Vaguely Noble has the distinction of being the joint-third highest rated horse – alongside Brigadier Gerard, and inferior to only Frankel and Sea-Bird – to race on the Flat in the post-war era, according to Timeform. Bred, and originally owned, by Major Lionel Brook Holliday, but subsequently inherited by his son, Lionel Brook Jnr., Vaguely Noble was trained privately, by Walter Wharton in Newmarket, in the early part of his career.

Vaguely Noble raced four times as a juvenile, winning twice. His most notable success as a two-year-old came in the Observer Gold Cup – now the Vertem Futurity Trophy – at Doncaster, where he sluiced through the mud to win by seven lengths. Horse racing odds would have been no measure of the determination shown that day. However, at the end of his two-year-old campaign he was sold for an eye-watering 136,000 guineas – at the time, a world record for any thoroughbred at auction – to American owners Nelson Bunker Hunt and Wilma Franklyn.

After a brief spell in Ireland with Paddy ‘Darkie’ Prendergast, Vaguely Noble was transferred to Chantilly-based trainer Etienne Pollet. During his three-year-old campaign in France, Vaguely Noble won four of his five starts. He won the Group Three Prix de Guiche, over 1,800 metres, at Chantilly, before stepping up in distance to win the Group Three Prix du Lys at Longchamp and the Group Two Grand Prix de Chantilly, both over 2,400 metres.

However, the best was yet to come from the Vienna colt; sent off favourite for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp, Vaguely Noble raced prominently throughout, took the lead with a quarter-of-a-mile to run and galloped on resolutely to beat the Derby winner, Sir Ivor, by three lengths. In so doing, he became a third winner of the Longchamp showpiece for Etienne Pollet, after La Sorellina in 1953 and Sea Bird in 1965. All told, Vaguely Noble won six of his nine races, never finished outside the first three and earned just over £287,000 in total prize money.

Every week, millions of football accumulator bets are placed across various bookmaker websites, with customers picking out their selections and combining them in a multiple before waiting to see if each leg is settled as a winner.

While a lot of punters like to choose different football teams for their accumulator, our acca tips don’t just focus on the Full-Time Result betting market where you simply choose the home team, draw or away team when making a selection.

We might alternatively choose a football betting market such as Over/Under 2.5 Goals, especially if we have a stronger view on the number of goals that will be scored in the match rather than the actual outcome at the full-time whistle.

Our football acca tips often focus on the Both Teams to Score market and that’s particularly because this is a simple two-way betting market which simply involves choosing either “Yes” or “No” for a particular match.

BTTS is great because you’re not even worried about the number of goals being scored in the match, let alone whether a particular team is going to win or not. You either choose “Yes” and want both teams to score or “No” and cheer on at least one team drawing a blank.

Don’t Pick Too Many Football Acca Selections

Many betting customers fall into the trap of getting greedy with their football accumulator picks. Ideally, your accumulator should have between 4-6 selections depending on the odds for each leg. If you’re picking four even money shots, then you might not want to boost your acca any further, although going for big odds-on favourites might mean you need more legs to get a satisfactory price.

Our acca tips would normally go for five picks and it’s sometimes the case that we might mix and match the different football markets. For example, we might choose Liverpool to win but also Over 2.5 Goals in the Manchester derby. There’s also the opportunity to combine selections from different football leagues.

Indeed, a popular European football accumulator might feature leading teams such as Manchester City, Liverpool, Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Juventus. However, some punters prefer to do an accumulator which focuses on games happening the same day. That means that you will have your bet settled as a winner or a loser.