What was the Festival of British Racing?

Inaugurated on September 26, 1987, the Festival of British Racing was a forerunner of British Champions’ Day at Ascot. However, the Festival of British Racing was a far cry from the star-studded meeting that, since 2011, has marked the finale of the British Flat racing season. It featured just one solitary ‘championship’ race, the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, which was upgraded to Group One status for the first time in 1987. The supporting card did include the Group Two Diadem Stakes, which would become the British Champions Sprint in 2011 and upgraded to Group One status in 2015, but the only other Pattern race, the Group Three Cumberland Lodge Stakes, was not included in the British Champions Day programme.

In truth, the Festival of British Racing is probably best remembered as the backdrop against which Lanfranco ‘Frankie’ Dettori achieved his so-called ‘Magnificent Seven’ in September, 1996. In 2011, British Champions Day was created by cherry picking the best races from the Festival of British Racing and the Champions Stakes Meeting at Newmarket, including the Champion Stakes itself; thanks to a massive injection of prize money by an enthusiastic and committed sponsor, Qipco, the meeting finally became the spectacle that the Festival of British Racing had always aspired to.

How many winners did Brian Hughes ride for Donald McCain in 2020/21?

Born in Newtownhamilton, County Armagh, but based in Cleveland in the North of England, Brian Hughes won the Jump Jockeys’ Championship for the first time in 2019/20 with 141 winners – 19 ahead of reigning champion Richard Johnson – in a season curtailed by the coronavirus pandemic. Although, in his own words, Hughes had ridden ‘quite a bit’ for Donald McCain in preceding seasons, in May, 2018, he officially became first choice jockey at Bankhouse Stables in Cholmondeley, Cheshire.

Having ridden 24 winners from 93 rides for the yard in 2017/18, Hughes increased his seasonal tally, albeit at a reduced strike rate, to 41 winners from 311 rides in 2018/19. In his title winning season, he did so again, with 43 winners from 222 rides and in 2020/21, when he finished runner-up to Harry Skelton in the Jump Jockeys’ Championship, nonetheless enjoyed his most successful season so far, with 47 winners from 246 rides.

That said, at the time of writing, Brian Hughes leads the 2021/22 Jump Jockeys’ Championship with 73 winners – 29 ahead of nearest rival, Sean Bowen – and is long odds-on to win the jockeys’ title for a second time. In the current season, so far, he has ridden 31 winners from 111 rides for Donald McCain, at a strike rate of 28%; barring accidents, a new seasonal best for the yard looks a formality.

 

How many Grade 1 winners has Harry Cobden ridden for Paul Nicholls?

Cobden rode his first Grade 1 winner for Paul Nicholls, Irving in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle, in November, 2016, while still a conditional jockey. In fact, he did not ride out his claim until the following February, but went on to win the conditional jockeys’ title in 2016/17. In 2017/18, Cobden rode 76 winners, including 24 for Nicholls; that season he rode two more Grade 1 winners for the now 12-time champion trainer, namely Politologue, in the Betfair Tingle Creek Chase at Ascot in December, 2017, and Diego Du Charmil, in the Doom Bar Maghull Novices’ Chase at Aintree in April, 2018.

Shortly afterwards, Nicholls announced Cobden as his new stable jockey for the forthcoming 2018/19 National Hunt season, replacing Sam Twiston-Davies. In his inaugural season as first-choice jockey at Manor Farm Stables, Cobden rode 109 winners, 84 of which were trained by Nicholls, including four more at Grade 1 level. Cobden missed out on a Grade 1 winner in the curtailed 2019/20 season, but was back in business in 2020/21, winning the MansionBet Challow Novices’ Hurdle at Newbury on Bravesmangame, and the Doom Bar Anniversary 4-Y-O Juvenile Hurdle and Betway Bowl Chase, on the same day, on Monmiral and Clan Des Obeaux, respectively. All three winners were trained by Paul Nicholls, taking Cobden’s career tally for the yard to ten Grade 1 winners.

What types of bet are there?

The types of bet available on horse racing are numerous, too numerous to describe here, but suffice to say that they range from basic to complex, sometimes fiendishly so. The stock-in-trade of most punters, though, are the win bet and the win and place, or each-way, bet. The win bet involves placing a single stake on a horse to finish first in a race. The each-way bet, on the other hand, is effectively two bets in one; the first bet is on the horse to finish first and the second is on the horse to finish placed. The win bet is paid out at full odds, while the place bet is paid out at a fraction of the win odds. The number of places on which bookmakers pay out, and the fraction of the win odds they pay, varies according to the number of runners in the race and the type of race.

Rather than betting on just one selection in one race, it is also possible to combine two, three, four or more selections in doubles, trebles and accumulators which, like single bets, can be win or each-way. These so-called ‘multiple bets’ require more than one selection to win or finished placed to guarantee a return, but are nonetheless popular with small-stakes punters seeking a large payout. The fact that they are inherently riskier than single bets also makes them popular with bookmakers.

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