Horse racing is a sport that has been in our sports culture for donkey’s years (pun intended), nevertheless, it is something that is often used as a topic, for quiz nights, gatherings etc. So, we thought it would be good if we gave you the facts that you need to know, in terms of all the most obvious ones, so you can take over your next trivia night by storm! Make sure to check out the list that we have compiled for you, so you can really get in there, with the knowledge you need, to look like a horse racing professional and know how to bet like one too!

The first ever winner at Kentucky Derby

The first ever winner to take the Kentucky Derby race by storm, was the Aristides horse. Winning in 1875, he beat 14 other horses at a 1.5-mile race, for just $1000 prize money! Of course, something to add is, money back in the 1800’s was valued far greater than today’s comparisons. $1000 dollars back in the day, was equivalent to near enough a million dollars today we might add. There is something extra that you may have not known!

Saratoga holds a Racing Hall of Fame

In Saratoga Springs, New York there is an annual racing Hall of Fame that takes place, where many horses will be acknowledged, in addition to the jockeys, trainers and other historical figures that take part within the world of horse racing. You should definitely pay attention to this event, as it is another great way of learning all about the trainers that are present within the industry now and previously!

Oldest trainer to win the Kentucky Derby

The oldest trainer to ever win the Kentucky Derby, is a gentleman named Art Sherman. This guy was able to take the California Chrome in 2014, at 77 years old. Now how about that!

13 horses in total have won the Triple Crown

Justify is of the last Triple Crown Winner, taking it in the year 2018. The one before that was the very well-known American Pharaoh. In 2015, the American Pharaoh ended a 35-year pause/break from Triple Crown winners, as no horse managed to claim all three prestigious races (Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes) for the win until 2015! This fact should definitely prove fruitful to all trivia wannabes.

The weight of a Thoroughbred

The weight of a typical Thoroughbred usually makes or exceeds by just a little over 1000 pounds. There are horses that weigh more of course, being that this horse is a medium build. But this mass is considered the optimum for running distances with great endurance, speed and stamina. Usually when the horse weighs more than this, this tends to slow the horse’s performance by quite a bit, which is not what jockeys need, to zoom past their competitors now, is it?

The Breeders Cup is Equivalent to the Super bowl

Yes, you heard that right. The Breeders Cup is so popular in the horse racing world, that it pretty much equates to the Super bowl in sports value. The Breeders Cup offers one lucky champion, the opportunity to reel in a total of $28 million in winnings.

Triple Crown races have a minimum age to compete

You heard that one right. Horses that want to enter the Triple Crown will need to be three years old, or higher. Essentially these races are the most superior of all races around the world and horses usually have just one shot to claim that gold crown!

There’s never been a better time for online betting customers. There are a wide range of bookmakers from which to choose, a huge variety of sports covered and hundreds of available markets for the biggest events. You can also choose to bet pre-event or alternatively In-Play, while Cash Out and Bet Builder have recently arrived to offer more flexibility.

However, all this betting choice can often be confusing. What are the best type of bets to place in order to land a profit? It’s important to understand how to bet online in an effective manner so that you are constantly placing value bets on the road to a long-term profit, even if you can’t guarantee a winner every time.

Register a Bookmaker Account and Claim a Bonus

In order to place online bets, you will need to have a registered betting account with at least one bookmaker. Every time you sign up with a bookie, there’s the chance to claim a new customer bonus and that can be a great way of getting started with an operator.

You also need to understand how betting odds work. You can choose to view your odds in fractional or decimal format. For example, you could back Manchester United at:

• 2/1 which are fractional odds
• 3.0 which are decimal odds

There is no difference between the two and the payout would be the same with both bets. If you placed £10 on the Red Devils and they won, you would get a profit of £20 and an overall return of £30 (£20 profit + £10 stake).

How to Win Money from Betting

Every day, there are millions of sports bets being placed all over the world. Some of them are settled as winners and others settled as losers. On a long-term basis, the bookmakers win against the punters more than they lose and we need to bet in a disciplined way if you want to make money from sports betting.

The first step is to bet on sports where you already have a strong knowledge. This will help you understand what is likely to happen in an event based on previous occurrences. You might even have some data to hand which is going to help you.

You also need to establish the prices that are available and whether the odds reflect the probability of an outcome happening. If a team is trading at evens and you think they have a better than 50% chance of winning, then you might think they’re the value bet.

