How To Bet Online On Horse Racing: A Beginner’s Guide

History of Horse Racing  

Horse racing is a sport that has been practiced for years way back to around 4500 BC. it was known as a luxurious sport for only kings back in central Asia and currently, it has become a domineering sport with over 50 million attendees to horse racing events in America for days.

This sport is highly attended by spectators in countries like Ireland, Great Britain, Canada, Australia and several Asian countries

In fact, the concept of sports betting was first practiced alongside horse racing back in the 19th century and before the introduction of live betting in football, horse racing used to be the most betted on sports worldwide with over $100 billion in revenue alone from horse racing betting annually.

Horse racing is a competition between two or more horses ridden by jockeys to see who will ride the fastest between two distance points on track.

The tracks are known to be of different surfaces like dirt, over synthetic or turf depending on the venue of the horse racing event.

With horse racing you need to keep up with both horse and jockey going to ride the horse because both of their abilities and chances of winning do affect the outcome of your bet.

Horse racing betting has been around for centuries and now it’s even more accessible in the small world created by the internet therefore you won’t have to travel to the horse race tracks to bet.

The most common types of Horse racing you can bet on include:

• Flat racing 
• Jump racing
• Endurance racing 
• Quarter horse racing
• Maiden racing
• Allowance and claiming racing
• Harness racing 

Further explained in detail in our article; Understanding The Most Common Types of Horse Racing 

Major Horse Race Annual Events to Bet On

Some of the most common horse racing annual events are held in countries like Britain and Australia

In Britain, these are the most common:

King George VI Chase

King George VI Chase is most likely the second most reputable horse race event in the UK only exceeded by the great Cheltenham Gold cup.

This horse race event takes place on the 24th of December every year and jumps racing is the type of racing involved with over 2.5 miles and about 18 fences to jump.

Cheltenham Festival 

This is the most prestigious national hunt racing festival in the UK. It takes place every year in the month of March with races like:

• The Queen Mother Champion chase
• The champion hurdle
• The Cheltenham Gold cup
• The world Hurdle

Royal Ascot Festival

The royal Ascot festival is a royal affair with royals like Queen Elizabeth II in attendance accompanied by several celebrities.

This festival consists of 30 races over a period of 5 days in the month of June with over 250,000 race watchers in attendance at the Berkshire, England.

The Royal Ascot is a major British social event or the blue-blooded and celebrities with huge amounts of press capturing the event at hand with equally lots of millions as prize money.

The Grand National Horse race

The Grand National horse race event is held at Liverpool England annually and it involves jump horse racing with some of the most difficult hurdles and fences to overcome outdoing the National Hunt festival.

With the Grand National, horses are to race over a 4-mile distance with worldwide coverage and over 500 million people watching.

The Grand National horse racing is the most difficult of horse races and is considered the ultimate test of a horse jockey.

In Australia 

The most famous horse racing events in Australia consist of the following:

Melbourne Cup Event

The Melbourne cup takes place at Flemington racecourse in the early days of November annually. This Australian horse race event consists of 24 vetted horses and jockeys competing for a total prize pool of 8 million dollars plus the Lexus Melbourne trophy.

This cup is the most prestigious horse racing event and the tracks are usually 3200 metres in distance and the type of horse racing is the flat race.

Australian Cup

The Australian cup was first inaugurated back in 1863 and the race type is a flat race of thoroughly bred horses on a distance of 2000 meters over a turf surface. The prize money here is about 1.5 million Australian dollars and takes place at the Flemington Racecourse in the month of March.

Australian Derby

The Australian derby was first founded about 160 years ago in Sydney Australia and has lasted long enough to be named among the most prestigious ad reputable horse race events in the world.  

The Australian derby horse racing is performed over a distance of 1 ½ miles with a turf surface at the Randwick Racecourse located in Sydney.

The race type at the Australian Derby is the flat race.