Sport is made for betting

It's back to racing after a magnificent Olympic fortnight and the rest of the month is packed full of quality action in the UK and abroad. Mark Rowntree, @uptheirons007 , returns to the blog to analyse one of the smaller races on Saturday's Great St. Wilfrid Stakes card at Ripon. Horn Blower Conditions Stakes Preview The Horn Blower Conditions Stakes is a race of fine local traditions run annually at the Garden Race Track of North Yorkshire, Ripon. A Class 3 event for two year olds, the first prize for the 2012 renewal is over £7,500. Last years event was taken by Jessie’s Spirit who represented Ann Duffield’s Sun Hill stables at Constable Burton near Middleham. Analysis Luck represents the powerful Kevin Ryan yard. Luck was well touted ahead of his debut at Hamilton and was sent off a warm order running out a deeply impressive 7 length winner in a five runner contest. Clearly, this has been a likely target since. On the bare form, he certainly has more to prove in Clas...

If your appetite for betting on a wider range of sports has been whetted by the Olympics, then I highly recommend taking up @wheelie1977 's subscription offer for cycling tips. Betting on cycling and coverage by bookmakers has grown rapidly in recent years, on the back of increased profiles and success of British riders, plus the big investment from Sky in a professional team. There are several big races left and Wheelie is offering a special deal until the end of the year. Check through my Olympic previews link (right) for his cycling material, and he also tipped up the 10/1 winner of the San Sebastian Classic yesterday. One of the great races of pro cycling, La Vuelta d'Espana kicks off this weekend. I'm a subscriber, you should be too! Check out his website here - http://wheeliebets.com/category/vuelta-despana/ , contact details on the site to sign up. If you do sign up, tell him I sent you and he'll owe me a beer :)

I'll add to these throughout the day, so check back later for updates. Women's High Jump This event has lost its sparkle without Vlasic (injured) and Friedrich (DNQ, out of form this year) so it may not take an outstanding height ti claim gold. Chicherova sets the standard - current world champion and bronze medallist from Beijing. Her only blip outdoors was at the Crystal Palace Diamond League event which I'm prepared to forgive with the horrible weather that weekend. She has the two best outdoor jumps of the season (2.03 and 2.02) and recorded several 2m jumps during the indoor season as well (including 2.06m). American Chaunte Lowe is the main danger, the market see this as a real two-horse race. Lowe has picked off four Diamond League events this season but has only cleared two metres sporadically - 3/10 competitions outdoors, 1/8 indoors in 2012 compared to Chicherova's 3/5 outdoors and 5/6 under a roof. If there's one competitor to set a new personal be...

The world is a much happier place after landing a few decent bets in recent days - Netherlands to win the men's hockey semi, then Lavillenie and Asil Cakir in the athletics stadium last night. If I'd had the balls to lay the USA in the men's 4x400m relay, as I'd tweeted earlier in the week (odds-on favourites, yet no runners in the 400m final - just a bit odd I thought), it would have been a huge night. Anyway, back to the action….. Men's Hockey Spain v Belgium 11.30am BST One of the ranking games first. These sides both finished third in their group which is a massive achievement for Belgium, a nation which rarely mixes with the elite of the sport. They started their group against the best two teams (Netherlands and Germany, today's finalists) with honourable losses and then finished the group with two wins and a draw. Third in the group gives them a shot at being ranked in the top five in the world - something I doubt they've ever achieved before, cer...

Perfect conditions for track and field action tonight, after last night's blistering world record by David Rudisha and the repeat sprint double from Usian Bolt, what more is in store? I haven't bothered to count my P&L for the athletics part of the Games, it's been a sob story of near misses, so make of this what you will... Men's Pole Vault Renaud Lavillenie sets the standard here with a string of wins this year all topping 5.80m. His last month however hasn't been quite so strong with 5.77, 5.73 and 5.40 for best vaults (5.40 at Crystal Palace slightly excusable due to cold, wet weather). He pulled out 5.95 to win the World Indoors this year and 5.97 to win the European Championship, but has yet to better third at a World Championships outdoors. Choker on the big stage or still maturing? He's only 25 and his profile has all been in the right direction (yet to set a new PB in 2012, but this has obviously been the target all year). I opposed Steve Hooker...

Off to the GB hockey semi-final tonight, no aths action for me. Rudisha too short, Bolt too short, haven't looked at the women's javelin where Spotakova usually sets the standard. A double with the two superstars of men's track could be on the cards, but I've hit the bar with that many seconds and thirds this week, I fear I'd get one of the great men beat! I did mention laying Christian Taylor in the triple jump on Sports Tonight TV last night, but that would only be for an interest bet, nothing serious. Bet of the night, as declared yesterday, is Netherlands to beat GB in the hockey. 1.91 to win in regular time is significant overs. Now that the Aussies are out, the Dutch men will win gold. Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone on O2

Quick write-up, I'm on Ch 498 (Primetime on Sky platform) tonight at 7pm in the punters show. W400m Hurdles Natalya Antyukh is favourite here but I fear she has shown her cards too soon. She ran her fastest time for two years in the semi, and she'll need to better that again to win the final. Lashinda Demus holds a 6:1 record over the Russian in finals, and has a history of taking at least a second off her time for the final. At around 9/4 she is a great bet. 2pts Demus 3.4 Bet365, Sportingbet (bet down to 2.8) W Long Jump Brittney Reese is clear favourite but struggled to clear qualifying. If she jumps 7.15, she wins. But that's a big if at major events and there's a pack of wolves baying at her heels. Deloach is the one coming through to put pressure on her, while the eastern bloc of Nazarova, Sokolova and Mironchyk-Ivanova should ensure the winner needs to jump 6.85m at least. And then there's Proctor for the home nation. I'm willing to...

Netherlands - as with their men's team, the Dutch ladies have yet to drop a point. They are defending champions and took the silver in Athens. Apart from a 3-0 victory over Belgium (bottom of the group) on opening day, they have only won their matches by a single goal indicating low margin for error on the day. Their penalty corner conversion rate is rubbish at this level - 1/8 against Belgium, 0/10 against China - so it's their field play which needs to get them over the line. A risk at odds-on for the title I reckon... Argentina - bronze medallists at the last two Olympics, silver in Sydney, this will be the last chance for the great Luciana Aymar to get her hands on Olympic gold before she retires. Apart from the shock 0-1 result against bottom-placed USA in the group stage, this team have been very solid, with three wins and a draw, conceding no more than one goal per game. In the final match, they needed a draw or better against Australia, and they locked the game down ...

Down to the final four in both events now, time to analyse the nations still in contention: MEN Australia - prohibitive favourites before the tournament but their group form has ranged from scintillating to mediocre. They were bully boys against South Africa in game 1 (6-0), Spain in the second match (5-0) and then Pakistan (7-0) in the final match when they were under a bit of pressure. In between though, they gave up two and three-goal leads respectively against Argentina (ended 2-2), and Great Britain (ended 3-3). They can't afford mistakes like that at the business end of the tournament - they are the team being hunted, and traditional rivals Germany and the Netherlands will not allow them an inch. Netherlands - haven't lost a group game at the Olympics since 2000, but that hasn't led to a trio of gold medals - just one the one (Sydney) and they didn't even get a medal in Beijing. Slow starters, win only a 3-2 win over India, who are now terrible despite their...