What is a ‘Bookies’ Nightmare’ bet?

The so-called ‘Bookies’ Nightmare’ is a horse racing bet involving nine selections, in nine different races, which are combined in a series of smaller multiple bets and one nine-fold accumulator. The smaller multiple are two Patents, one on selections 1, 2 and 3 and another on selections 7, 8 and 9, two Yankees, one on selections 1, 2, 3 and 4 and another on selections 5, 6, 7 and 8, and one Round Robin, on selections 4, 5 and 6. All told, a Bookies’ Nightmare constitutes 47 individual bets.

The Patents are simple enough, insofar as they involve three singles, three doubles and one treble on each group of three selections. The same is true of the Yankees, which involve six doubles, four trebles and one four-fold accumulator on each group of four selections. However, the Round Robin is a little more complicated, because it not only involves three doubles and one treble on the remaining three selections, but also three pairs of singles stakes about, or ‘up and down’, bets, which are worthy of further explanation.

Assuming the unit stake is £1, for selections 4, 5 and 6, the single stakes about bets are £1 win 4, any-to-come £1 win 5, £1 win 5, any-to-come £1 win 4, and so on for selections 4 and 6, and 5 and 6, making six bets in all. In each case, the second part of the bet is only of any consequence if the first part of the bet wins. For example, if selection 4 wins, the stake on selection 5 will be doubled, but if selection 4 loses there is nothing to come, so the stake on selection 5 will remain the same; if selection 5 then wins, £1 will be deducted from the returns for the any-to-come bet on selection 4, which has already lost.

How many rides has Rachael Blackmore had in the Grand National?

Formerly a successful amateur jockey, Rachael Blackmore turned professional in 2015 and, in 2017, became Irish Champion Conditional Jockey. The following year she had her first ride in the Grand National, parting company with her mount, Alpha Des Obeax, trained by Michael ‘Mouse’ Morris, at The Chair, the penultimate fence of the first circuit. In 2019, she completed the Grand National Course for the first time, finishing tenth of 19 finishers, beaten 33¼ lengths, on Valseur Lido, trained by Henry De Bromhead.

Of course, the 2020 Grand National was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but Blackmore was back at Aintree in 2021, aboard Minella Times. Fresh from becoming the first female jockey to win the Ruby Walsh Trophy at the Cheltenham Festival, Blackmore made steady headway on the 11/1 chance from early on the second circuit and took a narrow lead on the turn for home. The rest, as they say, is history. Having held a definite advantage over the final fence, Minella Times stayed on to beat stable companion Balko Des Flos by 6½ lengths, thereby making Blackmore the first female jockey to win the Grand National, on just her third attempt. Readers might like to spare a thought for the recently-retired Richard Johnson, who rode in the Grand National 21 times between 1997 and 2019 and never finished better than second.

What use is the form book?

The form book, which is available online, free-of-charge from ‘Racing Post’, ‘Sporting Life’ and other sources, provides a ‘potted history’ of the performance of a racehorse in all its previous races. While it is often stated that ‘past performance is no guarantee of future results’, the form book is considered the punters’ bible insofar that, in the absence of privileged, ‘inside’ information, reading form is the only way to form an opinion on the likely outcome of a race.

At a basic level, the form book provides a ‘snapshot’ of recent form in the form figures – that is, a series of numbers representing the last five or six finishing positions – alongside the name of each horse. However, form figures alone only tell part of the story. Further investigation of detailed form is usually required to reveal distance and going preferences, any disparity in class, value or weight between previous races and the race under consideration and so on. Only by examining all these factors can the serious punter be confident that a horse has the conditions under which it can run to the best of its ability and, indeed, that the best of its ability is actually good enough to win the race in question.

How many horses with colours in their names have won the Grand National?

The Grand National may be less of a lottery than was once the case, but many once-a-year punters still rely on horses with significant or topical names, rather than the formbook, in their search for a winner. In many parts of the world, colours such as gold, silver and red are commonly associated with good fortune, wealth and prosperity, so it is no surprise that many racehorses have one or other of these colours in their names. As far as the Grand National is concerned, in 173 runnings so far, a total of 10 colourfully-named horses have graced the hallowed winners’ enclosure at Aintree.

‘Red’ has been far and away the most successful colour, with five winners, including the most successful National horse of all time, Red Rum, in 1973, 1974 and 1977. The other ‘Red’ winners were Red Alligator in 1968 and Red Marauder in 2001. ‘Silver’ is next best with three winners, namely Ascetic’s Silver in 1906, Nicolaus Silver in 1961 and Silver Birch in 2007. ‘Gold’ makes just one appearance on the roll of honour, but the 1934 winner Golden Miller remains the only horse in history to have won the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Grand National in the same season. Interestingly, the only Grand National winner with a colour other than red, silver or gold in its name was Royal Tan who, in 1954, was the second of three consecutive winners for Vincent O’Brien.

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