There are headlines in all the racing pages of the national press giving the name of the supposed winner. Every expert on the staff of the Racing Post seems to have their own ideas and more often than not they are all different.
This is not at all surprising if you consider who is actually sponsoring these races. It is obvious when the conditions of the race are framed they are hardly likely to prove punter friendly.
These Saturday handicaps because of the size of the prize money usually attract a relatively large field which makes selection even more difficult. It can be best to avoid any race as a betting option if it has a large field. On the flat it can lead to fancied horses finding their paths blocked at a vital stage of the race and in national hunt races fancied horses can get brought down at fences by other fallers.
The effectiveness or otherwise of the jockey can have a major effect on whether a horse can win or not. You only have to watch the likes of Tony McCoy or Ryan Moore to realise how important this can be. Therefore, it can be wise to steer clear of both apprentice and amateur rider's races.
Another notoriously difficult type of race to predict the result of are low grade all weather races. Here it seems it is the same horses racing against each other week after week and a different winner coming with each race. This may be a bit of a generalisation but it is not far from the truth.
