The theory behind the science of betting on the Grand National will be as it always is; mentally and physically impossible to work out. It’s the one event in the horse racing calendar that due to such an open field (sometimes of 40+ horses) can throw up the most unlikely - and unpredictable - winner come 4.30pm on Saturday.
Of course, pundits, bookies, hardened gamblers et al will try to convince the rest of us mere mortals looking to place that all important Grand National free bet otherwise, citing the choosing of the eventual winner to be something of an exacting art. However to the majority of once-a-year punters (who never normally darken the door of a high street bookmakers from one years end to another) digging into their slacks and rooting around for a handful of change, it’s all to do with sheer luck and good fortune more than anything remotely bordering on - or labouring under the pretence of - science or mathematics.
Largely referred to as the ‘Housewife’s race’; the headline glitz and glamour flagged up across most of the mass media with regards the annual Grand National affords those who would seldom feign interest whatsoever in the form guide of over 30 hopeful jump-primed horses the opportunity to inject a bit of excitement into their Saturday afternoon should they be at work, rest or play. Whilst a painfully elaborate selection process is crucial to those with a daily 9 - 5 penchant for all things sportingly equine, the remainder of society drawn to the event deploy far less measured applicative nous to whittling our choices down to the single one or two hopefuls on which to place our Grand National free bet.
And lest we forget the poor saps who have the perceived hard work done for them by way of the office sweep; which effectively doles out a random name on a piece of paper from the confines of a hat. Or tombola. Or whatever other cylindrical object that’s brought out of mothballs for the late March/early April occasion in office/factory spaces countrywide.
Online bookmakers do suggest alternative ways to make your selection leading up to the big day, and offer all manner of 2009 Grand National free bet ’specials’ in which to tempt the uneducated. Leading online bookmaker, Paddy Power have a number of betting variations on a Grand National theme to harmlessly rope the uninitiated ‘high day and holiday’ punter in with. Based on such almost contrived outcomes as ‘the winning horse to have been trained in Ireland’ or ’such and such a jockey to ride the winner’ - which is pure fantasy guess-timation if it’s deliberated over prior to the jockey actually having been allocated a saddle. All in all though, these more random Grand National free bets considerations make an interesting proposition to those like myself, without a clue.
Elsewhere you could just as easily wager on the probability of all the runners to clear the first jump safely, whilst some may want to put their money - and their faith - on the owner/trainer. That’s to say the odds of a J P McManus-owned winner coming through on Saturday, which at 8-1 with Paddy Power makes for a decent flutter according to insiders.
My very own personal betting odyssey - misguided and ill-fated for the most part - was spawned from a Grand National of yore; whereby thanks to the fickle laws of fate I somehow managed to pick the victorious winner based on a complex methodology harnessing the twin powers of colours and words like so many before and after. Having not the foggiest of idea what I was embarking on - despite benefiting from a gambling-hardened grandfather figure when of youth - I opted for the tried and tested route of determining the potential Grand National winner.
So after choosing a rather eloquent horses name (yet with underlying humorous connotations and effective use of wordplay) and fusing said runner with jockey’s delightful colours I placed my bet with the local bookmaker and settled in front of the box like millions of fellow dreamers nationwide on a random weekend back in the day. A couple of hours later I was 35 quid the richer for my endeavours, and in a blink came to the conclusion that I was indeed a ‘natural’ at this betting lark and therefore I didn’t have to rely on my budding Graphic Design career for future fame and fortune.
Quickly believing that I would soon be able to fund a lavish lifestyle - well, for an impoverished student surviving on a diet of corned beef hash - I set about identifying the coming week’s winners at all manner of exciting sounding locations steeped in glamour. Far away places that conjured up a sense of style and sophistication like Wincanton garnered my attentions like never before as my folly gained momentum.
Sincerely feeling I had hit on a ‘knack’ of picking winners based solely on the cut of a jockey’s jib and/or the more prosaic of a horses name I continued to amount what seemed like a small fortune; planning expensive weekend breaks away, a new(er) car and wardrobe revision. Life was good. Trainers tips, yard/stable statistics and widespread recorded form guides held no relevance to my bid for glory put it that way.
