Sports are coming back! That’s a welcome relief for many. Yes, it won’t be the same without the crowds, but it’s better than nothing. One of the first, and most popular, events is Ascot so I thought I’d write an article outlining the best places to find horse racing tips.
This is racing, so there are no guarantees – anything can happen – but pundits insist on giving horse racing tips year on year in the hope that they will help you get the jump on the bookies.
With Royal Ascot starting today and running until the 20th of June, there’s no better time to look for tips than right now (but if you’re reading this blog after the 23rd June 2020, then read on anyway, because these horse-racing tips work for all top-flight racing).
Royal Ascot at Home
Before we get into the crux of it, here’s a little background on this year’s event. Did you know that organisers have changed its name to “Royal Ascot at Home”? It’s the first name change for this particular event since 1911, but royal racing first started on the site in 1711 under Queen Anne.
Because they won’t allow us lumpenproletariat (or the upper classes for that matter – not even the Queen) into the stands, it’s “at Home” this year. Fingers crossed, it’s just for one year.
Staying at home might disappoint some of you, but there’s good news to help balance the disappointment. E.g., there are more races this year: 36 instead of 30. If you love horseracing – I do! – then this is fantastic news. I can have it on in the background during the day too – the joys of working from home (why haven’t we always done this?).
So, Where to Get Your Horse Racing Tips?
The quality of tips of this nature varies depending on who’s giving them, so let’s have a look at some of the different types of tips:
Insider Tips
Insider tips are the best bet because they come from the people who work with the horses, but how the heck do you find insider tips?
If you don’t know any trainers or racing schools, then it will be a bit difficult, but here are some of my tips:
Tip 1: Sign up to relevant social media accounts. Places like Twitter and Facebook are great for picking up the odd tip. People can let slip who they think will win, e.g. by saying, “so and so horse is in fine fettle”. Sometimes they’ll even give tips outright.
Tip 2: Go and spend time in a pub near one of the race schools, or even near Royal Ascot. Racing people love a good pint and they love talking about different horses and schools. I grew up near one of the biggest racing schools in the UK, so met a few of the big (little) jockeys in the local pub, I won’t name drop too much, but a certain jockey whose initials are AP M might have drunk there a few times! I’ve had some cracking tips from these people.
As you can appreciate, insider tips are about relationship building and getting to know people – with social media, this isn’t direct, but it does mean spending time reading their twitter feeds and paying attention to what they say during the year.
There’s not much you can do about it this year, but by next year, you should have a few good sources for horse racing tips from insider tips by following my two tips above. And if you check out the social media feeds in the next few days, you might just land on a goldmine.
Newspapers & Media
The newspapers and media (e.g. radio) can be a great place for finding tips. They can often get insider tips as they have access to the people in the know, such as the trainers and jockeys.
When choosing a reliable paper, choose bigger media publications that have a good reputation in their reporting styles.
But the best way to work out which ones are worth listening to is to take a punt on some of their predictions and see how they work out. You’ll soon get a feel for which journalists/media outlets get it right and which ones don’t.
Sometimes, it could be a particular journalist who gives good tips. In this case, pay attention to their articles/blogs/social media posts and don’t just rely on a particular media outlet.
In terms of horse racing tips, the best publications are likely to be from specialist websites and publications, such as Racing Post.
Betting Tips Websites
Numerous websites offer free online betting tips. Many people avoid these websites because they misunderstand the concept. They believe these sites are out to make money and don’t care if you win or lose; they just care about you making bets with the bookies so they can get a cut.
This is not true.
Instead, these whilst these websites DO make their money by getting a cut of your bets from the bookies, they want you to win. Otherwise, you won’t use their site again and they’ll lose money long term. In other words, it’s in their best interests to give you the best tips.
There are no guarantees, but the best sites spend a lot of time researching and analysing the form of both horses and jockeys in recent and past performances.
Final Tip
A good final tip is to gather tips from different sources and compare them. For example, if every pundit is giving the same winner, it makes a lot of sense to put money on that horse.
If there’s one or two saying that a particular horse is a…erm, dark horse…then it’s worth putting a bit of cash on that horse because they might have spotted something nobody else has. As time goes on, you’ll work out which pundits are best at making these types of predictions and you can make a tidy sum from listening to them.
Missing sports and love the slot machines? Check out our Top 10 Sports Slots blog.
1 thought on “Where to Get Your Horse Racing Tips!”