No one would have dared to call Chief Dan George and average horse – but neither was he being hailed as a particularly exciting contender. Now however, after a surprising and rather impressive win at the Cheltenham Festival, the competition may well begin to worry about the role Chief Dan George will play in the upcoming Grand National at Aintree.

After warming up with a win in the Veterans Handicap Chase at Doncaster on 24th February, Chief Dan George and regular jockey Paddy Aspell set out to have try their luck at the William Hill Trophy Handicap Chase, one of the longest and most gruelling events at the Cheltenham Festival. Trainer James Moffatt could hardly believe his eyes when his ten-year-old charge unleashed an unknown reserve of strength and stamina to race to a photo finish with race favourite The Package.

The result of the photo finish is the bay geldingís first win at the Cheltenham Festival, which seems to be just another step on the path to transformation from an ordinary and, frankly, aging jumper to a fearsome and determined contender.

Currently Chief Dan George is given 20-1 odds in the Grand National, already more positive than the 25-1 odds he proved inappropriate at Cheltenham, but considering his rapid movement up the ranks these odds may be subject to change as the event draws nearer. Especially since Chief Dan George defeated a number of contenders also aiming for this yearís Grand National on April 10th – aside from his runner-up The Package who is also set for Aintree. The William Hill Trophy also featured Niche Market (9th place), Comply Or Die (13th place) and Joe Lively (14th place), all of whom seemingly only served to put Chief Dan Georgeís achievement into perspective.

After five years on the jumping circuit Chief Dan George is finally becoming the hot topic James Moffatt has hoped for. If the experienced team of Moffatt and Aspell continue their clearly effective training methods in the next weeks, it is more than likely that Chief Dan George will be a serious threat in the upcoming Grand National.

To check out how some other potential Grand National contenders have performed at the Cheltenham Festival, visit Horse Racing UK to get the intel before they’re off.

Irish Raptor had first shown a penchant for the unique Aintree fences when leading until the second from home before fading into seventh in the 2007 Topham Chase. In a tremendous finish to the 2008 renewal Twiston Davies’ charge went down with all guns blazing when failing by only a neck to peg back the gambled-on Gwanako, but 12 months later got his just reward for tremendous consistency at Aintree when holding on gamely to beat Ireland’s Oodachee by a couple of lengths.

Some 2010 grand national entries just seem to be tailor-made for the Merseyside challenge and having raced five times in one lap events at Aintree (he also finished 6th in the 2008 Becher Chase before coming a cropper at the second fence in the same event 12 months later) Irish Raptor has shown that, particularly in April and on a decent surface, he is a serious threat to any horse at Aintree.

A proven stayer who has won at tough tracks like Sandown and Cheltenham over distances in excess of three miles, the 11-year-old has this year been prepared with the Grand National as his principal target. Twiston-Davies knows exactly what is required to win the day and at around 40/1 in the ante-post market there are good reasons for believing that Irish Raptor will give supporters a great run for their money.

The handicapper has allotted Irish Raptor 10st 7lbs, a perfect racing mark, but a figure that will mean that at least 20 horses above the Zaffaran gelding in the weights will have to drop out to give him a shot at Aintree glory. I believe there is every chance that they will and ‘NTD’s’ grand sort will make the starting line-up on for the 2010 Grand National.

We couldn’t find a picture of the Fontwell incident but here’s one from Australia, remember that action like this can void at race result, so even if you escape injury from the horses, the crowd will probably lynch you!

Here’s how the calculator works…

1. Enter your Stake (Example 5.00 don’t use $ or £ symbols), then enter the back odds and the lay odds.
2. Choose whether you have already Backed and now wish to Lay or already Layed and now wish to Back.
3. Click on and move the grey slider pointer along the line where you see 20%, 30%, 40% etc.
4. The output shows the amount you need to stake to either cover your Liability, or your Liability and all of your potential profits.

