See the free horse racing NAP of the Day from SportsLens experts every single day. Provided by our top tipsters, you can see NAPs and Next Best bets (NB) on all the best of British and Irish horse racing right here in one place.

Today’s Horse Racing NAP of the Day 18 April 2024

Without further ado, here they are! Our experts’ top punt for you to take. Today’s NAP of the Day horse racing tips with a detailed case in full. We update for every single day that there’s a meeting on in the UK and Ireland:

What are Horse Racing NAPs?

First of all, we’re going to explain the NAP of the Day meaning to you. This is our experts’ best bet from across all of today’s racecards in the UK and Ireland. The NAP, short for Napoleon based on a card game named after the famous French general and emperor played in Victorian times, is a combination of the greatest value bet at the odds on offer and most likely winner.

Which are the Best Horse Racing NAPs?

The easiest way to find the top free NAP of the Day is to look at a NAPs table. This shows you how tipsters perform over a set period, typically the month or year to date, with their selections. It’s fair to say that these people are experts. That does not make them infallible, however, and even the best horse racing tipsters aren’t right all the time!

Our very own experts here at SportsLens do pretty well themselves. In 2022, they have a YTD level stakes profit of almost £200. That means they have tipped over 180 winners throughout the calendar year. Remember, these tipsters provide a horse racing NAP of the Day to you completely free of charge.

Why do Tipsters Use NAPs?

You may be wondering why the horse racing NAP even exists. Well, there are lots of events, i.e. races, to bet on even during an ordinary day in this sport. It gets even busier on weekends, Bank Holidays and the Christmas to New Year period. Sometimes, if we’re really honest with you, there’s too much horse racing going on.

Putting a bet forward at the NAP of the Day indicates that it is the best value and most likely winner over the meeting in question, and/or across the cards taking place. Once you see a horse is among the NAPs, punters should sit up and take notice of it. This indicates that it’s a strong fancy to win the race that the selection runs in.

Market confidence may or may not indicate this as well but, in a horse racing expert’s opinion, the free NAP of the Day must have a right chance. Just because a selection is strongly fancied does not guarantee it will win, however, and it’s important that you remember that when betting.

Where Should I Back the NAP of the Day?

You are spoilt for choice with horse racing betting sites in the UK where you can back our free NAP of the Day today. This is because the sport is so popular in the British Isles than bookmakers must provide great coverage of all the action. Established bookmakers like Betfair, Betfred, Coral, Ladbrokes, Paddy Power and William Hill are all obvious candidates here.

One aspect that’s really important with the NAP bet is trying to get the Best Odds Guaranteed if you can. Each bookie brings this offer into effect at different times, however. BOG means you won’t miss out on a bigger Starting Price (SP) if the odds drift out on our horse racing NAP for any reason.

With that in mind, bet365 are the online bookmakers who have the guarantee starting earliest. They have lots to recommend them, but so do 888Sport – the current partners of the SportsLens NAP of the Day right now. We’ve chosen them for their great new customer offer, live streaming options and handy tools like BetFeed and BetFinder.

Why give a Free NAP of the Day?

Here at SportsLens, we don’t believe in hiding our tips behind a paywall. Instead, we happily give a free NAP of the Day on horse racing every single day. There’s no cost involved. All you have to do to see it is keep checking this page from time to time and our experts’ best bet will be there.

Check our Free Horse Racing Betting Tips

How do You Pick Your Horse Racing NAPs?

Choosing the free horse racing NAP of the Day isn’t easy for our experts, especially on busy days with lots of meetings. We get our horse racing tipsters here at SportsLens to study all of the form and weigh up what they think the best value bet is. This requires judgment, not just of the horse in question but the opposition and conditions it faces.

People of all abilities and experiences place bets, and you only develop a sense of value as a skill honed over time. That is why we got to experts with a great track record of finding winners in British and Irish horse racing. We can’t promise you our tipsters will get it right every time, but they’re correct with their analysis more often than not.

Now that your expectations have been managed, our experts can reveal some of their key considerations for a free NAP bet. There needs to be value in their price, scope for further improvement in the horse put forward and suitable or ideal conditions at the time of writing. That, coupled with careful form study, is how we pick horse racing NAPs.

How to Place a NAP Bet

Any newcomers may be wondering how to back our free NAP of the Day today with the bookies and do it right. We’re here to guide you every step of the way. Just follow our instructions and you’ll be fine. These are the simple steps to take and get a NAP bet on:

Step 1 – Sign Up to Online Bookmakers

If you want to back today’s NAP of the Day that we recommend, then you’ll need an online betting account for starters. There are loads of great bookies out there that you can wager with. Join one of the best UK betting sites by visiting their homepages and hitting those Sign Up buttons.

Step 2 – Open a Betting Account

Now, it’s time to fill in your personal details on the registration form. You’ll also need to create a username and password or passcode for your online betting account. SMS verification or a validation email will be sent to your mobile phone or email address that you must use or click through once your identity has been confirmed.

