Melbourne Cup Betting

With the new English football season less than 3 weeks away Sky Bet have opened there book to the public and some of their offers are really eye catching to say the least.

There first good looking offer is the Straight Forecast on the top 2 finishing positions in the League and 7/2 on Manchester United beating Chelsea just like last Season is very tempting. For all the Chelsea fans that think they will regain the title 4/1 on them finishing above United is also very generous. Now for the Straight Treble offers which I think are great bets if you mix them around.

My personal tip is to opt for Man-Utd, Chelsea and Liverpool to finish 1st 2nd and 3rd which when you consider their relative squads is a massive 9/1. Chelsea, Man-Utd and Liverpool (I really can’t see anybody breaking Man-Utd’s and Chelsea’s stranglehold on the top 2 places) finishing in that order is 11/1.

There is always one team that surprises everybody and this year with the appointment of Mark Hughes and a couple of very good signings already, Man-City are the team I think will raise a few eye brows and with Sky Bet giving them a 24 point head start (8 wins) and pricing them at 15/1 to win the League in the Handicap betting section, I will be having a crafty few quid on them hoping they can upset the big boys.

Also they are offering Man city at 5/1 to basically finish 5th in there betting without the top 4 offer which again is very generous.
But to end if you are looking for a early football bet for next season, Sky Bet is where you should be at.

Bet on Melbourne Cup

Melbourne Cup winner Efficient will finish the season as Australia’s highest earning racehorse, based on his lone win at Flemington last November.

The son of Zabeel was the only horse to top $3million in earnings in Australia over the past 12 months and he will be out to repeat when he tackles the Melbourne Cup Odds for a second time this year, attempting to join the likes of Think Big, Rain Lover, Peter Pan, Archer and Makybe Diva as dual winners of the great race.

Four other horses topped $2million this season: Golden Slipper winner Sebring, six times Group 1 winner Weekend Hussler and the Cox Plate hero El Segundo.

Each will be back this spring chasing bigger riches.

Efficient is the early Melbourne Cup Betting favourite, but Weekend Hussler’s trainer Ross McDonald is adamant he wants to attempt the famous race with his budding champion and bookmakers continue to report strong interest from punters.

Weekend Hussler is yet to race beyond 1600m, but McDonald has no qualms about him going to the 2040m of the Cox Plate, the 2400m of the Caulfield Cup and even the 3200m of the Melbourne Cup.

In all, 13 horses earned $1million or more in Australia this season, with Efficient, El Segundo, Tuesday Joy and Forensics the only names that also appeared on the list for the 2006-07 racing season.

Having given articles before about the history of the Melbourne Cup, with this one I would like to give a few pointers on this year’s race with a few horses that I feel have a chance of lifting the great Cup this year.
The main contender for this year’s race and obvious clear favourite will be the Australia’s own Danny O Brien trained horse ‘Master O Reilly’ and after already claiming the Caulfield Cup it will be a hard job for any horse to stop it claiming a famous double, so if you are a favourite backer and with it currently being touted at around the 4-1 mark now is the time to get on.
If you are looking for value there are a couple of higher priced horses that have caught my eye and may have a sniff of the Cup.
The first horse being at currently around the 13-1 and who is trained by someone that knows how to win here (Bart Cummings) is Sirmione and a little each-way punt could reap rewards.
Another hopeful and the best raider from foreign shores this year is the Luca Cumani trained Purple Moon which is currently 2nd favourite on a lot of sites and has a jockey on board that knows how to win the Cup and is the best possible challenger to Master O Reilly for the crown.

Unlike Australia, which races year round, Hong Kong take an annual break from racing and the season has just concluded.

Australian-bred sprinter Sacred Kingdom was edged out of the Horse of the Year honours by Good Ba Ba, but was awarded the Champion sprinter prize, following his win in the G1 HK International Sprint last December.

Sacred Kingdom is a son of Australia’s Champion Sire Encosta De Lago and is rated the best sprinter in the World. He was originally purchased for $200,000 from the 2005 Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale.

Gai Waterhouse purchased his half-brother, by Fastnet Rock, for $350,000 at this year’s Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale.

Other awards of note in Hong Kong included Vengeance Of Rain being awarded the lifetime achievement award.

This son of Zabeel originally started his racing career in Australia, before going on to be the best middle distance performer in Hong Kong and a Group 1 winner in Dubai.

His sire Zabeel is the sire of last year’s Melbourne Cup winner Efficient, who is the early favourite for this year’s renewal (Bet On Melbourne Cup now)

Other Zabeel Melbourne Cup winners have been Might And Power (1997) and Jezabeel (1998).

Hong Kong’s Champion Sire went to New Zealand based O’Reilly for the first time.

O’Reilly is the sire of last year’s runaway Caulfield Cup winner Master O’Reilly, who is being aimed at the race again this year, in addition to another tilt at the Melbourne Cup, in which he was a well beaten favourite last year.  You can find the latest Melbourne Cup Odds!

It may not be the Melbourne Cup Odds, but it certainly provided a great spectacle when the Irish bred Kerdem slugged it out best to win the Queensland Cup on Saturday.
In a stirring duel, Kerdem eventually got the better of the tough performer Sky Biscuit to win the 3200m feature.

With third placed Rezone also in among the slug fest on a rain sodden Eagle Farm, it provided one of the better spectacles of the Queensland Winter Racing carnival.
Alas, 3200m races are becoming thinner on the ground as each season progresses, with authorities continuing to focus on shorter contests.

The Melbourne and Sydney Cups are now the only 3200m Group 1 events run in Australia each season. A few years ago there were five, but the Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth Cups have all been downgraded in recent times.

The Queensland Turf Club then gave the Brisbane Cup the indignity of a distance reduction (to 2400m) last year and the event has lost its gloss.

The Brisbane Cup has been a useful guide to the Melbourne Cup Odds, with the year of 2000 springing to mind, where Brew trailed home Yippyio in that race.

A few months later the pair were fighting out the finish of the Melbourne Cup.

Even though the horses fighting it out on Saturday’s Queensland Cup were hardly top class, the spectacle of a 3200m race is one of the best in racing.

But sadly they are becoming fewer and farther between.

Thank goodness we still have the Melbourne Cup to provide the highlight of each racing season.