Chelmsford City Racecourse has a Polytrack surface that ensures the going is standard, providing reliability for owners, trainers, and horses. On Thursday 5 March, thousands of pounds were won, making for some exciting UK horse racing results.

The first high-profile race was the 18:15 Handicap, where Malaysian Boleh was the winner at odds of 11/2. Finishing in second was Dominium at 16/1, with Angelito at 20/1. The prize pot for the Class 4 race was a sizeable £5,175.20.

A little later in the evening was the 19:15 Handicap, which also offered a pot of £5,175.20. For this Class 4 race, the outcome was Emirates Skycargo winning at 4/9F. International Name was second at 8/1, while With Approval came third at 25/1.

The 19:45 Handicap and its £7,439.35 prize pot was easily the biggest of the day. Ruban 9/2 managed to win the race, finishing ahead of Flow (4/1) and Ifwecan (7/2).

From all of yesterday’s match results, the Coppa Italia provided the most action in what was a relatively quiet Thursday evening (5 March). Meeting in the fist leg of the semi final was Juventus and Fiorentina. Playing away at Juventus Stadium was always going to be a challenge, but La Viola stood up to the challenge magnificently.

The match started out positively for Fiorentina, who struck first with an 11th minute goal from Mohammed Salah, who is currently on loan from parent club Chelsea. Just 13 minutes later, however, Spanish striker Fernando Llorente equalised in the 24th minute. But Salah scored again in the 56th minute, with Fiorentina able to hold out for a crucial away win.

Despite Juventus controlling 56% of possession, the Old Lady only crafted four attempts on target. Meanwhile, Fiorentina were also able to create four attempts on target, but from just 44% possession.

Towards the end of the last week, we shared a couple of horse racing naps ahead of the Cheltenham Festival on Tuesday. The naps were provided by Simon Panting of CheltenhamZone, by way of the Huffington Post. Today, we share Simon’s three final Cheltenham naps.

Bouveril is a horse that is fancied for the Fred Winter Handicap because of his intelligence, a mark of horses trained by Paul Nicholls. Weighing in as one of the lighter horses, Bouveril is in prime racing condition.

For the Ryanair Chase, Panting fancies Don Cossack to win. And so do many others, with Don Cossack considered by many to be the favourite. Don Cossack has won four straight races leading into Cheltenham.

The Nicky Henderson-ridden Peace and Co is the favourite for the Triumph Hurdle. Bred in France, this horse is expected to adapt well to the quick pace of Cheltenham.

Football fans were treated to a rare midweek slate of Premier League matches, with this upcoming weekend scheduled for the FA Cup quarterfinals. In yesterday’s matches, the action was quite tense in the games featuring the six highest teams.

For starters, Chelsea required a rare headed goal from attacking midfields Eden Hazard to narrowly make it past West Ham in a 1-0 away victory. Just behind leaders Chelsea, Man City led 1-0 for much of the game Leicester, but finding a second goal was hard to come by. James Milner finally delivered one in the 88th minute for a 2-0 home win.

Arsenal continued the winning trend by beating QPR 2-1 in an away game to hold third place. Man Utd then held on to fourth place after a late Ashley Young goal. Meanwhile, Liverpool held fourth with a 2-0 win against Burnley, while Spurs won 3-2 hosting Swansea.

For this latest installment of UK horse racing results and payouts, we are recapping the action from Kempton Park on Wednesday 4 March. Running on a Polytrack, the going was standard for all of the races.

Leading with the headline news, Charlies Mate pulled off a shocking win in the 18:15 Handicap. Charlies Mate had been a major outsider at 25/1, winning ahead of Rancher at 14/1 and then Jazri at 11/2. Trainer John Best will be delighted at winning the Division II race.

The next most notable race was the 18:45 Handicap, which was a Class 2 compared to the Class 6 of the previous race. This was easily the most important race of the day, as it featured a prize pot of £12,291,10 – far beyond the other pots. The winner was 4/6F Tryster, trained by Charlie Appleby and ridden by Shane Gray.