Step 3 – Make a Deposit

You will need funds in your betting account if you want to back our best NAP of the Day, plain and simple. Log in and choose a deposit method that suits you, but be warned – not all options are compatible with new customer offers and bonuses. It’s best to use the Debit Card attached to your bank account, rather than prepaid cards or eWallets, for this first deposit. Think about the minimum deposit needed to get any deals.

Step 4 – Find the NAP Bet on Site

It’s now time to find that recommended bet from our experts. Visit the horse racing section of the bookmaker website and track it down. Depending on the bookie you use, races are listed by meeting and/or time. Make sure you’ve got the right event!

Step 5 – Place the Wager

All you need to do now is add the NAP bet to the betslip, then enter your desired stake. This is the amount of money you want to have on the horse. When you’re happy with the wager, hit Place Bet and you’re on. With a bit of luck, our experts will be spot on and you’ve just backed a winner!

A Free NAP of the Day on UK Racing

If you want the best bets and horse racing betting tips from expert tipsters covering British and Irish action, then you’ve come to the right place. This is where you’ll find precisely that. The horse NAP of the Day covers both codes of the sport, National Hunt and Flat racing including the All-Weather action. It doesn’t matter if it’s a five-furlong sprint or a staying handicap chase over a marathon distance.

Our free NAP of the Day on racing in the UK and Ireland could be running at one of 85 different tracks in all four corners of the British Isles. It might be a major meeting or taking part on a typical, run of the mill day for the sport. What unites them all is value. The chosen horse might be broadcast on terrestrial television on ITV as NAP of the Day and thus be one of the horse racing tips today to reach a wider audience.

You’ll just have to read above to discover when and where it runs. That’s the great thing about NAPs. They can pop up anywhere, at a Grade / Group 1 track in a feature race or a minor meeting at a course around the country. Our experts seek value at all times, especially with Lucky 15 tips for today, so you can bet with confidence when taking their advice.

Cheltenham NAP of the Day

Punters pay particular attention to one particular course that they call the Home of Jumps racing. We’re talking about Cheltenham, which attracts the best National Hunt horses to meetings that take place there between October and April. Even among those, one event stands out above all others.

Anyone who pays even the least bit of attention to horse racing probably knows that Cheltenham Festival betting is big business for the bookies. These are the most competitive races of all, analogous to the Olympics. Any tipster giving a Cheltenham NAP of the Day is well aware of that too.

It’s for precisely that reason why punters should pay close attention if one of our experts puts a horse running here up as their best bet. No tipster ever recommends Cheltenham tips lightly and an awful lot of thought goes into the ones you’ll find here. Our experts know the importance of course experience and form at this venue.

That lets you in on a little secret with one of the key factors behind any NAP bet running. You never know, come March and the Cheltenham Festival, our experts’ best bets may include ones running in the Champion Hurdle, Queen Mother Champion Chase, Ryanair Chase, Stayers’ Hurdle or be one of the Cheltenham Gold Cup tips on offer.

Royal Ascot NAP of the Day

If there’s an Flat racing equivalent of Cheltenham, both in terms of prestige and wider interest, then it’s surely Royal Ascot. This five-day meeting in the middle of June is the top horse racing gala of the summer, attracting thoroughbred racehorses to Berkshire from Europe, across the Atlantic and beyond.

A result of that is Royal Ascot betting becoming prominent. The meeting features historic horse races like the Ascot Gold Cup and Queen Anne Stakes with millions in prize money on offer. Any Royal Ascot NAP of the Day put up by our horse racing tipsters will have to be very good as Flat races don’t get any more competitive than this!

The royal meeting is just the most important of all those held at the track. Away from Royal Ascot tips, a NAP bet may come from this racecourse in any other month of the year with other Flat or National Hunt cards taking place throughout the calendar. Look out for events like the Ascot Chase, British Champions Day, Coral Hurdle, King George and Long Walk Hurdle all taking place here too.

Other Top Tracks

Plenty of horse racing tips as NAP of the Day run on what are colloquially called Grade / Group 1 tracks. These racecourses host elite level and feature races known far and wide for their prestige and significance. Such tracks attract the best racehorses, because their elevated status is often reflected in the prize money on offer. Cheltenham and Ascot races today didn’t achieve this without building up storied histories.

Just to illustrate that to you, we’ve got four other examples of Grade / Group 1 tracks that host either a feature Flat or jumps race, or in some cases both. These courses crop up time and time again with NAP bets often running at them. Our experts know all the form and history attached to these tracks, so let’s take a look:

Sandown NAP of the Day

The Greater London area is pretty well-catered for with the likes of Epsom Downs, Kempton Park and Sandown races today all on the southern doorstep of the British capital. It’s the latter where both Grade 1 National Hunt races happen over the winter months, then a Group 1 event on the Flat in July takes place every single year.

