Sport is made for betting

The hurdling highlight of the day and the last race on ITV's (modern) debut as FTA racing broadcaster is the Relkeel Hurdle. What state the Prestbury Park track will be by that stage is anyone's guess with plenty of rain forecast. Stepping in to analyse this race in detail is Richard from Bet Catalyst , @betcatalyst . ----------------- Dornan Engineering Relkeel Hurdle Grade 2, £40,000, 2m4f56yds 1510 local, 0210 AEDT Ratings Key: Form : Green = last time out finish is a positive trend Horse : Green = C&D winner, Orange = Course winner Age : Green = positive age trend Trainer : Green = won the race before, Orange = placed in the race before Adjusted OR : Green = positive, Red = negative Master Rating : is the master speed rating, top three rated are in Yellow in descending order and is the main way they are rated for this race A + B : is speed indicators, Green = one of the top three on each indicator MySpeed Rating : is the secondary speed rating, top ...

Concluding the card at the home of National Hunt racing is the bumper, a race which often turns out a very good one. With only three runners having had more than one race start, there's a big sign saying POTENTIAL over all of them... Casting a shrewd eye over the field is another blog debutant, Tony Amato, @mato66 . Welcome aboard! ------------------- EBF Stallions & Cheltenham Pony Club NHF Listed, £20,000, approx 1m6f (1m5f209yds), New Course 1540 local, 0240 AEDT Plenty of decent horses have won this race over the years; The New One, Modus and Wishful Dremaing to name just a few, so it's safe to say trainers know what they have when entering for this race. I'm going to concentrate on the ones I think will make the market (I write this Friday evening before markets are available) and the ones I think stand out. COCKNEY WREN from the Harry Fry yard ran a fair second on debut at Taunton, beaten just a neck by a Henderson 4yr old. You can never discount one fr...

New Year's Day hangovers are best treated with a bit of punting in the brisk, clean air of the Cotswolds - Cheltenham on January 1 means there are only about 10 weeks until the Festival! And witrh the arrival of the next arbitrary group of 365 days, it's a warm welcome to some new contributors. Firest off the rank making his debut on the blog is Racing UK Tipstar winner, Harry Allwood, @H_Allwood1 . And you can read more on his blog (actually he only started it today, but I'm sure there'll be plenty more!) here . --------------------- BetBright Best For Festival Betting Handicap Chase £60,000, Grade 3, approx 2m5f (2m4f166yds), New Course 1400 local, 0100 AEDT The races at Cheltenham on New Year’s Day look set to be highly competitive, none more so than the BetBright Best For Festival Betting Handicap Chase that comes up at 2.00. Won last year by the reappearing Village Vic who showed a game attitude to fend off another reappearing rival Tenor Nivernais to compl...

More great work from William Kedjanyi, keejayOV2 , while his Wordpress site is out of action. Manwhile, I'll just chug along with my old Nokia, I mean Blogger, site... ---------------- PREMIER LEAGUE previews 30/12 - 1/1 Hull (10/3) v Everton (Evs) Everton are beginning to turn things around slightly. After a long winless run, they have finally begun to get some results together, taking advantage of a low intensity Arsenal performance to win here a couple of weeks ago and going down in the last seconds to rivals Liverpool. They took advantage again of weak opposition on Boxing Day when winning a poor game at Leicester in with both sides failed to inspire. Hull, however, look headed tor relegation although they were giving Manchester City a hard time until a Yay Tour penalty opened the floodgates, and this could be tight. That said, in Romelu Luaku and Kevin Mirallas they do have forward threats and they should be able to competitive competitively in the midfield. Hull looked ...

