Sport is made for betting

The supposedly sacred day of Good Friday to me just means an extra day to do the form for Saturday, and for Australian racing, this year it's the Golden Slipper, the richest 2yo race in the world. Worth $3.5m in total (equates to £2.11m or US$3.2m), it is open to all-comers, the best of this two-year-old crop. To put that in perspective, the entire Cheltenham festival was worth £3.4m in 2010. Held at Rosehill Gardens in western Sydney, the race suits Sydney's impatient 'I want it now' and 'News today, fish and chips wrapping tomorrow' style of living. Allowing a horse to develop for a career as a mature racehorse, perhaps over distance, rarely happens. So the Australian breeding industry has changed significantly. Everything is now about juvenile racing, but specifically up to a mile, rather than a Derby distance which is more than norm north of the equator. I'm not against sprinting, although I do prefer longer races, it's the heavy workload placed on 2...

Very tough at Rosehill on a wet track, the undercard has already had two 25/1 winners and nothing has won at under 6/1. I like two colts, Reward for Effort (#2) and Manhattan Rain (#3), but realistically, the rain and horses running wide, as they always do at Rosehill when it rains, makes it wide open. The exotic pools will be huge on the race, so have a crack at a trifecta or First 4, it promises to be a big dividend. If you lay the two favs, Real Saga and More Joyous, you'll get about 1.6 for 'the field'. The Golden Slipper is the world's richest 2yo race, worth AU$5 million, and is Sydney's rival to the Melbourne Cup.

1. Don't go overboard, it's the biggest race of the year in profile, but you can win just as much on the race before it or even a weak seller at Lingfield next week. 2. 40 horses over four and a half miles and lots of fences means your horse will need luck to win. Luck not to be taken out by a faller, luck not to be taken out by a riderless horse and luck to stay up when it clips the top of a fence. 3. Bet early - once the bookies at the track take over the market, the percentage will get wound right up to 140%+. Tonight and tomorrow morning, you'll get a lot, lot better than that by shopping around. 4. Check out the offers available - Victor Chandler will give you a free bet if you back a horse that falls. Boylesports are paying 1/4 the odds and SIX places. 5. Visit my free bets site to take advantage of the bonuses - Betfreebies Good luck, I'll post a bit later with some tips for the Grand National and the world's richest two-year-old race, the Golden Slipper fro...