The UK’s Best Horse Racing Events

Todayville Content Team

Published

3 years ago

6 minute read

We all know that football is the main sport in the United Kingdom, but did you know that horse racing is the UK’s second most popular spectator sport?

Every year over six million fans click through the turnstiles at racecourses up and down the country, making horse racing much more popular than cricket and rugby.

In this article we take a look at five of the best horse racing events in the UK – the ones that make horse racing so popular with the Great British public. Think we’ve left an event out? Let us know in the comments section below.

The Cheltenham Festival

When? Tuesday, 15^th March – Friday, 18^th March

Where? Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

Normally scheduled to coincide with St. Patrick’s Day, the Cheltenham Festival is not just a highlight on the sporting calendar but on the social one too. Over 260,000 people flock to the Gloucestershire venue to watch the sport’s best jockeys battle it out for a share of the £4 million purse.

There are 28 races stretching out over 4 days with the most famous being the Cheltenham Gold Cup which is held in the same regard as winning an Olympic Gold Medal. The favourites for this year’s Gold Cup are A Plus Tard, Galvin and Minella Indo.

Where there is horse racing, there is most certainly betting. Every single year, thousands of punters bet on Cheltenham and some win fairly substantial amounts of money.

Royal Ascot

When? Tuesday, 14^th June – Saturday, 18^th June

Where? Ascot, Berkshire

Perhaps the most famous racecourse in the UK, Royal Ascot plays host to a five day Flat racing meeting every June which hosts 18 Group races. The racecourse was founded in 1711 by Queen Anne when she visited the area and decreed that the heath looked, ‘ideal for horses to gallop at full stretch.’

Since then it has become traditional for British royalty to visit the annual event. In fact, many of Queen Elizabeth II’s horses can be seen racing at the five-day Royal Ascot event. They are identified by their distinctive purple body with gold braid colours.

The Gold Cup which is held on the third day of the event is the most prestigious and is currently held by Subjectivist who upset Stradivarius to romp to success.

The Grand National

When? Tuesday, 7^th April – Saturday 9^th April

Where? Aintree Racecourse, Merseyside

The Grand National was founded by William Lynn in 1829 with the first running happening in 1836 when The Duke won the inaugural event. The modern day Grand National is the culmination of a three-day race event held in Aintree, Merseyside.

It is widely regarded as the most challenging race on this British calendar and sees competitors fight it out over a 4 miles and 514 yards and 16 fences, 14 of which are jumped over twice. It’s no wonder then that around 60% of the horses that start the race never make it to the finish line.

Red Rum, who won a historic treble in 1973, 1974 and 1977 is probably the most famous horse to have run the course at Aintree. Minella Times, last year’s winner made history as it became the first horse to be ridden by a female to win the Grand National.

(Rachel Blackmore made history in 2021 riding Minella Times to Grand National victory.)

Epsom Derby

When? Friday, 3^rd June – Saturday, 4^th June

Where? Epsom Downs, Surrey

First inaugurated in 1780, the Epsom Derby is a Group 1 flat race open to three-year-old colts and fillies. It has a purse of £1.125 million and is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious events in the country.

In recent years however it has morphed into more of a social event than a sporting event with the prizes for best-dressed, celebrity guests and musical performances taking as many headlines as the racing action.

The Epsom Derby is also home to the self-proclaimed ‘Greatest Flat Race in The World’ which is some claim!

The Scottish Grand National

When? Friday, 1^st April

Where? Ayr Racecourse, Ayrshire

When it comes to great races in the UK, the action isn’t just limited to England, there are great meets all over the UK. The Scottish Grand National however, is one of the best races outside of England in the calendar.

Inaugurated in 1867 this Grade 3 National Hunt steeplechase is full of drama and intrigue with horses racing over a distance of 4 miles and running 27 fences. If you love the Aintree Grand National you’ll love the Scottish Grand National too.

In terms of the purse, there is slightly less money on offer to winners but if anything, that opens up the field and adds more excitement to the race.

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The National Hockey League (NHL) has seen its fair share of strange moments, but few compare to the bizarre and hilarious tale of Taro Tsujimoto, a player who never existed. His “selection” in the 1974 NHL Draft remains one of the most legendary pranks in hockey history. If you want to wager on actual players, making the 1xBet app download is definitely a great idea.

In the 1970s, the NHL Draft was a much less glamorous event than today. It was a tedious process conducted over the phone, with teams calling in their picks. The 3 biggest highlights of what happened during that year’s draft were:

the draft dragged on for hours;
there were multiple rounds and teams selecting unknown prospects from obscure leagues;
frustrated with the monotony, Buffalo Sabres general manager Punch Imlach decided to have a little fun.

As the 11th round approached, Imlach instructed his team’s representative to draft Taro Tsujimoto, a supposed forward from the Tokyo Katanas of the Japan Ice Hockey League. The name sounded authentic enough. The league officials, unfamiliar with Japanese hockey, accepted the pick without question. By downloading the 1xBet app you will also be able to wager on great NHL teams too.

