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Considering the Paddy Power Imperial Cup at Sandown is always a tremendously competitive handicap hurdle on paper, favourites have had a particularly impressive record in recent seasons. In the last 10 years, five market leaders have been first past the post and, of course, there’s a big bonus awaiting the winner if they go on to success in the County Hurdle at Cheltenham next week. That all bodes well for Qaspal, who still holds an entry at the Festival and is probably improving more quickly than the handicapper can reassess him. Not only that, Philip Hobbs‘ gelding has already won at Sandown and will again have Tony McCoy in the saddle. With Qaspal (a general 9-2) only carrying 10st3lbs, the partnership should take all the beating, although there aren’t many obvious front-runners in the 26-strong field which is a slight cause for concern. Ruby Walsh rides Pepe Simo (7-1 with Skybet, Totesport and Victor Chandler) for champion trainer Paul Nicholls. But he has a lot of weight for a novice and I’d be just as interested in stablemate Pistolet Noir at more than three times that price (a general 25-1). Still only a four-year-old, connections paid a handsome sum to buy him out of Nick Williams‘ yard after he won at Cheltenham in November and he has to be of interest in his first handicap off a mark of 137. Another relative lightweight that appeals at a big price is Cheshire Prince. A regular winner on the flat, the Desert Prince gelding has taken well to hurdles and has already scored twice at Huntingdon (latest success has worked out well) this season. He appeared to find two and a half miles beyond him at Doncaster last time but was still far from disgraced and a return to a stiff two miles is very much in his favour. As he hails from an unfashionable yard, bookmakers may have been guilty of underestimating his chances and I’ll be having a little bit of the 33-1 that Skybet, Betfred and William Hill have priced him up at. The sponsors, by the way, are guaranteeing you’ll be paid at the best price if taking their current odds on the race.

Let’s be honest, nobody is going to get rich backing England to win their three-match one-day series in Bangladesh at a best 1-4 with betfred so we are going to have to examine alternative options to keep the wolves from the door this week. Backing Graeme Swann to take most wickets is certainly viable. Swann (11-4 with Victor Chandler) has given every indication he will thrive on the Bangladesh wickets and, following a tremendous Ashes series and another solid showing in South Africa, is showing no sign of letting his standards drop. He again shone in last week’s two T20 games against Pakistan in Dubai and in England’s warm-up match against a Bangladeshi Board XI and is a near-certainty to start all three one-day games and be given his full quota of overs with the rest of England’s attack having a fragile look about it at present. Stuart Broad, 11-4 with Stan James and Ladbrokes, is probably the only other of England’s bowlers likely to feature in every match but the youngster can still blow a little hot and cold and looks a risky proposition at that price to me. James Tredwell, England’s second spinner, can be backed at a general 6-1 while Yorkshire team-mates Tim Bresnan and Ajmal Shahzad are a best 11-2 (bet365 and extrabet) and 25-1 (skybet) respectively to take most Bangladesh wickets. You can almost certainly guarantee yourself a profit by scouring the correct score markets as well. Let’s not forget, England have played and beaten Bangladesh eight times in the 50-over format of the game and most of those victories were by wide margins. This may be a bit of an experimental squad being led by Alastair Cook but it’s still one that contains proven one-day and Test performers in the shape of Swann, Broad, Cook, Collingwood, Pietersen and Prior and they will have no excuses if failing. Given that, Victor Chandler’s 5-4 for a 3-0 England whitewash shouldn’t be missed, though you can still employ a safety net in the shape of totesport’s 11-5 for a 2-1 scoreline should the England selectors decide to give some fringe players an outing or a touch of complacency creeps in. Either result would still turn you a profit. Kevin Pietersen, incidentally, heads the top England batsmen market at a general 3-1 but you can get 5-1 with skybet against him being upstaged by England’s new ‘South African’ scoring sensation Craig Kieswetter. 

What is patently obvious, looking at the stats of this week’s Totesport Trophy at Newbury, is that anything trained by either Nicky Henderson or Gary Moore deserves the utmost respect. Henderson saddles four in this year’s renewal of the UK’s most valuable handicap hurdle with stable jockey Barry Geraghty partnering Spirit River, an impressive winner on his latest outing at Cheltenham in December. Spirit River (a general 7-1) has only had five career starts to date so is probably open to more improvement than most and it’s easy to see why he currently heads the market. Stablemate Fairyland (22-1 with sportingbet) is also an interesting runner, however, in that she’s a recent C&D winner (beat Frontier Dancer here last time) and stays further than this 2m, a valuable asset to possess in a race which is always run at a tremendous pace. But I think the Moore yard has tremendous prospects of landing a third consecutive Totesport Trophy via Harry Tricker. The six-year-old displayed a tremendous turn of foot to beat an in-form Zabeel Palace at Sandown in November before splitting Champion Hurdle prospect Khyber Kim and subsequent Grade 2 winner Medermit in the prestigious Greatwood Hurdle at Cheltenham shortly after. The handicapper saw fit to raise Harry Tricker (8-1 with Ladbrokes, Betfred and on betfair) 12lbs for that but regular jockey Andrew Glassonbury reduces that burden by 3lb and this appears to have been his target for a while. Given luck in running, Harry Tricker’s speed could be the deciding factor in this. Other contenders to watch out for include the novice Manyriverstocross (11-1 with Stan James and Coral) whom Alan King rates highly. He was a decent stayer on the flat and has carried that form into his hurdling career though he weakened quickly over a longer distance here last time, and Mamlook (a general 9-1 chance). The latter won a shade cosily at Ascot last month after travelling strongly throughout but he isn’t that big and there’s a chance he may get bullied in this big field over a trip that is probably on the sharp side for him nowadays and punters have been preferring stablemate Ronaldo Des Mottes (10-1 on Coral and sportingbet) so far. Takeroc (11-1 with Coral) has proved popular with punters since it was announced he was to be partnered by Ruby Walsh but he hasn’t shown enough over hurdles for me to warrant his price and neither has Tony McCoy’s mount Get Me Out Of Here, 8-1 with bet365 and Stan James, who may be unbeaten but has never met opposition of this calibre before. Songe (a general 40-1) has reportedly been rejuvenated by a soft palate operation and is well treated on his best form. If the ground turned really heavy he would be of real interest and certainly makes more appeal as an each-way investment than some at much shorter odds.

