We want to help our users to make good bets. How do we do this? By finding, ranking and comparing the best online bookies, by ensuring you take advantage of the best bonuses, and by offering you top tips from respected horse racing experts such as Brian Ellison.
Our team is a blend of betting experts with experience in bookmakers and betting firms, and horse racing experts with experience on and off the racecourse. Each member of our team of five is proud to have their own speciality and bring something valued to the team - you can see the specialities listed below. We’re also proud to have joined forces with Brian Ellison - ex-jockey and trainer with nearly 30 years’ experience in the industry!
We want to be sure we’re providing our users with everything they need, so don’t hesitate to get in touch! Whether you’ve got a niggling betting question, would like us to review a bookie, or think a particular sportsbook should be added to our blacklist, just email us at contact@horseracing.co.uk and one of our horseracing and betting experts will get back to you.
Brian Ellison is our horse racing expert at HorseRacing.co.uk. With more than 20 years under his belt riding as a National Hunt jockey and nearly 30 years' experience as a leading UK racehorse trainer, he knows everything there is to know about the industry.
Today he's saddled over 1,000 winners and boasts a 100-plus string of racehorses at his successful Yorkshire-based stables, but the North East-born trainer hails from more humble roots. Born in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1952 as one of eight children of a shipyard worker and hospital cleaner, Brian's achievements are a result of his hard graft and strong determination.
He originally grew up with the goal of becoming a professional footballer but at just 4'9" was considered not the right fit to make it, so he changed tack and focused on becoming a jockey instead.
Although he didn't sit on a horse until he was 14, one year later he left school to start his career in horse racing. At 17 he took out his conditional jockey's license and started out riding over jumps, became head lad then travelling head lad, before a long run as a National Hunt jockey. One of his most memorable moments was when he rode Tex and beat the legendary Tingle Creek in a handicap chase in 1976.
Brian's racing career went from strength to strength and during his 20th year in the saddle he acquired his trainer's license, an avenue he'd always wanted to pursue. He assisted Don Eddy and Nigel Tinkler, and trained in Malton between 1989-1995.
In 2000 he bought Spring Cottage Stables and moved his 25 horses from a rented property in the North East to Malton, Yorkshire. Since purchasing it, Brian and his team have added more stables, American bars, horse walkers, water walkers, starting stalls, schooling grounds, a horse weigh, hot water showers and well over 100 new horses in the yard.
As the number of horses has risen, so has the list of achievements. In January 2011 Marsh Warbler scooped the Coral Future Champions Finale Juvenile Hurdle (Grade 1) at Chepstow, while on the Flat later that year Moyenne Corniche won the Betfred Ebor at York Racecourse.
In 2013, Spring Cottage Stables saw the arrival of Top Notch Tonto, and following a winning debut for Brian in a Newmarket Handicap he won a Group 3 at Haydock and a Listed event at Redcar, plus a finish of second place to Olympic Glory in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes (Group 1) at Royal Ascot.
Brian became the first international trainer to compete in the Perth Cup (Group 2), in which Bay Story finished second, beaten only by a head. Brian has travelled horses across the globe on a number of occasions, including runners in the Caulfield Cup and the Melbourne Cup in Australia, and the Dubai World Cup Carnival.
With so many National Hunt and Flat triumphs and a wealth of experience on the track, Brian is one of the most respected and successful trainers in the UK, and the ideal person for our horseracing expert.
To check out his credentials for yourself, read about his successes on the Racing Post. You can also find him on Facebook, or delve a little deeper by browsing through his very own website. We’re sure you’ll be as wowed by him as we are.
