Kauto Star was always going to dominate the build up to the Cheltenham Festival. However, sadly the final ten days is not all about whether he can beat Long Run but will he, won’t he run in the Gold Cup. What a shame. A Gold Cup without Kauto Star takes away the one story that could have fired up the sports fan who only has a fleeting interest in racing. At Sky Kauto Star is the horse people talk about and is a regular story on Sky Sports News, a horse that transcends the sporting world. Few will have heard of Hurricane Fly or Frankel but Kauto Star generates interest across the sporting board. It was ominous to see him drift to 8.4 on Betdaq’s Gold Cup market on Thursday night but encouraging to see him shorten to 6.4 through Friday. Let’s hope the great horse recovers and makes the big race line-up.
In contrast I was delighted to hear this week that Darlan had no ill effects from his crashing fall at Newbury and he’s on target for the first race of the meeting, the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle. This is the horse AP McCoy told us to follow at the start of the season and he has already done us proud and looks to have a massive chance at Cheltenham. Money has come for him this week and Darlan is down to 6.6, yet I can see him starting even shorter on the day.
One of the great decisions this season must be Graham Wylie’s choice of Willie Mullins to train four of his horses. That decision has reaped major dividends. Boston Bob, Felix Younger, On His Own and Prince De Beauchene have won seven race between them and all hold chances at Cheltenham and Aintree with Prince De Beauchene favourite for the Grand National and Boston Bob shaping up as one of the Irish bankers for the Festival. What a change of fortunes this is for Wylie, who endured a difficult couple of years with Howard Johnson. I hope they decide to run Boston Bob in the Neptune as my Irish mole tells me this horse is very special.
Goals, goals and more goals! The crazy Premier League season goes on. I have been lucky enough to present on Sky Sports Manchester United 8 Arsenal 2, Manchester City 6 Manchester United 1, and Chelsea 3 Manchester United 3, but I think even those matches were surpassed by Super Sunday last weekend. The North London derby threw up seven more goals in another extraordinary match between two of the country’s top teams. There have now been a staggering 68 goals in the 14 meetings between the current top five Premier League teams this season. Those 14 games have featured an average of almost five-goals-per-game (4.86) and there have only been two clean sheets from a possible 28.
We have two more such fixtures this weekend – both live on Sky Sports – Liverpool v Arsenal and Tottenham v Manchester United, which may have punters eager to back over 2.5 goals on Betdaq once again.
However, I have a feeling both games may buck the season’s trend. Especially the Super Sunday game I will be hosting at White Hart Lane as Harry Redknapp will look to lock the back door having conceded five at Arsenal.
It’s a fascinating game for any number of reasons and it brings to end a really tough run of fixtures for Manchester United. At the start of the run that has seen them play Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea, Gary Neville said that if they were still only four or five points behind Manchester City then they would be within striking range for the run-in. Sir Alex has talked about his team ‘surviving’ at White Hart Lane and if they do come away unscathed and only two points behind City then I can see them shortening significantly from 2.7 on Betdaq. It’s been a key period of the season, Manchester United have risen to the challenge and it’s a brave punter that opposes them at 2.56 on Super Sunday.
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