Category: FAQ

Historically, the term ‘stakes race’ was used to describe a horse race in which the participants competed for prize money contributed, wholly or in part, by their owners. The official titles of the five British Classics – that is, the 1,000 Guineas, 2,000 Guineas, Derby, Oaks and St. Leger – all contain the word ‘stakes’, which provides a clue to the history of the term.

Nowadays, owners contribute to prize money through entry fees so, strictly speaking, every horse race could be described as a stakes race. However, ‘stakes race’ is commonly used, specifically, to describe a race for which eligibility is determined by official handicap ratings, as assigned by the British Horseracing Authority (BHA), but weight carried is not.

For example, to be eligible to run in the highest level stakes races on the Flat, known as Group One races, horses aged three years and upwards must have achieved a minimum rating of 80. Nevertheless, Group One races are run off level weights, with allowances for age and gender; the same principle applies to Group Two, Group Three and Listed races. The BHA also employs an umbrella term, ‘conditions stakes race’ to describe any lower-level Flat race that is not a handicap, maiden, selling or claiming race.

Generally speaking, sweating in racehorses is a good sign insofar as it helps to regulate body temperature. The evaporation of sweat, which is 90% water, creates a cooling effect, known as evaporative cooling, which lowers the body temperature. Of course, racehorses have a thick, waterproof, hairy coat, so their sweat contains a protein, known as latherin, which accelerates the transfer of sweat from the skin to the surface of the hair. When subject to friction, from girths, reins, etc, latherin can cause foaming, or lathering, of the sweat. Sweating can also reflect the physical condition of a racehorse. The fitter the horse, the better it becomes at regulating body temperature and the more readily it sweats.

Of course, profuse sweating, particularly if accompanied by other poor behaviour, such as head tossing, rearing or tail swishing, before a race can also be a sign of agitation, excitability or irritation in a racehorse. A racehorse that displays such traits wastes nervous energy and is more likely to pull hard, wasting further energy, once the race is underway, resulting in poor performance. Some horses sweat more than others, even in cooler weather but, as a rule of thumb, any racehorse completely covered and/or dripping with sweat should be treated with caution as a betting proposition.

Did you know that just about 50% of the UK population gamble?

That’s lots of winners and losers.

But how do you win a million pounds with one pound? It sounds a challenge if not an impossibility. With the Lotto charging £2 a ticket, you’d need to share the top prize with a friend to even have any chance of winning big.

When it come to betting on horse racing the most likely chance of winning one million pounds for a solitary pound coin is with an accumulator. This bet puts all of your winnings on the next horse. So if you have a 10/1 winner, you’d have £11 going onto the next horse (that’s £10 winnings and your stake money of £1).

So if you had three 10/1 winners what would that win for your quid?

 

That would be £1210.

Not quite the million hey? The good thing about a win accumulator is that you can make as many selections as you wish. And each win means you have more and more money to put into your pocket.

The difficult part is finding all these winners.

In theory, the shorter the price of the horse you pick the better chance it has of winning. So you might be wise to consider how many favourites you would need to win consecutively to get to that million pounds.

This may seem a possibility although in practice it is probably impossible. If you bet your £1 on 21 horses priced even money you would be a millionaire.

This is how it works: £1, £2, £4, £8, £16, £32, £64, £128, £256, £512, £1024, £2048, £4096, £8192, £16384, £32768, £65536, £131072, £262144, £524288, £1048576

(I’ve just won a million pounds!)

Easy!

If you started with £128 you could bring that down to 13 winners.

If you started with £1024 you would need just 10 winners to become a millionaire.

Place your bets, please.

 

When gambling, an important question you need to ask is whether your wager is fixed odds or based on skill. There is an important reason for this because it indicates your chance of winning and losing.

Betting on slot machines, roulette, black jack, three-card poker etc are fixed odds. The odds are carved in stone and cannot change. The odds are less than the actual chance of winning which means you only win by luck.

In fact, the longer you play the more you will lose.

For example, the casino is paying less than the true odds for a given win. A roulette wheel has 1 – 36 compartments (and the zero) but pays 35/1. This gives the house a 2.7% edge. It is worse in the US as they have a double zero (5.25%). Your best chance of beating house edge on fixed odds gambling is to win early and put the money in your pocket and leave. The longer you play the more likely you are to lose.

Skill-based betting, in theory, gives you a greater chance of winning as you are using your knowledge against the layer who thinks they know more. In horse racing this gives an astute gambler a fighting chance of winning. Although, it should be mentioned that the bookmakers will not have their book (betting prices) at 100%. For most horse races the betting market will be around 118% SP (starting prices). So if you bet on every horses in a race, long term, you would lose. That’s why it is important to have a level of skill which exceeds the bookmakers edge and their skill level.

No easy feat.

Out of the two methods of gambling, skill-based is by far the best option.