Blog

Cheltenham November Meeting

16 Nov, 2024

Cheltenham truly is the home of jump racing and the 3-day November meeting continues in full force this weekend. The Saturday Racecard is flush with both Premier Handicap and Graded action; in this newsletter we'll begin to dissect both. It's a long road to the festival in March, but it starts here.Punters have always considered Course form at Cheltenham to be of upmost importance. Horses face a unique test here: the undulating nature of the track, big fences and a stiff uphill finish will push horses to their limits. The significance of Cheltenham Course form again came to the fore...

Exeter Haldon Gold Cup Day

8 Nov, 2024

High quality racing at Exeter will be shown live on ITV4 today, the feature race being the Haldon Gold Cup Handicap Chase (14:25). This is a tough early season handicap to unpick given the main protagonists are all returning from more than 200 days off the track. It's a small yet competitive field of five that go to post for the £60,000 prize and it's difficult to gauge who will be fully tuned up for their return. Punt responsibly.The feature race is preceded by the Future Stars Silver Bowl Novices' Chase (13:50) where we essentially have a match race between...

Ascot Champions Day Roundup

20 Oct, 2024

Qipco British Champions Day did not disappoint, living up to its name in spectacular style. All three of the big early favourites duly obliged and by 3:30pm bookmakers were on the ropes - a sight we all love to see. Kyprios, Kalpana and Charyn were all comfortable winners of their races, returning at odds of 8/11, 10/3 and 13/8 respectively. Accumulators were brewing.It was then time for the Champion Stakes, the race of the day. It had everything. Calandagan, the 6/4 favourite, missed the break and found himself trapped up the inside with nowhere to go. With favourite backers around...

Ascot Champions Day - Stayers Up First

19 Oct, 2024

As the horse racing flat season draws to an end, a final crescendo is served up at Ascot in the form of Qipco British Champions Day. There are four Group 1 races to get stuck into - we've got competitive fields embedded with both rematches and new eagerly awaited clashes. Here we'll cover the opening race on the card, with a little help from THM Racecards; providing valuable insights as always.Unsurprisingly, given the time of year, it'll be soft ground at Ascot, conditions not unfamiliar to the majority of the stayers in the Qipco British Champions Long Distance Cup (13:20)....

The 2-year olds Go To War - Juddmonte Middle Park Stakes

28 Sep, 2024

Aidan O'Brien has dominated the betting market in many of the Group 1s this season and it's a familiar story again today in the Juddmonte Middle Park Stakes (3:00). O'Brien is double-handed with Whistlejacket (8/13) and Ides Of March (4/1), with Ryan Moore siding with the former, top-rated on 115. Ides Of March and Shadow Of Light (6/1) are joint next-best having both achieved a rating of 108. At THM we remain strong advocates for making rational betting decisions, well-informed by the statistical insights readily available on our racecards. Punters will invariably prioritise certain form study insights differently – perhaps...

Ryan Moore On Top At The Ebor

22 Aug, 2024

Ryan Moore and Aidan O'Brien teamed up with three rides on Day 1 of the York Ebor Festival and came away with a hat-trick of wins. The first leg of the 14/1 "Ryan Moore treble" was his easiest winner of the day. The Lion In Winter bounced out of the gates and comfortably made all from the front to land the Acomb Stakes. Moore never had to get serious in the saddle and his mount is now favourite for next year's Derby. A lot can happen between now and then but he's done nothing wrong so far.Los Angeles was up...

Glistening Glorious Goodwood

1 Aug, 2024

Glorious Goodwood is more than living up to its name this week; the sumptuous weather coupled with high quality horse racing has been lighting up the Sussex racecourse. There's been a cauldron of action to enjoy throughout the opening few days of the festival: some top class performances, electrifying speed figures, a dramatic stewards' inquiry and other hard luck stories for which notorious Goodwood is oh so famous. There's plenty more to come before Saturday evening too. Kyprios stole the show on Tuesday in the Al Shaqab Goodwood Cup, blitzing his rivals in the scorching heat and establishing himself head...

