Alongside the popular bet365 6 Scores Challenge, the site also runs a similar free-to-play competition for horse racing fans called the 6 Horses Challenge.
This competition is usually available each weekend of the year, as well as on selected days in midweek when there is a big race meeting on, such as the Cheltenham Festival, Grand National Meeting, The Guineas Festival, Royal Ascot or similar.
The aim of the 6 Horses Challenge in each competition is simple. From the six races selected, pick which one of the runners in each race will be the winner. It is that simple.
However, if you have ever bet on horse racing, you will know that picking one winner from six races is tough. Picking two is very tricky. Any more is a real test of skill and judgment, and let’s not deny it, a healthy dose of good fortune, too!
In this post slightly different to the norm, I am going to bring you details of how I almost landed a perfect 6 Horses Challenge on the opening day of the May meeting at Chester Racecourse, back on May 7th 2025.
Before I go into detail on this, first let’s explain that to participate in the 6 Horses Challenge, you need to be a customer at bet365. You can check out the latest welcome offer for the site below.
Bet365 Review » Min Deposit: £5 » Expiry: 30 days » Min Odds: 1/5 (1.20)
Once you have signed up, then you can play the 6 Horses Challenge and a wide selection of other free games across the entire family of bet365 sites.
Let’s now dig into the backstory for this 6 Horses Challenge near miss back at the start of May.
Each year, Chester racecourse, the oldest racecourse in the United Kingdom, hosts its May Festival. Called the Boodles May Festival for sponsorship reasons at present. This is one of the premier meetings of the summer and always attracts tens of thousands of racegoers, as well as a high-quality field across three days of racing.
Unsurprisingly, bet365 Sport were keen to offer its customers something additional for this meeting and so the site offered its 6 Horses Challenge promotion across the three days of racing, Wednesday 7th, Thursday 8th, and Friday 9th May.
My near-miss came on the very first day of racing on Wednesday 7th May.
While I am not a horse racing expert by any means, I always take part in the 6 Horses Challenge as it is free-to-play. And who knows, I may get lucky, as I did on this date.
I have previously won smaller value prizes previous to this, namely in the shape of 5 Free Spins or 10 Free Spins for correctly predicting two or three winners. However, a cash prize for predicting four, five or even six winners eluded me.
For each of these prizes, there is a prize pool awarded to be shared between all players who land four, five or six winners.
It starts usually at around £5,000 for four winners, and £10,000 for five winners going up to around £25,000 or £50,000 for six winners.
Occasionally, on big race days, the top prize may be increased to £100,000 or even £250,000.
The opening day at Chester had a £25,000 prize pool for six winners, £10,000 for five and £5,000 for four, plus the usual free spins prizes for three and two winners.
I logged into my account and checked whether there was a 6 Horses Challenge available for Chester and noted that there were two open for Wednesday and Thursday’s racing. So I entered both.
The six races selected for Wednesday 7th May included five races from Chester, plus one from Newton Abbott, which was the second race of the six races shown on the 6 Horses Challenge entry form.
I went through the form, making my six selections for each of the six races, but my primary focus was on the Chester meeting as it was far more prestigious, plus it was also local to me.
My five selections on the first day’s racing at Chester for each race were:
After being undecided between favourite Light N Strike and one of its main rivals Yes Indeed, I backed Yes Indeed in the 1.45 at Newton Abbott for the second race on the coupon. Basically due to the fact it had won on the course back in April. Other than that, I’d have picked Light N Strike.
I then completed my selections for the 6 Horses Challenge for Thursday’s racing at Chester and Ascot, but as I am prone to do, I forgot about them and continued with my work.
On Wednesday, I didn’t have much free time with work, physio appointments, veterinary checks (not for me, but for our dog), dropping my mother off at the airport and similar day to day tasks. So it was late afternoon when I remembered to check the results from the meeting at Chester for that day.
I scanned through the list. 1.30 pm Chester – winner Ali Shuffle, that’s what I expected given the odds and I quickly checked the second race at Chester, 2.05 – winner Redorange. Yay! I had landed at least five free spins and had a chance of doubling that!
Race Three at 2.35 pm – Minnie Hauk was the winner. Well, that’s a first! I’d had two winners in the first two races before on the 6 Horses Challenge, but never three in the first three. I’ve now won 10 Free Spins!
Race Four, 3.05 pm – winner – Lambourne. Oh my word! I’d won a cash prize! Four winners in a row. By now, I was starting to get excited a little. I’d never won a cash prize before, and while I knew it would likely be a minimal amount (probably a couple of quid at most, given that all the winners were favourites and the prize pool was £5,000), even so, it was a cash win!
Race Five at Chester, the 3.40 pm, would be the one where I come unstuck as I hadn’t backed the favourite but instead gone for a strangely named horse…what was it again? I checked the race result… winner – Hammer the Hammer at 9/2. That sounded familiar, because that was the one I’d picked!
I’d gone 5/5 out of the races at Chester! And in the excitement, I thought I’d won a share of the top prize for a brief second. Until I realised that there was the sixth race, the second on the 6 Horses Challenge card at Newton Abbot race to consider too.
I have never looked up a race at Newton Abbott with more urgency and excitement in my life. I knew this race had three strong options, Light N Strike, Bourbali and Yes Indeed and I’d plumped for the latter because it had won its last two races, including an earlier race at Newton Abbott by nine lengths.
I scanned for the result… Newton Abbott – 1.45 pm – winner – Light N Strike.
Agh! Disappointment set in! Especially when I learned that Yes Indeed was right up with the leaders with two fences to jump, but made a bad mistake at the second last.
This forced the horse to pull up at the last when well-placed.
Even so, five out of six isn’t bad and ensured me a share of £10,000!
Unfortunately, because five favourites had won out of the six races (Light N Strike started the Newton Abbott race as favourite, added to the four favourite winners at Chester), it meant that a large number of other bet365 customers also shared my good fortune!
This meant that when that £10,000 prize pool was shared among all 2000(!) of us who landed five winners. As such, we received the princely sum of £5 each!
And it could have been all so different if I had gone with Light N Strike instead. But then again, every punter always picks the right horse after the race has been run!
So that is my tale of a close call with the 6 Horses Challenge and if I can do it, with my limited horse racing knowledge and just a slice of good fortune, then I cannot see any reason why any other lucky bet365 customer could not do so too.
Oh and if you are wondering, on Thursday I landed one winner, a second and third and on Friday, I had two third place finished. Saturday’s 6 Horse Challenge saw three seconds, two thirds and a fourth.
And yes, I am already looking forward to the next 6 Horse Challenge next week, and so should you!
(Footnote: I played my £5 winnings on the Big Bass Splash slot, and somehow managed to turn 50 spins at £0.10 a spin, into a win that surpassed £50, which I withdrew to my bank account! That’s not too bad at all, considering this was a free-to-play game in which I won my £5 stake money!)
18+ Always remember to gamble responsibly. Check out bet365’s Safer Gambling page for more details or go to GambleAware.org for advice, tools and support.
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