What’s an accumulator?

What's an accumulator? In horse racing, an accumulator is a collective bet on selections in successive races, usually four or more. If the first selection wins, the initial stake and winnings are carried forward to the second selection and so on, such that potential winnings ‘accumulate’ progressively until the end of the bet is reached. For example, if you place a 1-point accumulator on four selections, each at 1/1, or even money, your potential winnings will be 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 = 16 points.

By it’s very nature acca bets are not easy to pull off, and so they can either be seen as a punt of a ‘lottery style’ punt, or alternatively some do their research or even go the horse racing AI route of analysing data and making comparisons in order to draw the most strategic and fact based conclusions possible.

An accumulator is an ‘all or nothing’ bet, so if one of your selections loses, you will lose your stake, regardless of the outcome of the other three races. Consequently, unless you’re in search of a huge return for a relatively small outlay, an accumulator is best suited to horses at prohibitively short odds, which are uneconomical to back individually. Of course, it’s possible to place an ‘accumulator’ on two or three successive races but, in horse racing parlance, the former is usually referred to as a ‘double’ and the latter as a ‘treble’.

Horse racing of course isn’t the only sport where accumulator bets loom large. Football is well known to have gifted punters many a big bucks acca win over the years. Some of course go for win bet combos, others over/under and the like, and the very same ai football tips angle is now an option, in the raced paces world of form and bet analysis. Don’t get left behind.

Whatever happened to Folkestone Racecourse?

Nowadays property of Folkestone & Hythe District Council and destined to become part of the sprawling ‘Otterpool Park’ housing development, Folkestone Racecourse still stands in Westenhanger, west of Folkestone town centre, as it has done since 1898. In its heyday, Folkestone was the only official horse racing venue in Kent and staged both Flat and National Hunt fixtures throughout the year.

However, following its ‘temporary’ closure in December, 2012 which, according to previous owners Arena Racing Company (ARC) was to allow redevelopment of ‘outdated’ facilities, Folkestone never opened its gates again. In fact, the previously magnificent site has essentially been left to slowly decay into rack and ruin.

The tumbledown buildings, including the wooden-fronted main stand, are still standing, albeit only just, but the steeplechase fences and running rails. The attractive parade ring and paddock area, behind the main stand, has at least been maintained to some extent, but the racing surface has been reclaimed by grass and tall, ugly weeds, reminiscent of a large, unkempt field than a racecourse.

Racing Post journalist Lee Mottershead once wrote, hauntily, of Folkestone, ‘They once raced horses here.’ They did, indeed, and the brutal demise of a landmark that stood for over a century is heart-breaking and shameful in equal measure.

Which was the last British racecourse to close permanently?

The last British racecourse to close permanently was Towcester Racecourse, a National Hunt-only venue near the market town of Towcester in Northamptonshire in the East Midlands, which closed in October, 2019. In fact, it was first British racecourse to close since December, 2012, when Folkestone Racecourse ‘temporarily’ shut its gates, but has been left in a derelict state of neglect ever since.

Towcester Racecourse entered administration, with debts in excess of £1.3 million, in August, 2018 and was sold to Fermor Land LLP, a local company linked to Lord Hesketh, chairman of Towcester Racecourse Company, the following November. However, racing never resumed and, in October, 2019, the new owners announced that, after considering options for the future of Towcester Racecourse, the 93-year-old track was to close permanently.

With the assistance of the British Horseracing Authority (BHA), Fermor Land LLP sold the remaining ten National Hunt fixtures in its ownership, scheduled for 2020, to Arena Racing Company (ARC), with host venues to be confirmed at a later date. Richard Wayman, chief operating officer of the BHA, said at the time, ‘We had hoped, following the course going into administration, that the new owners might find a solution which allowed racing to resume, and it is disappointing that has not proved possible.’

Who was Fred Archer?

Frederick James ‘Fred’ Archer was a legendary Victorian jockey whose life came to a tragic end, at his own hand, on November 8, 1886, at the age of 29. On the day after the second anniversary of the death of his wife, Nellie Rose, during childbirth, deliriously ill with typhoid fever and ‘in a state of unsound mind’, Archer shot himself with a revolver in his bedroom at Falmouth House, Newmarket.

Neverthless, ‘The Tin Man’, as Archer was known, won the jockeys’ title 13 years running between 1874 and 1886 and still jointly holds the record, alongside Elnathan ‘Nat’ Flatman, for the most consecutive titles. All told, he rode 2,748 winners, including 246 winners in a single season in 1885, thereby setting records that would stand until the inimitable Sir Gordon Richards rose to prominence decades later.

Unusually tall for a jockey at 5’10” – interestingly, the same height as Sir Anthony McCoy – Archer faced a constant battle with his weight in his later years and was forced into a Draconian regime of starvation diet, Turkish baths and purgatives, which ultimately contributed to his demise. Nevertheless, having eventually succeeded the equally ill-fated Tom French as stable jockey to Matthew Dawson in 1875, he went on to win the St. Leger six times, the Derby five times, the 2,000 Guineas and the Oaks four times apiece and the 1,000 Guineas twice, for a total of 21 British Classic winners.

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