King George Saturday Roundup

28 Jul, 2024

Aidan O'Brien has been uncharacteristically critical about the ground conditions at Ascot this weekend, questioning whether any stretch of the course was indeed good to firm. He then attributed Auguste Rodin's lacklustre performance in the King George to the softer conditions. Given the Ballydoyle pacemakers set off at a ferocious gallop, it seemed a strange tactical decision to keep Auguste Rodin so close to the pace, especially if the ground conditions were in fact softer than described? Anyway...The keyboard warriors on X have fired plenty of criticism at Kieran Shoemark in recent weeks, shaming him for some unsatisfactory rides. But...

Buick - The King of Newmarket

13 Jul, 2024

Jockey William Buick is no stranger to the Winners' Enclosure, but even by his lofty standards he had a day to remember this Saturday at the Newmarket July Cup meeting. Anyone checking the horse racing results this evening will see the familiar sight of Buick and trainer Charlie Appleby combining in sumptuous fashion to win 3 of the first 4 races on the card.The first, Desert Flower, put up an impressive display on debut despite looking inexperienced through the early stages. Buick never had to get serious on the well backed 5/2 shot and the pair won as they liked....

The 2024 Coral-Eclipse

6 Jul, 2024

The Coral-Eclipse (3:35) at Sandown usually provides an opportunity to witness the best of the 3-year old generation taking on the older horses. Sadly this year the representation from the older group is pretty woeful and consequently the betting market is dominated by the youngsters, most notably by the impressive Derby winner. We all know who that is!Today's short priced favourite City Of Troy (3/10) looked spectacular when careering away with the Epsom Derby 5 weeks ago and was given the highest accolades from trainer Aidan O'Brien in the post race interviews. He's 10lbs clear of all his opponents today...

Royal Ascot 2024

18 Jun, 2024

Royal Ascot week - does life get any better than this? The pinnacle of our sport displayed as a five day onslaught of ultra competitive races brimming with equine talent. This isn't the time to be messing around; Royal Ascot is serious business and you're going to need all of the insights available to find some winners. A brief overview of a few of the races tomorrow should be enough to whet the appetite. Here we go....The Queen Anne Stakes (14:30) looks wide open and there's a French invasion for the British contingent to deal with. The race is set...

The 2024 Epsom Oaks

31 May, 2024

If you'd told us at the start of the flat season that we'd be swaggering into this Epsom meeting with Aidan O'Brien having not won a 2024 Classic, we'd have laughed in your face. But the Irish juggernaut has been firing blanks on both sides of the Irish Sea in the Classics so far this year and will be hoping for a swift change of fortune. Yet he may well get it, as unsurprisingly he has the market leaders in both the Oaks and Derby. Today is Oaks Friday though and a day for the girls to take centre stage....

The Dante Festival 2024

15 May, 2024

The York Dante Festival is underway and after a cracking first day there's still much to look forward to over the next few days on the Knavesmire. Thursday's card is stacked with both big field handicaps and informative Group races. Perhaps the feature race of the meeting, the Dante, will provide us with the next Derby winner as it did with Golden Horn and Desert Crown in 2015 and 2022 respectively. At THM we also love a juicy handicap. So let's get stuck in!Day 2 kicks off with the Lindum York Handicap (14:15), a 5-furlong sprint, so best fasten your...

2024 Qipco 2000 Guineas

4 May, 2024

Some rain has been falling at Newmarket in the last 24 hours but that does little to dampen the excitement for the first classic of the flat season; the Qipco 2000 Guineas. All eyes will be on Newmarket at 15:35 to see which of this year's contenders confirm themselves as an equine superstar and cement their place into the racing hall of fame. Time to analyse a few of the main contenders on the racecard, buckle up!The hype around race favourite City Of Troy (8/11) is no surprise after his breathtaking campaign last season. Unbeaten in three starts, including a...

A Sizzling Sandown Showdown

27 Apr, 2024

It's the final day of the jumps season and it's signing off in style with a power-packed card at Sandown. We've got the conclusion of both the jockeys’ and trainers' championships, a mouth-watering showdown featuring El Fabiolo v Jonbon, and a whole host of the Willie Mullins battalion coming over the Irish sea hoping to put the British boys in their place! Let's dive in. .Cobden vs BowenHarry Cobden has all but claimed the jockeys’ championship with Sean Bowen falling valiantly on his sword in 2nd place, but it's still worth keeping a close eye on their rides for the...