Race Favourites and Odds Ahead of the 2021 Irish Champion Stakes

by ⋅ Leave a Comment

Race Favourites and Odds Ahead of the 2021 Irish Champion Stakes There’s a packed card at Leopardstown on Saturday September 11. The feature race is the Group 1 Irish Champions Stakes run over a mile and two furlongs with the going forecasted to be Good to Firm.

This is a race for horses aged three years and over, with the first home winning €570,000. It’s due to start at 2.45pm with some lucrative sign up offers by UK horse racing betting sites. William Hill offers free bets to all new accounts during this race.

The past two years has seen this race run by the Aidan O’Brien trained Magical. No hat-trick is possible as that runner has now retired though the trainer might get one.

Who will win the 2021 Irish Champion Stakes? Three-year-old St Marks Basilica is the 6/4 favourite and is the top contender for Aidan O’Brien. All three of his races have been won this year. After winning the Dewhurst Stakes as a two-year-old, 2021 began with success in a Group 3 success at Longchamp.

June saw another win in France, this time in Chantilly. This time it was the Group 1 Qatar Prix du Jockey Club that was landed, and it was over a mile and two furlongs. St Marks Basilica returned to England in July to win the Group 1 Coral Eclipse at Sandown again over a mile and two furlongs. This will be his first race on Good to Firm going but it’s going to take a supreme effort to deny him victory according to The Sun.

The second favourite is the five-year-old Tarnawa, trained by Dermot Weld. This contender is available at 2/1 and is bidding to win a sixth successive race. Only one of those has been this year though. Tarnawa won the Group 3 Grant Thornton Ballyroan Stakes at Leopardstown but was upset before the race and unseated his jockey, Colin Keane. Once settled down, Tarnawa justified odds of 1/2 and won by six and a half lengths, after being off the course for 271 days.

Notable wins last year were the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Turf, when beating Magical. That followed two Group 1 and one Group 3 races in an extremely productive 2020. Tarnawa has to give the favourite 3lbs, so it’ll take a mighty effort to win another Group 1 race.

Poetic Flare is 7/2 and the next odds after that are 10/1, so bookies clearly see this as a three-horse race. This Jim Bolger runner and is aged three years. It’s been a busy year, and this is Poetic Flare’s eighth race of 2021, informs nagshead.co.uk.

Three of them have been won, most famously the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket on the first day of May. Later that month the classic winning horse went to Longchamp and finished sixth behind St Marks Basilica. After just failing to win the Irish 2000 Guineas, Poetic Flare was then a four length winner of the Group 1 St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot.

His last two races have both seen him finish second in Group 1 races, most recently behind Palace Pier at Deauville on August 15.

Last years’ Oaks winner is also in this race. Love is aged four now and has to give 3lbs to both St Marks Basilica and Poetic Flare. This Aidan O’Brien runner has finished third in her last two races but drops back to a mile and two furlongs here. Last time when running over that distance, Love won the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot this year. With odds of 10/1 a place in this race might well be possible.

 

NFT Racehorses Explained

by ⋅ Leave a Comment

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are here to stay. Once an abstract concept, NFTs now permeate music, art, and sports. The rise of crypto technology has made it possible to buy, breed, and virtual racehorses. Those horses cost real money, and some of them can reach quite impressive sums. Learn more about this new and promising trend in this article.

NFT Racehorses Explained

Understanding the Concept

NFT is a kind of digital asset stored on a blockchain, ensuring this asset is unique. Blockchain technology also guarantees proof of ownership for every NFT. Recently, The Burned Picasso project has turned one of the master’s works into an NFT. Afterwards, the original burned in a stunt.

The main point behind the project was that Picasso’s works could live forever unchanged as NFTs. The concept of the digital asset has migrated to other fields, and horse racing seems to be a hot trend. Through a platform called Zed, people can buy digital horses, breed them and train them.

Once you’ve worked your stallion to a competitive level, it’s time to try it out. Digital horses don’t get tired, so races are going around the clock, 24/7. It’s even gone so far as being open for gambling enthusiasts to wager on their favourite horse on platforms such as NetBet.

A Multi-Million Dollars Market

Digital horse racing is gaining traction and attracting jaw-dropping investments. Investors are willing to pay as much as €100,000 for breeding horses online. Never-stopping races have also created a gambling market for enthusiasts. Transactions are usually made in Ethereum, being Bitcoin a second option.

