How to bet on horse racing

Styled as the World Championships of horse racing, the Breeders’ Cup takes place each November at one of the most prestigious tracks in the US.

Horses from all corners of the racing globe assemble to compete in 14 races over two days, each of which carries a purse of $1 million or more.

With such a superb standard of racing on offer, the Breeders’ Cup generates enormous betting interest and turnover from enthusiasts around the globe.

Belmont Park in New York is one of the most historic racetracks in the US and a fitting stage for this race, the final stage in the Triple Crown. Only 13 horses have completed the prestigious treble. The most recent of them was Justify, who triumphed in 2018.

Secretariat set the fastest time for the mile-and-a-half test as he rounded off his Triple Crown win by an astonishing 31 lengths in 1973.

The fact that the Triple Crown is not won very often adds to the allure and intrigue of the Belmont Stakes, which attracts interest from horse racing bettors around the world.

The greatest steeplechase in the world, bar none. The history of this astonishing spectacle dates back to the 1830s and includes some of the best racehorses who ever lived.

The Grand National serves up a testing challenge and a unique sight of horses dueling over Aintree’s famous green fences for more than four miles.

From Golden Miller to Red Rum to Tiger Roll, people all over the world know the names of the great winners of a race that sparks gigantic betting interest each year. It is now the centerpiece of a glittering three-day Grand National festival that is one of the highlights of the British jump racing calendar.

The biggest four days on the calendar for jump racing fans. The Festival is the ultimate target for owners and trainers of the best jumps horses in the world.

Thousands flock from across the United Kingdom and Ireland to Gloucestershire for four days of incessant quality and compelling action. The Champion Hurdle is the highlight of the opening Tuesday, with the following two days lit up by the Champion Chase and the Stayers’ Hurdle.

The climax of a meeting that attracts stupendous amounts of horse racing bets is the Cheltenham Gold Cup, the winner of which is guaranteed a lifelong place in racing folklore.

This is where history and pageantry combine for five days of the finest flat racing the UK has to offer each summer.

Royal Ascot has been staged for well over 300 years and benefits from the support of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. She attends every day of the meeting, thus maintaining a link between the crown and the turf that dates back even longer.

At the heart of an event that attracts huge crowds dressed up in their finery is a series of superb races that attract the best horses from Europe, the US and beyond. Those races generate more than $200 million in betting turnover across the five days.

Few meetings merit their descriptions more than Glorious Goodwood. Across five summer days packed with quality races, great horses race in a spectacular setting atop the Sussex downs in the south-east of England.

Sun-drenched crowds flock to Goodwood in late July to watch a series of fabulous, top-class action in this amazingly scenic location. The course itself is undulating and idiosyncratic, which makes it valuable to assess the form of horses on previous visits.

Huge amounts are staked on outstanding races like the Goodwood Cup and the Stewards’ Cup as the action is played out at one of the highlights of the British sporting summer.

The eyes of the racing world are drawn to Australia on the first Tuesday in November. That’s when Flemington racecourse, just outside Melbourne, stages the richest two-mile handicap in the world.

Known as “the race that stops a nation”, the Melbourne Cup has long commanded the attention of people across Australia. The efforts of owners and trainers of quality horses across the world have given this fabulous event the global profile that it enjoys today.

The Cup is part of a Spring Carnival of racing in Melbourne, but more than $100 million is staked on this single race in Australia and beyond.

The Arc, as it is known to European race fans, is the richest race run on the continent each year.

Staged at Longchamp on the outskirts of Paris, the contest brings together the very best horses over a mile-and-a-half.

Some of the most famous horses ever to tread the turf have triumphed in Paris since the race was first run in 1920. They include Sea Bird, Mill Reef, Dancing Brave and the most recent dual winner, the amazing mare Enable.

Each year the Arc attracts a huge volume of betting as fans try to pick Europe’s supreme middle-distance horse.

A 9-furlong dirt race for three-year-olds, the Arkansas Derby takes place at Oaklawn Park. With a $1 million purse for the event, the Grade 1 race attracts some of the best horses in the country. The race's most famous winner is American Pharoah, who added the Rebel and Kentucky Derby to his trophy cabinet to complete the Triple Crown in 2015.

The Travers Stakes is an American Grade 1 race for three-year-olds that takes place at Saratoga Racecourse, New York. Known as the 'Mid-Summer Derby', the race was first held in 1864 and is the oldest stakes race in the US. A marquee meeting, it is third biggest race for three-year-olds on the calendar after the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes.