Sport is made for betting

Wednesday Short preview today, got a ticket offered to me yesterday so limited prep! Race 1 - TURNERS No Drama This End is the one to beat and overcome Paul Nicholls’ terrible record in this race. Surely that’s an anomaly rather than a genuine issue. Three from three over hurdles, all comfortable wins without being fully let go. What’s left in the tank and what has he beaten? Ballyfad for Gordon Elliott looks full of potential. Won easily on hurdling debut against a decent one of Willie’s, then was pipped on the post by Talk The Talk in the DRF. Looks the type to relish a step up in trip.  I’ll Sort That has won all four of his hurdle starts this season, including over Sortudo last time. Does he still have upside or has he shown us all he can do. Not from a big stable, might be underrated by the market. King Rasko Grey won on hurdling debut at Limerick (in receipt of 8lbs from Shuttle Diplomacy) then finished a close third behind Ballyfad at the DRF, just touched out in the final s...

Apologies, no time for fancy formatting here! Two full previews and a quick summary of the rest.  CHELTENHAM TUESDAY SUPREME NOVICES' HURDLE Baron Noir - beat El Cairos in a bumper at Punchestown in May but oddly hasn't surpassed that rating in three hurdles starts since. Has been very conservatively campaigned, at Warwick, Uttoxeter and Kempton, winning two of three, but that lack of progress in rating is very concerning. No. Eachtotheirown - won a Galway maiden hurdle in October, ran fifth in the Royal Bond G2 beaten 20L and then returned to form with an impressive win in a Thurles handicap hurdle in January. The stable reported a few from their stable being off-form in Nov/Dec, so that covers the poor run, and last time he showed good speed to win easily. Not out of this. El Cairos - exciting horse who needs to tidy up his jumping. Formerly owned and ridden by David Maxwell, he has plenty of Flat pace, running fifth in the Champion Bumper here last year, and second behind Ba...

So after my recent post on the NBA scandal , there are a few more scandals on the horizon.  Turkish football The 'best' one has to be the Turkish football referee scandal . It seems that despite the advent of legalised sports betting in the country, nobody thought to check if the officiators of the country's most popular sport should be checked to see if they had any betting accounts! That's a pretty fundamental piece of legalised betting - bring in rules banning players and officials from betting on the sport they are playing, then actually check they are complying. While the more streetwise ones will find ways to mask their activity, none of this lot made any attempt at all to hide their betting habits! 149 referees and assistant referees have been suspended, 371 of 571 match officials were found to have betting accounts, with over 150 actively using them. Seven head referees and 15 assistants in the Super Lig were caught in the net. Like most betting accounts, many w...

This is the fourth and final piece of my Melbourne Cup preview. See links below for the rest of the preview. The Lexus Melbourne Cup 2025 Of AU$10,910,000 Group 1 Handicap for 3yo and up. Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne 1500 local time, 0400 GMT Earlier pieces with runner-by-runner comments The Visitors - The Expats - The Locals SUMMARY Weather - this is the big talking point. Monday and Tuesday will be wet in Melbourne, but are we talking a gentle soak or a proper storm? Opinions vary and every time I look at the BOM forecast (Bureau of Meteorology), it seems to have changed a bit. Accordingly, the track manager has decided to leave the watering, meaning the track will end up in the Firm 2 range on Sunday (high of 30C) before the rain arrives. Flemington drains very well, the only timing we need to worry about is during the meeting - that's when it soaks into the hoof marks and leads to the track chopping up. At this point, I'm assuming a Firm 2 on Sunday, Soft 5 at the sta...

A preview in four parts - PART III I'll break up the preview into three runner-by-runner sections: The Visitors The Expats The Locals THE LOCALS (by breeding, includes NZ) 14. Half Yours, 53kg (8) 5yo G St Jean - La Gazelle 14:7-3-0, $3,841,840 Track - fourth in Turnbull Stks at only start here, Dist - never run past 2400m where he is 2 from 2. T: Tony & Calvin McEvoy J:Jamie Melham Biggest Result - won 2025 Caulfield Cup The local hope, the Caulfield Cup winner who started a clear favourite there and won without much stress. One would think that automatically makes him favourite for Flemington - but maybe not... At Caulfield everything went right for him. After drawing gate two, he sat one-off the fence, just beyond midfield, behind a rattling pace set by Adelaide River. He had cover in front and inside & out, expending the minimum amount of energy possible. On the turn, Jamie Melham was able to peel off the back of the horses in front, come seven or eight wide to avoid ti...

A preview in four parts - PART II I'll break up the preview into three runner-by-runner sections: The Visitors The Expats The Locals followed by a summary once the barriers are finalised and we have a clearer picture from the Bureau of Meteorology. Note ages are listed by their actual birthdate, rather than the Northern/Southern Hemisphere racing designation. (i.e. Al Riffa isn't automatically six years old when he crosses the equator) THE EXPATS 2. Buckaroo, 57kg (12) 6yo G Fastnet Rock - Roheryn 30:5-6-5, $3,446,148 Track - 3:0-1-0 Distance - ninth in last year's Cup T: Chris Waller J: Craig Williams Biggest Result - ran second in last weekend's Cox Plate, beaten a nose by Via Sistina. Ran a gallant ninth in last year's race after drawing 20 and coming widest on the turn. His run petered out in the last 200m but was probably entitled to, covering the extra ground. Arrives here in great form, getting within a nose of Via Sistina in the Cox Plate, albeit with not...

A preview in four parts - PART I It's the big race on Tuesday, my Christmas Day, and the race which stops the sane part of the nation in Australia. Doing a proper job of the preview can't be just left to one rushed post on the weekend, so this year I've pulled my finger out expanded the coverage to provide greater detail. At the time of publishing, the field isn't finalised but we have a good idea of almost all the runners. What we don't have is any certainty on the weather which right now could be ugly and it could just blow over. I'll break up the preview into three runner-by-runner sections: The Visitors The Expats The Locals followed by a summary once the barriers are finalised and we have a clearer picture from the Bureau of Meteorology. Note ages are listed by their actual birthdate, rather than the Northern/Southern Hemisphere racing designation. (i.e. Al Riffa isn't automatically six years old when he crosses the equator) 1. Al Riffa, 59kg (Barrier ...