Digital Breeds

Breeding a champion is a complex and expensive process. Horses can be bred or bought according to their bloodlines. There are 4,000 original bloodlines and countless variations of them.

The first and most costly ‘generation’ of those lines counts 38,000 horses. People also buy and resell those horses in a secondary market. Top-race awards can reach six figures, while smaller ones will return only a few bucks.

Hall of Fame

Zed platform already has a few successful cases. Pinkman’s won over 12.5 ETH (32,600 USD), while Steph Curry’s brought home 11.8 ETH (30,800 USD). Horses like Pinkman and Steph Curry can breed three times a month and charge for it. A mare can breed only once in the same period.

NFT Racehorses Explained

Controversies

Digital horse racing is incredibly famous among crypto enthusiasts. It’s an environment where cryptos are more than welcome, after all. Here are the main points for and against NFT horse racing.

No Animal Suffering Involved

Fans and investors defend that digital breeding and racing can potentially end animal suffering in this sport. Because no animal is involved, races can happen all day long. The breeding process is incredibly realistic, and users can be sure to own a truly unique item.

Environmental Impact

Cryptocurrencies aren’t generated for free. An NFT transaction in Ethereum can consume up to 8.7 megawatts/hour. Comparatively, it’s more than double an average British household consumption in one year. The pressure for a ‘green cryptocurrency’ is rising, but there’s no release date at sight.

Conclusion

NFT Racehorses Explained

NFT horses have been attracting fans and investors lately. Some companies and startups are investing in full ‘stables’, up for breeding and reselling. Still, there’s space for those after a hobby, esports betting, or simply watching the race.

Race Favourites Ahead of the Cazoo May Hill Stakes

by ⋅ Leave a Comment

We can all look forward to some excellent racing at Doncaster this week. On Thursday September 9, it’s the Cazoo May Hill Stakes with Inspiral the hot favourite to win this Group 2 race. It’s a race for two-year-olds, run over a straight mile and the forecast going is Good to Firm as the UK finally enjoys some good weather.

According to DailyMail, the winner of this race will receive £63,799 in prize money. Last year, the May Hill Stakes was won by Indigo Girl, trained by John Gosden. Who will be the winner in 2021 and will we see a future Classic winner?

It is possible that may well be the case. Inspiral is the current 12/1 favourite to win the 1000 Guineas next year and 16/1 to win the Oaks. A win in this race will see those odds shorten, so it might be worth taking them now.

Inspiral is trained by John and Thany Gosden and has won both of her races this year. June saw a first win for Inspiral in a Class 4 race run on Good to Firm ground. That was followed by a move up to Listed race company at Sandown. Inspiral ran out a three-and-a-half length win over Wild Beauty (second in a Group 3 race since) over seven furlongs.

The filly went clear in the final 110 yards, so getting an extra furlong isn’t looking like it will cause Inspiral any problems at all. You can get odds of 4/6 at present on Inspiral winning this Group 2 contest reports horse.bet.

The main opposition to the favourite is the Joseph Patrick O’Brien trained Albula. It was only last month when this runner made its racecourse debut at Naas That was on good ground and over a mile with no problem getting the distance. Such a good debut wasn’t expected by racing experts as Albula went off at 12/1 that day.

Albula then raced in the Group 3 Manguard Plus Irish EBF Flame Of Tara Stakes at The Curragh on August 21 on good ground. The odds-on favourite was two lengths clear going into the final furlong but couldn’t stay ahead of Magical Lagoon and finished second. At 11/2 for this May Hill Stakes, Albula may well finish second behind Inspiral as long as the ground isn’t too fast for this runner.

Andrew Balding runs the third favourite, Speak. This runner has only had one race to date, and it was a Class 4 event on the all-weather at Kempton last month. Speak finished a length-and-a-half clear of Natasha and proved that staying a mile is not a problem. nagshead.co.uk

This is a big step up in class for Speak. We also have to take into account that debut race was on Standard to Slow ground on the all-weather. How will Speak cope now racing on Good to Firm ground on turf in a Group 2 race? With horse racing betting apps you can get 8/1 on this runner and that can be a good bet both ways.

Others to consider include Wild Beauty at 12/1 but has a lot to find on the favourite having been beaten at Sandown. The extra furlong may bring some further improvement. Another contender is Seisai who was fourth in a recent Group 2 race. That was on soft ground, how will the filly (available at 8/1) fare on Good to Firm?