In 2009, horse racing returned to West Wales for the first time in 73 years with the opening of Ffos Las Racecourse. However, from the mid-nineteenth century onwards, horse racing was staged at various locations in, and around, Tenby, Pembrokeshire. Tenby Racecourse staged its final fixture in October, 1936 but, in the final years of its existence, suffered from the repercussions of a notorious betting scandal.

Described by Richard Lawrence, author of ‘The Rise and Fall of Tenby Races’ as ‘the biggest betting coup ever in history of the turf’, the events of Thursday, January 13, 1927 have been widely exaggerated over the years and need to be taken with the proverbial pinch of salt. Nevertheless, the coup revolved around the Licensed Victuallers Selling Handicap Hurdle, a fairly obscure race featuring eight runners, three of which – including the odds-on favourite, Bubbly – were saddled by local trainer David Harrison.

Bubbly was all the rage on-course at 2/5, with stable companion Oyster Maid, owned by former bookmaker, and professional gambler, Ben Warner, virtually friendless at 100/6, but the pair drew clear of their rivals from halfway. However, approaching the final flight, the unconsidered – unconsidered, that is, by on-course punters – Oyster Maid took the lead and drew away to win by five lengths.

Tenby Racecourse did not have a public telephone within half a mile and any ‘laying off’ of bets had to be done via a tic-tac man, who relayed information back to the betting ring. On a day of poor visibility, made worse by a snow storm sweeping in from the sea, this form of communication was nigh on impossible, so when off-course, starting price bookmakers received a glut of business for Oyster Maid minutes before the ‘off’ none of the money made it back to the track.

Participants in the coup may have netted between £10,000 and £12,000 in total, which equates to over £600,000 or £700,000 by modern standards. However, an earlier, unverified estimate suggested total winnings of £1 million, which equates to a thoroughly unbelievable £61.7 million in modern terms, with £60,000 or £70,000 contributed by a single, unnamed publican. Other unsubstantiated rumours to circulate following the victory of Oyster Maid included that all seven opposing jockeys were paid odds to £50 not to win and that the starting price reporter was paid, at the same rate, to return inflated odds on the winner.

Flockton Grey was once described as the horse at the centre of one of the greatest racing scandals of twenty century but, notorious though his name became, the events that transpired at Leicester Racecourse on March 29, 1982, while scandalous, had nothing directly to do with Flockton Grey. True, a horse purporting to be Flockton Grey – a grey two-year-old gelding, bought cheaply as a yearling by businessman Ken Richardson, and saddled by unheralded trainer Stephen Wiles – won the Knighton Auction Stakes, over five furlongs, but the ease of his victory, coupled with strong marker support, led the Jockey Club to launch an investigation.

Ridden by former champion apprentice Kevin Darley, who was enduring one of several years in the wilderness, the debutant ‘Flockton Grey’ won by 20 lengths – an extraordinary distance by any standards, but less so once the full circumstances were revealed – at odds of 10/1, landing bets believed to be worth £200,000 in Yorkshire alone. Two days later, Racecourse Security Services visited Langley Holmes Stables in Flockton, West Yorkshire, where Wiles trained. They were shown a grey two-year-old gelding which, despite being a full-brother to Flockton Grey, was not the Leicester winner. The investigation continued at Jubilee Farm, a property owned by Richardson, in Hutton Cranswick in the East Riding of Yorkshire, but no trace of Flockton Grey could be found.

In any event, by chance, the racecourse photographer at Leicester had taken several stills of the winner, one of which clearly showed the horse with its mouth open. After a painstaking investigation, involving blown-up photographs and identity documents, the horse in question was identified not as the two-year-old Flockton Grey, but the three-year-old Good Hand, whom Richardson had owned as a two-year-old. Richardson denied all knowledge of Good Hand after the horse was taken away by Wiles, with a view to being sold, in 1981.

However, in May, 1984, Richardson and his two accomplices, Peter Boddy and Colin Mathison, stood trial at York Crown Court charged with conspiracy to defraud bookmakers. Still protesting his innocence, Richard appealed his guilty conviction, but his appeal was quashed in 1986 and, the same year, he was ‘warned off’ for 25 years by the Jockey Club. Richardson continued to petition the Home Secretary but, when the case was finally returned to the Court of Appeal in 1996, his appeal was dismissed again. At that time, Lord Justice Rose said that any conclusion other than that the Leicester winner was Good Hand ‘beggars belief’.