Sandown Park is right-handed with an uphill finish like Ascot. Their big races that a NAP bet could feature include the Coral-Eclipse, Henry VIII Novices’ Chase, Scilly Isles Novices’ Chase, Tingle Creek Chase and Tolworth Hurdle. Supporting these are loads of other graded and Group events that keeps the Esher venue busy all year round!

Newmarket NAP of the Day

On the border between Cambridgeshire and Suffolk sits Newmarket races today – a hub of equine activity for centuries. There’s not one but two tracks at the racecourse here, and an All-Weather facility is also planned for the future. They call Newmarket the Headquarters of British Flat racing, because of its busy nature from April to autumn.

This is home to the first two Classic races of the calendar, the 2000 Guineas and 1000 Guineas for fillies. Other big events and races at Newmarket that NAP bets could feature include the Cheveley Park Stakes, Dewhurst Stakes, Falmouth Stakes, Fillies’ Mile, July Cup, Middle Park Stakes and Sun Chariot Stakes.

Newbury NAP of the Day

Similar to Sandown, Newbury races today include Grade and Group 1 contests across the two codes of the sport. Also in Berkshire, the same county as Ascot, this track is relatively level and left-handed, so provides a different test. By far the biggest Flat race at Newbury is the Lockinge Stakes over the straight mile in May.

Over jumps, the Grade 1 Challow Hurdle for novices takes place between Christmas and New Year. The curious thing about Newbury is other big National Hunt meetings, and NAP bets by extension, don’t have elite level races. Their Winter Carnival in November is headlined by the Coral Gold Cup, while come February and Super Saturday, the Betfair Hurdle is the big betting event.

Doncaster NAP of the Day

As home of the St Leger, the oldest Classic, Doncaster races today have been important in the North of England for 250 years now. That may be one of only two top level races held on Town Moor, but there’s plenty more on offer with jumps and Flat racing taking place regularly. Doncaster is where the turf season begins and ends on the level, starting with the Lincoln meeting in late March or early April.

In the National Hunt code, events to look out for include the Great Yorkshire Chase in January, Grimthorpe Chase in late February or early March and December Novices’ Chase. Doncaster runs left-handed like Newbury, but does have hills to climb in the back straight. Any NAP bets from our experts must be prepared for a long home stretch.

The Last Word

So, there you have it; completely free NAP of the Day horse racing tips from experts who do this for a living. It’s all completely free to view. No paywalls here. All you have to decide now is whether to back our recommended NAP bets with this leading online bookmaker:

What Other Horse Racing Tips do You Have?

The horse racing NAP of the Day is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the recommended bets on offer across SportsLens. Check out more tips and experts advice on these pages:

FAQs

[Q0]How do you pick horse racing NAPs?[/Q0] [A0]We use expert horse racing tipsters who study all the form before picking NAP bets, which display on this page. They do all the hard work of figuring out the best value punts and most likely ones to win, so you don’t have to.[/A0] [Q1]Why do tipsters give a horse racing NAP of the Day?[/Q1] [A1]There are so many races to bet in, that horse racing tipsters need a way of indicating what their best wager from a meeting or across today’s cards are. Any time you see NAP next to a betting tip, you know that – in someone’s opinion – this is worth backing.[/A1] [Q2]Where should I bet on the NAP of the Day?[/Q2] [A2]Any of our recommended online bookmaker sites for horse racing betting are great for betting on NAPs. You want the top price and Best Odds Guaranteed, so look out for bookies that offer those early.[/A2] [Q3]Why is a NAP called a NAP in horse racing?[/Q3] [A3]They call a tipster’s best bet a NAP, because of the Victorian Era card game Napoleon. While that pastime has long since passed out of fashion, a shortened form of the former French emperor’s name, NAP, came to mean the most recommended wager from a race meeting.[/A3] [Q4]How does the NAPs competition work?[/Q4] [A4]A NAPs competition sees all contestants, in this case professional and semi-pro horse racing tipsters, start with 0 at the beginning of the year / month. If their best bets win, then an addition is made to the level stakes profit based on the price advised or the Starting Price (SP) if it’s bigger. Each losing NAP sees one point deducted from this tally. The tipster with the greatest MTD and/or YTD profit is declared the winner.[/A4] [Q5]When did the current NAPs competition start?[/Q5] [A5]The current NAPs competition on SportsLens started on 1 January, and runs on a monthly and yearly basis. MTD and YTD figures allow punters to see how horse racing tipsters did in recent weeks and for the calendar year as a whole side by side.[/A5] [Q6]Who won the last NAPs competition?[/Q6] [A6]The last winner of our NAPs competition was leading horse racing advisor Andrew Mount, best known for his appearances on William Hill Radio and Racing Post TV. He’s written 20 horses to follow books and contributes to the Weekender on a regular basis, so his proven track record as a daily betting tipster helped him win with a great score.[/A6]