Boxing Day for an Aussie, even an expat one, means just one thing - CRICKET! Stepping up for possibly the first-ever cricket preview on the blog (can't remember and can't be arsed going back through every post!) is esteemed, prolific and multi-pronged writer, William Kedjanyi. Follow him via @keejayOV2 or his blog ... when it works again! ------------------------- Boxing Day Cricket What will be the first sign that Christmas Day is over and the feast of sport that will clog our screens over the next week? The first ball bowled in New Zealand as their ODI series against Bangladesh kicks off. The Black Caps swill have their eyes set on yet another home victory but this is a Bangladesh side that is improving all the time and is leaner, fitter and better coached than they’ve ever been, and there should be a good contest. An hour later, the first ball shall be bowled as Australia clash with Pakistan again, and if this test is anywhere near as exciting as the first – or towa...

For the hurdlers, they get their chance at Grade 1 glory in the Xmas Hurdle in another disappointingly small field. Still, four out of the five are pretty darn good horses... Back to Jon da Silva, @creamontop , for the preview. --------------------- 32Red Christmas Hurdle £100,000, Grade 1, Two Miles Kempton Boxing Day, 1440 local, 0140 AEDT We have a fair idea how good The New One is in small fields at park courses at two miles - both losses in this race to be fair. A blunder against My Tent or Yours causing a narrow loss and a mauling by Faugheen - Faugheen dominated him. If it's a crawl Ch'tibello can burn as he showed in the unnecessary Haydock race. My Tent or Yours appears best when finding himself in the lead after everything else has shot their bolt and I hope connections are considering the two mile handicap at Newbury again and off 155 I'd be interested. Gray Wolf River gives lie to the idea that padding these races with more numbers would make them ...

The highlight of Boxing Day sport in Britain is the King George Chase, the biggest jumps race outside the Cheltenham and Grant National Festivals. It's a clash of the old and the new, the defending champ against the rising upstart with just three chase starts to his name, but an absolutely dominant record in staying hurdles before taking on the sturdier obstacles. And then there's a two-time winner of the race going around as the bolter of the field. What a great event to behold while most of us are recovering from Christmas Day! Taking on the preview for this small but tantalising content in his own inimitable style is regular contributor, Jon da Silva, @creamontop . ------------------- 32Red King George VI Chase Grade 1, £209,000, Three Miles Kempton, 1515 local, 0215 AEDT Colin Tizzard, henceforth 'Big Col', knows his brass from his muck and I've noted his horses' habits of winning the most valuable races they contest at the expense of others. Now thr...

I don't often cover football on the blog but when you get an offer from esteemed tipster William Kedjanyi, @keejayOV2 , desperate for an outlet because WordPress was playing up... well, you'd be mad not to use it. Welcome back to the blog William! ----------------------------- PREMIER LEAGUE preview 26-28/12/16 Watford (5/4) v Crystal Palace (11/5) This game doesn’t appeal a whole lot. Watford looked to be the better side in their defeat at Sunderland but they were toothless with the final ball for all of the chances they made that weren’t beaten away by Jordan Pickford; Crystal Place couldn’t lay a glove on league leaders Chelsea last week, although no side has been able to for 11 straight weeks. The hosts, at home should be favourites; Crystal Palace have won just twice in 19 league away games. This might be one where both get on the scoresheet – Palace have only been held at Tottenham and Sunderland but have conceded huge amounts including to three of the bottom fiv...

Cup time at Sha Tin, courtesy of Davy Lane, @loscharruas. LONGINES Hong Kong Cup Group 1, 2000m, HK$25 million (£2.19m) 1430 local, 1730 AEDT, 0830 GMT My Idea of the Winner In a word: Maurice. Nothing original to say here. Every time I have played him, he’s won. He’s a beast. Noriyuki Huri is confident. Ryan Moore is confident. And all the Japanese cats on Twitter are confident. Nevertheless, I have a couple of reservations. As a rule, I tend not to play horses that are running in their last race. This ordinarily would rule out both Maurice and A Shin Hikari who both heading to stud. However, I have had to play both this year. Maurice because Maurice means Maurice and because it’s going to be a Yellow, Orange and Green Maurice. I have also included A Shin Hakari in a couple of minor across the card multiples. I had a 4 figure sum falling on to four Japanese horses in last year’s Hong Kong Cup. I thought I couldn’t lose. There were five Japanese horses in the race ...