It’s also worth noting that if your horse doesn’t win but is placed (usually 2nd, 3rd) you will only get 1/4 or 1/5 of the quoted odds. Which means you shouldn’t back a horse each way unless it’s odds are over 5-1, because you could never win enough to cover your original stake at odds of 5-1 or shorter.

You can back ‘Each Way’ with all online bookmakers, if you want to know how to fill in a betting slip for an each way bet you can click the small thumbnail in this paragraph. It shows you the correct way to fill in the bookmakers slip for each way betting.

Remember that an each way bet is actually made up of two bets, so if you bet £5 each way, your total bet cost will be £10 (£5 on the win and £5 on the place)

The idea is that you don’t just back winners but you also ‘Lay’ losers. For example, if you decide to lay a horse in a race you are, in theory, backing that horse to lose the race. Statistically this makes far more sense, in a six horse race there can only be one winner so the chances of picking a loser are far great than your chances of backing a winner.

Here’s an example: You look in the sporting post and see that a real donkey is running in the 3.30 at Newmarket, you login to Betfair, click the tab for Horse Racing, find the Newmarket race, you then see all the runners in the 3.30, next to the horse that you think has got no chance of winning you’ll see two buttons, one to back and one to lay (bet against it winning) you click the lay button, enter your stake and Betfair automatically matches you with another person who thinks this donkey is gonna romp home in style.

If that donkey goes onto win ;-( you pay out his winnings at the odds you’ve agreed and if the horse loses you get to keep the other guys original stake. Simple! You can do the same with football matches also, If you think your team are going to beat Arsenal, then why not ‘Lay’ Arsenal instead of backing your team. By laying Arsenal you’ll still win your bet even if the match ends in a draw!

Free £25 Bet Offer From Betfair
Sign up with Betfair, deposit cash and make a bet up to the value of £25, if the result of your first bet is a loss, your Betfair account will be credited with the free bet up to a value of £25.

Betfair is a brilliant site and if you can get your head around it then you are most definitely on to a winner. The site is clear and easy to navigate around and registration for an account won’t take more than a few minutes. And if you thought Betfair only catered for the horses then you’d be wrong. There is a whole host of games that can have a bet on including Cricket, Rugby, Baseball and Greyhound racing to name but a few.

Betfair has a number of sections designed to help new players along including demo’s and free practise screens so you can really try it out before risking any funds. The site is fun and more importantly very profitable if you give it a try!

So what are the major differences between betting with Tote or betting with a traditional bookmakers? Quite simply the tote is a big pool of cash from all the bets taken on a specific race, the winners are then paid out from this pool of cash. This can sometimes get much higher payout’s from Tote pools than you’d get from a traditional bookmakers, especially if you’re backing outsiders. On the downside you can also get less money if you’re backing heavy fancied favorites.

Free £60 Bet From Tote

• Stake £10 or more on an event of your choice and Tote will credit your account with your first free bet of equal value up to a maximum of £20
• Place 5 further bets (minimum stake £10) and Tote will give you a second free bet to the value of your lowest stake (up to £20)
• Place 5 further bets (minimum stake £10) and Tote will give you a third free bet to the value of your lowest stake (up to £20)
• You can check out the full terms and conditions at Totesport online. This is a time limit offer so check before you sign up

Today the Tote is still funding much of Britain’s racing, by choosing to bet with totesport you are helping to support British racing. Over the past 3 years, Tote have put an average of £20 million per year back into horse racing. If you care about horse racing (and you should!) you couldn’t find a better bookmaker to have a flutter with.

The Tote is famous for it’s speciality bets which can have massive jackpots, a ‘Totetrifecta’ is where you try to predict the 1st, 2nd and 3rd horse in a race in the correct order. Even a small stake on a bet like this can lead to a big windfall. There’s also the Tote Scoop6 which is the main totepool bet each Saturday, just pick the winner in each of the selected races to bag the Scoop6 jackpot, the Minimum bet is £2 and the prize fund can reach over £4 million!