A small problem

There was a small problem with all of this, as 2 things didn’t exist: Tsujimoto and the Tokyo Katanas. Imlach had completely fabricated the player as a joke, taking advantage of the NHL’s lack of verification. When it comes to NHL wagers, there is no better platform than the 1xBet Canada site.

For weeks, the league listed Tsujimoto as an official draft pick, and even some newspapers reported on Buffalo’s mysterious new Japanese prospect. Eventually, the Sabres admitted the hoax, and the NHL was forced to retroactively erase the selection from its records.

Despite being a fictional player, Taro Tsujimoto took on a life of his own. Buffalo Sabres fans embraced the prank, and over the years, his name has become a cult legend in hockey culture. Some fans even wore jerseys with “Tsujimoto” on the back. The joke persisted so much that when EA Sports released NHL video games, players could occasionally find Tsujimoto in the game’s draft pool as a hidden Easter egg.

More than just a prank, the story of Taro Tsujimoto highlights 2 things: the quirks of old-school sports management and the creativity of one of hockey’s most colorful executives. Today, with the draft process being highly scrutinized and broadcast live, such a prank would be impossible. But Tsujimoto’s legacy lives on as one of hockey’s greatest inside jokes. What is not a joke are the great rewards that a platform like the Canadian 1xBet site can give you.

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60% of Canadians gamble each month – why the industry is going from strength to strength

Published on March 26, 2025

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When it comes to regulating gambling, Canada has a somewhat relaxed approach. The Canadian Gaming Association oversees the industry, but it’s up to individual provinces to enact and enforce any laws relating to online casino gaming, sports betting, traditional casino gaming, and other forms of gambling.

Canada’s online casino gaming laws are not totally clear, but individual provinces are starting to put this right. Ontario was the first and did so when it launched its own regulated igaming market in April 2022. Now some other provinces have followed suit, creating a safer igaming environment for players in those provinces. Below is a look at gambling in Canada compared to other parts of the world, at gaming laws in Alberta compared to other provinces, and at the future of the Canadian, US, and UK gambling industries.

Canada: a forever love of gambling

Gambling in some form or other has always been popular in Canada. Way back in the 1990s, research found six in ten Canadians (60%) gambled every month. Additionally, four in ten (43%) spent between 1 and 20 Canadian dollars on gambling. Fast forward to today and the Canadian gambling market is worth 14.2 billion US dollars as of January 2024, according to data on the website of consumer and market data company Statista.

It seems Canada enjoys wagering just as much as two other countries that love a gamble: the US and the UK. Data on the Statista website shows that 49% of US adults took part in gambling activities in 2023. Fifty-six percent said their attitude towards gambling had relaxed, compared to the 50% of 2019.

The UK returned similar stats for the same year. Forty-eight percent of adults reported engaging in gambling activity. Online casinos generated the most gross gambling yield in 2023, but it was the nation’s National Lottery that people played the most.

Alberta: following Ontario’s lead

The regulatory developments in Ontario have triggered movement in Alberta. In May 2024, Bill 16, the Red Tape Reduction Amendment Act, made it through the process and later received Royal Assent to become law. The act removes the monopoly of gaming by a single government entity and will allow private operators, licensed by Alberta’s provincial regulator, to provide online gaming services in Alberta, meaning players will have a choice of more than one Alberta online casino to play at.

The regulation transforms Alberta into one of the more liberal provinces when it comes to online gambling, others being Quebec, Ontario, and British Columbia.

Several provinces, such as Novia Scotia and Northwest Territories, have no provincially regulated online gaming sites. Some also restrict betting on horse racing and/or other types of sports betting, obliging citizens to use international betting sites for freedom from caps and betting on as many events as they wish.

What lies ahead for the Canadian, US, and UK gambling industries?

Canada’s appetite for gambling is clear, and the industry’s online sector is beginning to thrive. Ontario has enjoyed vast success by creating its own regulated market, one which, in just its first year, saw Canadians place billions in wagers and the industry itself generate more than a billion in total gaming revenue.

Canada can expect to see other provinces follow Ontario’s lead and allow private operators to provide services in the province under license. The purpose of the regulation is player protection. Any province that develops a regulated market will focus on this, so there will also be regulations around the advertising of gambling services.

The US

Gambling online is the future for the US, too, although states are slow to legalize it. As of September 2024, 38 states had legalized sports betting, following the US Supreme Court’s ruling that states could regulate sports gambling directly.

Despite allowing sports betting, some states only permit in-person betting, and only a few states allow online casino gaming. Operators believe online casino gaming is the future of gambling.

The UK

In the UK, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) will get bigger and bigger. Companies have realized AI can enhance players’ experience and are embracing it more and more. For instance, sports betting websites can use it to crunch data and provide iGamers with stats and other data to make better betting decisions. They’re also understanding they can use AI to prioritize content players are likely to be interested in and to personalize their offerings and services to players’ preferences.

Canada enjoys gambling as much as America and the UK. Although laws around igaming are more of a grey area in Canada, some provinces are clearing the issue up by creating regulated markets and experiencing great success. As time goes by, more are sure to follow.