One of the most exciting races of the racing calendar takes place on Saturday the 28th of November at Newbury : The Hennessy Gold Cup. Hot favourite for the race is the well-travelled, Denman ( 2007 winner of the Hennessy Gold Cup, 2008 winner of the Cheltenham Gold Cup and runner-up in 2009 ). Although Barber Shop ( owned by The Queen ) is expected to give stiff competition to Denman.

Others worth a flutter in the Hennessy Gold Cup include My Will ( 3rd in the Grand National and 2nd at Royal Down ), Sate of Play ( 4th at the 2009 Grand National ) and What A Friend ( finished 1st at Stratford back in April ).

Heavy rain is expected at Newbury for Saturday’s Hennessy Gold Cup, which could make the going heavy and punters betting on known names that have previous for staying the course.

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The first Tuesday in November sees the richest two-mile handicap in the world take place, billed as the race that “stops a nation” it is widely known as the Melbourne Cup.

An anticipated 100,000 people will flock to Flemington Racecourse to watch the race with the remainder of Australia enjoying a bank holiday and a bet on the hopeful winner of-course.

Early betting has seen Alcopop (11-2), Viewed (6-1), Efficient (9-1) and Roman Emperor (10-1) instilled as favourites to win the Melbourne Cup.

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Glorious Goodwood’s racing highlight is undoubtedly the ‘Sussex Stakes’ which takes centre stage this Wednesday (29th July 2009). The 1 mile race for The World’s best young thoroughbreds has seen it become the biggest Goodwood betting event over the 5 day spectacle.

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Today sees the start of the 5 day meet at Royal Ascot with some cracking races, as usual, ready to be enjoyed by punters up and down the country, including Her Majesty, of course. However, it is day three, that we at the Free Bets Blog are concerned with and that oldest of Royal Ascot races, ‘The Gold Cup’.

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This Saturday (6th of June 2009) sees one of the World’s most prestigious, flat thoroughbred races take place. You might know it better as ‘The Derby‘. Much of Britain has been basking in an early June heatwave this last week but forecasters are predicting that Epsom might be under a few heavy rain clouds in the lead-up to Saturday’s big race. This talk of wet weather has seen Brian Meehan think long and hard before finally agreeing to include ‘Crowded House’.

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Most of the chat today is centered around John Gosden’s, DeBussy, ridden by jockey, Jimmy Fortune. With the track Good to Firm it favours DeBussy, who has some stiff competition from Masterofthehorse and Golden Sword in the big race today at Chester.

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The most famous steeplechase in ‘The World’, the Aintree Grand National 2009 Betting gets going this Saturday with 74 horses so far still participating. Of course as usual these horses and their riders will be pushed to the limits of enduring 4 miles of strength-sapping course plus the 30 fences they also have get over. This years favourite, My Will, is aptly named, because on this course it takes a lot of will power, to not just win the race but to complete the course itself.

We have listed the runners and their Grand National betting odds for your attention below.

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Tomorrow sees the start of the long-awaited Cheltenham Festival and the star of the day in tomorrow’s six exciting races has to be Binocular, running in the Champion Hurdle. Far and away the favourite at 13/8 with the next horse, Celestial Halo, a distant 9/1 shot, Binocular seems, to most horse racing betting fans, the obvious and sensible place to put your money. After all, the horse will be ridden by Tony McCoy, rider of more than 3000 jumps winners, who took Binocular to a spectacular victory in the Boylesport International Hurdle at Ascot.

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It’s the Cheltenham Festival next week and Tuesday through Friday produces a mouth-watering array of betting opportunities for horse racing betting fans. Although there is an abundance of top quality races during the four days of the competition, the most popular events are the Champion Hurdle, the Champion Chase, the World Hurdle and the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

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The weights for the 2009 John Smith’s Grand National have been announced and Exotic Dancer tops the list with a weighting of 11st 10lb. For those horse racing betting fans who struggle with the rationale behind the handicapping system, the harshness of such a burden will do little to enlighten them. The net result is that this great horse has now slipped to 33/1 in the betting. Of course, Denman had been expected to carry the top weight but has been withdrawn after his poor showing at Kempton a couple of weeks ago.

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