at Pontefract in 1956 and became champion apprentice the following year. He was later retained by John Oxley and Henry Cecil, before becoming stable jockey to Guy Harwood at Pulborough, West Sussex. In 1978, he rode four Classic winners, Shirley Heights in the Derby and Irish Derby and Fair Salina in the Oaks and Irish Oaks.

Getting involved in horse racing is quite intense, and it’s even harder to bet on at a first glance. One of the main issues that newcomers find is the terminology – something that can be hard to grasp with approaching any new sport – which is admittedly difficult to understand in the first attempt but can be worth getting to grips with when realising how exciting and entertaining betting on your own horse racing tips can be.

These given terms for different types of horse racing bet and market can be met with blurred lines over what it all means but Oddschanger are a website that take the time out to help novices in gathering a greater understanding of the entire sport in every possible aspect. They offer additional help with their array of previews, recommended bets and horse racing tips researched and provided by them in a specially designed section of their site.

What are NAPs?

It sometimes gets confused with other markets and far more complicated means of betting, but NAPs are actually the most easily understandable concept in horse racing. A NAP is the term given to a tipster’s most favoured horse racing in a given day, with them presumably seeing it as being the most likely one to win ahead of all others.

Most main horse racing tips websites provide their own NAP on a daily basis, even sometimes referring to them as a ‘NAP of the day page’, where you can expect to see which horse they favour on a given racing day. The odds are almost always extremely slim, with them often going lower than 1/2, but it’s a rite of passage, especially if the tipped horse wins as predicted.

Why are NAPs such an important part of horserace betting?

As previously mentioned, the fact that some horse racing tips sites offer practically daily NAPs for their followers is surely enough to show just how highly regarded they are by such a large portion of the sport’s fans. It’s gradually become a staple in horse racing betting, where even if there’s very little action for the day, there’ll always tend to be a NAP.

The word NAP comes from a French card game called ‘Napoleon’, where the best hand is self-titled before being abbreviated down to ‘NAP’. It obviously gains its correlation of being the most desirable hand in the card game, as well as being the most desirable horse to back in terms of horse racing.

Generally accepted as the ‘Blue Riband’ event of the National hunt season, the Timico Cheltenham Gold Cup Chase (3.30) on Friday March 16th requires little introduction. Neither, hopefully, does Native River, who won the Hennessy Gold Cup, the Welsh National and the Denman Chase before finishing a close third in this race last year. Colin Tizzard’s 8-year-old has raced just once since, jumping well to win the Denman Chase for the second year running at Newbury last month. Interestingly, while has won on good going – in a maiden hurdle at Stratford three seasons ago – all his best form has come on good to soft or soft going. The going on the New Course at Cheltenham is currently soft and unsettled weather is forecast for the rest of the week so, while he probably doesn’t it bottomless, the chances are that he should have his favoured underfoot conditions, which wasn’t the case last year.

Officially, Native River has 3lb to find with Might Bite, but Nicky Henderson’s charge did his level best to throw away the RSA Novices’ Chase on his last visit to Cheltenham and, while he’s won both starts this season, including the King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day, his tendency to idle in front must be a worry. Might Bite has won his last six completed starts and is unlucky not to be chasing an eight-timer, having fallen heavily at the last, with the race at his mercy, in the Kauto Star Novices’ Chase at Kempton last season. Even so, he has yet to win beyond 3 miles 1 furlong, so he’s unlikely to relish a war of attrition against Native River on properly soft going. Native River, on the other hand, not only has stamina to burn, but is an honest, straightforward customer; he looks a decent bet to give Richard Johnson his first winner of the race since Looks Like Trouble 18 years ago.

Selection: Cheltenham 3.30 Native River to win