Three weeks, and two-thirds of that term’s student grant later, I realised the error of my ways. Sadly my bank manager wasn’t as understanding as I thought he should be in light of the situation and therein my dalliance with hardcore betting came to a rather abrupt and unceremonious end, complete with tears and tantrums.
For most of us on Saturday though, a fiver down the swanney won’t spell the catalyst for a spiral of ridicule, debt, parental ostracising and social exclusion, and instead amount to little more than standing the price of a round at your local drinking establishment as a means to celebrate/drown your sorrows. And so you’ll pick yourself up and move on; awaiting another 364 days to pass before you relent to the dark side once more. Or the pink top with the royal blue vertically-imprinted sash side as the case may be.
Stella Stevens looks at the pros and cons of Free Bets ahead of the Grand National. For more information please visit http://www.freebettingonline.co.uk
The only thing that’s predictable about the outcome of the John Smith’s Grand National is its unpredictability. In fact that’s a dead cert. OK, if you’re talking about picking the out-and-out winner, then by and large at least one of the pre-race favourites of recent years has emerged victorious and piped a rank outsider to the finishing post to save its blushes and those of its rider, trainer, owner and legion of teeth-pulling backers at the eleventh hour. All of which of course adds to the rollercoaster ride that’s part and parcel of the Grand National betting landscape.
But unless you’ve; A) Got a serious wad of the folding stuff at your disposal to make placing a bet on a 4-1 favourite on the day worthwhile, B) Made your prediction two months in advance when the odds for all horses were stratospherically beneficial or C) I’m sure I’ll think of one, then you’d be urged to place what you can afford on a nice, safe each way bet on a mid-priced nag. Not one that’s two (small) jumps away from the glue factory I hasten to add, but an example with a more realistic chance of coming up trumps and crossing the line with its mount. They’re often referred to as the ‘housewives favourite’ and have been dabbed either because the horses’ name/number/colour or the jockey’s name/coloured britches appealed to the once-yearly punter looking for a bit of good, clean Grand National betting fun.
It’s a difficult art to attempt to exact, so instead of concentrating on which horse/jockey combo stands an outside chance on Saturday, the best policy might be to eliminate those that wont be in the running, which isn’t quite as awkward or laborious to master if you decide to follow the tips and rudimentary pointers addressed in the following paragraph.
Like for instance the underlying fact that at least one horse with a starting price of 33-1 or better has found itself in the each way placings seven times in the past nine years if you note Grand National betting annals; the receipt of this knowledge inspiring me to pen this article in the first place. For those of a keen memory, you might recall 1995 saw 40-1 shot Royal Athlete shame the entire field and landing the title.
Again though, from an each way bet perspective, only two horses offering enticing odds of 40-1 from the outset or greater ended up in the top four, whilst only one mount of 33-1 or longer has come through the placings since 2006. overall, and peering into the pantheons of Grand National history, and there have been just the four recorded instances whereby eventual winners of the most fabled race in the national hunt calendar started out at 100-1; the last of which dated back to 1967 and a horse going by the name of Foinavon.
If you’re a firm believer that with age comes the pre-requisitional experience to perform well in the world’s most famous steeplechase, you’ll no doubt nod your head in a sage-like manner when learning that just three eight year old horses have won the Grand National since 1974; those being Corbiere in 1983, Party Politics in 1992 and most recently, Bindaree in 2002. So therefore by adopting this theory you avoid risking your bounty on Battlecry, Nine De Sivola, Flintoff and Nozic this time around.
That said, it doesn’t necessarily pay to bet your bottom dollar on the aged rolling back the years in a blotchy-eyes nostalgia-fest, as just two of the past thirteen Grand National winners have been eleven or older. Meaning those of mature years must have to be made of the right stuff regardless to cut the mustard. Sadly King Harald, Knowhere and Silver Birch aren’t.
Also worth bearing in mind is that you’d have to travel back in time to 1951 if you to witness a mare being crowned a Grand National winner, with Nickel Coin the last to record the honour. Neither Musica Bella nor Pomme Tiepy are likely to bring this run of form to an end according to tipsters.
