A week to Christmas and all is relatively quiet on the sports front. I don’t see anything to get excited about this weekend, unlike Sky Sports whose ads have been trying to hype up the Portsmouth V Liverpool, Wolves v Burnley and West Ham v Chelsea matches. Maybe I’m getting a bit old and cranky but it just seems like more of the same old stuff to me. And I can’t really see anything worth backing in the Premier League fixtures. If pushed, I might chance a bet on Villa and Stoke being under 2.5 goals, but I ain’t pushed, so I won’t bet.
As for the horses, the week before Christmas is usually quiet and it is especially so this year with the card at Ascot snowed off, meaning the Long Walk Hurdle, one of the main long distance hurlde races in the season, will not be run tomorrow. By calling the fixture off early they helped efforts to have it rescheduled and it will be run at Newbury on Dec 29th instead. For the races that are on tomorrow, there are 2 horses that stand out for me as possible bets. One is Suntini in the 2m handicap chase at Haydock 1.50. He has the profile I would look for, being young (7-y-o), lightly weighted, good recent form, will like the soft going and the 2m trip. The only doubt is that he is relatively inexperienced, but you can’t really look for young and experienced! What puts me off is the price at about 5/2. I just think that is a bit short. The other horse that stands out is An Cathaoir Mor in the Novice Chase at Navan 3.00. His two runs over fences have been impressive, finishing behind River Liane and then Captain Cee Bee and Zaarito. Those are all good horses. The opposition tomorrow may not be in that class, although Jessie’s Dream could be. Again the drawback is the price. He is likely to be about 6/4 fav. I think I will pass on him too. Which means no bets at all for this Saturday.
