PUNTERS are avoiding backing horses with French names ahead of this weekend’s Grand National, a study has shown.
Brits love placing bets on runners with easy to spell monikers — which means French fancies are falling at the first hurdle, gambling group Entain found.
GettyPunters are shunning horses with French names ahead of this weekend’s Grand National[/caption]
Its study shows horses which sound like they come from across the Channel are the least popular — because gamblers struggle to write foreign words on betting slips, the firm said.
Last year’s French choices, Galia Des Liteaux, Farouk D’Alene and Eklat De Rire, were among the least backed of the bunch.
And 2023 runner-up Vanillier was only the 20th most selected choice in a field of 32.
Entain’s senior trading manager Tim Smith said: “If a horse features a common name such as Bob’s Great, that will be one of the most popular names on the day.
“But if a horse has a French name, especially a long one that nobody can write out on a slip in a shop, then regardless of whether that horse might have a great chance of winning, it is unlikely to be popular. All the trading rules go out the window.”
Drones are also banned from flying over the Grand National Festival as their live video feed may be faster than TV and give “in play” bets an unfair advantage.
Last month, The Sun revealed some of the daftest horse names.
Some of the horse included were Teahupoo, Live Conti and Kala Conti.
One, Wear The Fox Hat, was twigged by a race official on his debut outing and had to run identified as “Noname” at Nottingham, Sandown and Wolverhampton back in 1995 and early 1996.
Aussie thoroughbred Fuchu — aptly the son of All Too Hard — won at Kensington racecourse in Sydney in May 2019, while Irish gelding Noble Locks was a favourite flutter back in the Nineties.
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