Horses from the Principality haven’t exactly hit on a winning formula yet either, and can hardly be accused of being in the Irish league when it comes to going the distance on a regular basis. It’s six years since a ride well placed in the Welsh National has finished in the top four at Aintree, in the guise of Gunner Welburn. The 2009 Grand National won’t be the Promised Land for this year’s primary Welsh entrant, Cornish Sett if the pundits have done their research correctly.
Finally, if you’re considering an altogether different wager, you might be interested to discover that thirteen is the average number of finishers in the last decade of Grand Nationals, with history further testifying that on just the one occasion in the last twelve years have over half the field completed the full course.
So there you have some alternative viewpoints to whet your appetite before you decide where you want to flash your cash. Whatever you settle on, the best of British. Or Irish probably if you’re a betting man.
Stella Stevens has been regularly commenting on the Grand National horse racing betting scene for several years.
Grand National betting finds itself on the back hooves this Friday as Ladies Day lays siege to the Aintree home of the world’s most famous steeplechase meet that takes place a day later. Horses, jockeys, trainers and owners are of only a fleeting interest to the race-going/champagne-quaffing punters who converge on the Aintree course for Ladies Day, the Friday of the Grand National meeting, as the fashion stakes replace the betting stakes at the top of the agenda and public’s conscience. Grabbing as much front page column inches as the big race itself does barely a day later, the habitual Grand National betting melee takes a respite for the day as the famous course is invaded by all that’s bright and beautiful, and creatures great and small.
To a man who’s known to have been around the town, there’s no finer sight on a Friday night out in Liverpool than its infamous painted ladies strutting their stuff and generally revelling in one occasion or another. But this Friday and the celebration will be a 24 hour event that will in part be broadcast live across our TV-adled nation as the 2009 John Smith’s Grand National flings open its doors for its traditional Ladies Day spectacle. And what a spectacle it will be.
Descending on the historic Haydock racecourse in Aintree in their droves will be a gaggle of womenfolk sporting a dazzling array of extrovert plumage as far as the eye can see. And that’s extrovert prior to the champagne corks being popped and the day’s racing events getting under way. As you’re probably aware proudly scouse girls (un) naturally stand out from a crowd at the best of times, courtesy of their colourful markings that rely heavily on a readily available product that blurts out of a spray can that they never let out of their sight.
Predominantly orange in hue and saturation, their visage is offset on Ladies Day by what can best be described as flamboyant outfits that leave little to the imagination. Not simply in terms of an often distinct lack of material being utilised but the brave colours that the wearers somehow seem to think compliment one another.
Copiously-proportioned headgear - be it an easily - mistaken novelty hat or preposterous be-decked fascinator - are par for the course too and are donned primarily to up the ante in the fashion stakes as ladies attempt to out-do one another.
Billed as the North West social event of the year, the ironically-named Ladies Day is the one time that Liverpool’s occasionally style-bereft ladies of leisure can throw even more/less fashion caution to the wind and re-enact the Mad Hatters Tea Party. Fancy dress aside, Ladies Day at Aintree is almost viewed as the unofficial Scouse Bank Holiday, and brings about a mixed response from the traditionally more mute-attired race-goers in the 50,000 strong crowd gathered at Haydock. In essence the same sort of ladies outing as witnessed at its marginally grander summer equivalent at Royal Ascot, the Friday tradition is greeted with looks ranging from the curious to the downright perplexed.
Still, all the local glitterati and celebs are out in force, and for every Victoria Beckham there’s a host of Chanelle Hayes’ biding for their moment in the Liverpool Echo flashbulb. Of course, in reality Posh Spice as far as I know hasn’t blessed the annual WAG parade with her fashionable presence, instead leaving the footballers wives representation to be addressed by the slightly less A-list posturing likes of Coleen McLoughlin/Rooney and Alex Curran, who still amass their own wannabees to boot.