Racing Post has identified the following UK horse racing speed ratings for Ayr Racecourse on Friday 6 March 2015. Ahead of today’s action, the going is generally expected to be soft. However, the going could be heavy in some areas of the racecourse.

Looking to the slate of seven races, what stands out is that none of them have fewer than 11 runners. At the top end of the scale, two even have at least 20 runners.

The first of those races is the Western House Best UK Luxury Hotel Maiden Hurdle at 14:30. Featuring a field of 22 runners, the action will be thrilling. Out of the field, Throthethatch is the clear speed leader with a rating of 99.

Running at 16:45 is the Handicap Chase, which features 20 runners. Within that race, Things Change has a 140 rating, while Scotch Warrior is just behind with 138.

The football results from Yesterday in the Championship were very interesting indeed, proving just how appealing the league can be for putting together winning accumulators. The following preview is for all Championship matches on Tuesday 3 March 2015.

Entering Tuesday night as league-leaders on 65 points, Steve McLaren’s Derby County needed to win away against 20th-placed Brighton. But the Rams slumped to a clear 2-0 defeat and were subsequently ousted from the top spot. And the club responsible for ousting Derby were Aitor Karanka’s Middlesbrough, who beat Millwall in a convincing 3-0 victory to climb a point ahead of Derby.

Elsewhere in the table, Watford and Bournemouth climbed to third and fourth, respectively, at the expense of Norwich City. However, Norwich will have a chance to reclaim their position in their next game against Wigan Athletic. Lastly, Brentford moved into the final playoff spot with a 4-1 win over Huddersfield.

Exeter Racecourse had an exciting slate of races scheduled for Tuesday 3 March, attracting a competitive field of entrants out to win a share of the prize money. Here is your brief roundup of the key news from those UK horse racing results.

Out of the various races, the Devon National Handicap Chase proved enticing, with a pot of £11,077.50 up for grabs. Running at 15:30, the race was ranked as Class 3. By the end of the race, it was Catching On, ridden by Wayne Hutchinson and trained by Jonjo O’Neil, who won the race with odds of 11/2.

For outsider of the day, we have to look to the Ken Graham 70th Birthday Novices’ Hurdle at 16:30, which was a Class 4 affair. Incredibly, 100/30 long-shot Chosen Well managed to finish ahead of the highly favoured Local Show at 4/1. Finishing in third place was Great Choice at 5/4.

We are at last entering the golden period of the UK horse racing season. And the first of the marque events is the 2015 Cheltenham Festival, which will run next week from Tuesday 11 to Friday 14 March. Ahead of the event, we have discovered a couple of free horse racing naps from Simon Panting of the Huffington Post that are well worth checking out.

Starting with the first race of the festival, which is the Supreme Novices Hurdle, Panting has identified Irish horse Douvan as the prime tip. At odds of approximately 7/4, Douvan has already won twice over hurdles this season, making the five-year-old a hot prospect.

Un De Sceaux is another horse to watch out for, but yet to be entered in a specific race. However, you cannot let this tip pass you by, as Un De Sceaux earned a fifth victory over Irish hurdles in January at Leopardstown.

Looking back on the UK horse racing results and payouts for the weekend, there was an especially interesting winner at Doncaster Racecourse on Saturday (28 February). In terms of the conditions, the going was good and the weather was overcast and breezy.

Running in the 15:45 BetBright Grimthorpe Chase (A Handicap Chase), Wayward Prince stole the show by winning in the race with the largest prize pool, which was worth £32,490. But what really made Wayward Prince’s performance stand out in the Division 2 race is that the horse was a huge long-shot at 25/1.

Hailing from Ireland, the horse is 11 years old and comes from breeder M G Kilroe, with Hilary Parrott handling trainer duties. Of late, Wayward Prince has not been in the finest of form. At Exeter and Hayward, the horse pulled up on both instances. However, Wayward Prince returned to the vintage form of his youth on Saturday.