Quick to seize on the endless marketing possibilities provided by such a clientele turning up and out for the day’s races, Aintree now stages a ‘Looking Good’ fashion contest, with a first prize of a luxury car for the lady deemed the most, well, fashionable I guess. Over 700 entries are usually received for this side show, with those putting themselves forward ranging from the usual perma-tanned suspects to the occasional men dressed as women adding a little cheeky humour that is never a million miles away in these parts.
Once the day’s racing activities draw to a close, the partying hard female contingent normally head back down to the city centre and its myriad of hospitably drinking venues to continue the atmosphere long into the night with all the razzamatazz that only Liverpool can generate.
Stella Stevens is a writer and correspondent for Free Betting Online. Grand National Betting Tips and Special Offers.
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Moreover, poker on internet suits to be the best especially for the beginners because of the collaborative tutorials that it provides. Besides this, online mode of poker, aids in prevention of the public humiliation, relevant in the land based ones because of the misinterpretation of the rules and procedures of the game, and the system of attitude in it.
Why is it best for Beginners? It is not tough to answer this question as internet poker offers a good number of benefits over the regular poker that make it best for the beginners to start with.
This stands to be the principal advantage of the online version of the game. You don’t have to travel long distances and spend an extra hour for playing a meager game. You can give a start to the game at anytime and anywhere simply by downloading an poker software and creating an account of yours. To entice new players in the game, there are a number of poker sites that offer you a good amount just for downloading the software and creating an account with that. As you start up, they provide you with better and easier rules so that it is easier for to interpret the game and earn more as you play it. Bonus!!!
The online mode of the game offers you with better rules than the regular one to understand and obey. Since online poker does not attribute to the requirement of gaining more and more to cope up, you would find a better array of rules and procedures in the game to follow and start up with.
You find any sort of commotion unlike in the real ones, which create a hustle-bustle in the game and divert your mind. To understand the rules in the game, it is important that you concentrate well if you are a beginner. Since, you are online at home or at a place you wish, you can peacefully, understand the set of rules in the game and start up your play. The dealer in an internet poker, is the software itself, hence, you do not need to spend an extra penny in tipping them.
So, if these simple points are considered wisely, you can actually turn out to be a pro in poker games.
Anand is a gaming lover for Online Poker Sites & Online Poker Sites for US Players visit: http://www.playingpokerusa.com/
Online casino gambling has become a fixture in many peoples lives, both for fun and money. One of the most popular games of online casino gambling is playing online casino slots. Playing slots online is just the same as playing slots at a regular casino, except you are on a computer rather than a real machine. The disadvantage to this is that you will not be able to know for sure whether or not the game has been rigged. Assuming that they are not rigged, you can win big and have fun at the same time.
What You Need To Know
The biggest concern for many online casino slot players is whether or not the site has rigged the game in their favor. This is a risk most online casino gamblers take, but there are reputable sites you go to that are legitimate and fun. When you begin to enter the online casino gambling world, your best bet is to research any online casino site when you plan on playing with money. If you choose to join a free online casino slot site, it really isnt a problem.
Tips For Playing Slots
When you first start out as an online casino slot player, do not play for money unless you are willing to accept the fact that you will not win right up front. It is always best to get a feel of online casino slots by trying out one of the many free online casinos.
Look for the games with the highest payouts, which are usual the $1 and up games. Penny and nickel slots are extremely popular, but they do not offer high payouts for what you put in. You will be able to get more in return when you play these online casino slots.
Another key tip is placing maximum bets when playing online casino slots. You will have a better chance of winning the higher payout. The only thing to remember here is your budget, so try placing the maximum your budget will afford.
This brings us to our next tip, knowing when to stop. Gambling is highly addictive, so having self discipline is a must. Online casino slots tend to be the most addictive as it is easy to just keep going. Pay attention to how much you are spending and getting in return.
With online casino slots, finding the loose slots may not be necessary as it is computer generated. So do not look for a game that has been played a lot without a payout, as it does not apply to the digital world.
Online casino slot machines are fun and entertaining to play. It is best to keep a strict budget and follow it to ensure you do not go over your financial capabilities. If you are looking to just have fun, try playing the free casino sites as you will not lose any money. If a gambling problem arises it is best to get help so that you do not make it a hazardous habit.
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