The frost may have deprived us of one major national hunt betting heat at Doncaster last week but the weather forecast for Town Moor looks more favourable for this weekend and I fancy the talented Tartak to go very close in the Blue Square Handicap Chase. Traditionally, this is a race in which the up-and-coming classy chasers excel. No horse carrying less than 11st has triumphed since 2003, while you would have to go back another year to find a winner aged nine or older. Take into account those stats and what, on paper, looks a very tricky puzzle to solve suddenly becomes less complex. I’ve a lot of respect for top weight Kalahari King (available at 10-1) but trainer Ferdy Murphy has already stated that his season-long target is the Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham in March, for which he is also a general 10-1 chance, so this run might be needed after a 287-day break. Not surprisingly, Paul Nicholls‘ two runners are well to the fore in the betting with stable jockey Ruby Walsh preferring the consistent Free World (5-1 in most places), who has been placed in his last six starts, ahead of last year’s winner I’msingingtheblues. The latter, available at a general 8-1, is 7lbs higher in the weights this time around. But if you’re looking for value (and who isn’t), how about Tartak? The seven-year-old can be backed at 12-1 with totesport, betfred, victor chandler, Paddy Power, Ladbrokes and William Hill, who seem to have priced up Tom George’s gelding on the basis that he’s never won over a trip this short before. His stamina, however, is what attracts him to me in this contest. He’s been pitched in against top-class opposition so far this term and was far from disgraced when 5th in the Arkle Chase last season over 2m when finishing ahead of I’msingingtheblues (4lbs worse off). The weights today also give him every chance of reversing that form with runner-up Kalahari King and, with a plethora of front-runners to ensure a strong gallop, Tartak should also have the race run to suit. You only have to go back to Aintree last year, when Tartak beat Deep Purple, Planet Of Sound and Calgary Bay, to realise that he shouldn’t be anywhere near his current price!

France are 13-8 favourites with Blue Square, Stan James and 888sport to win rugby union’s Six Nations, which gets under way at the weekend, and as short as 11-8 in places. Are they having a laugh? Seriously, how could anyone put money on Les Bleus while the enigmatic Marc Lievremont remains in charge? Prone to unfathomable errors of judgement where team matters are concerned and liable to change a winning formula on a whim, half the time not even the French themselves seem to know what to expect from their team and that would be amajor worry for anyone thinking of following the market. Despite their clubs dominating in the Heineken Cup this season, they are just too unpredictable to back in my eyes and it’s no coincidence that they haven’t won the Six Nations title for six years. So with Italy (250-1 with most bookmakers) again set for their annual role as whipping boys – who are we putting up? Well, in all honesty, there can only be one answer. Ireland, I believe, are a class apart from the other northern hemisphere countries at the moment, a fact reflected in the autumn internationals against the big teams from south of the equator. A victory over South Africa and a pulsating draw against the Wallabies was followed up by a demolition job on Fiji, results which put the efforts of their Six Nations rivals in the shade. Brian O’Driscoll is still the best in his position in the world, and Rob Kearney can also rightly call himself world-class nowadays as well. Add to that, a powerful pack and the experience of last year’s Grand Slam and you should have a winning formula. I wouldn’t have marked up the Irish anywhere near the widely avaiable 5-2 and, though they have to go to Paris and Twickenham this season, another Irish Grand Slam (generally 6-1) is by no means out of the question. Extrabet have also priced up straight forecast odds this year and I might be interested in the Ireland-Scotland combo at 40-1. The Scots are a bit like the French in that you never know what you are going to get but they may have made a shrewd move in appointing Andy Robinson as coach and won’t be easy to beat if the autumn internationals are a good guide. A remarkable victory over Australia showed what the Scots can do when they stick to their game plan and they are more than capable of springing a couple of surprises this term. England’s dismal showing in last year’s champiosnhip and an injury-hit autumn doesn’t inspire confidence that they’ll be in the shake-up so extrabet and totesport’s 5-1 looks short but what of Wales? Winners of the Grand Slam in 2008 but disappointing in the main last season, they looked a dispirited bunch on their last outing at the Millenium Stadium and would probably have to win at Twickenham on the opening day if they are to get themselves back on track. I think that’s unlikely and I’m not remotely interested in Paddy Power and Ladbrokes‘ quote of 5-1 against the Welsh winning the Six Nations – that’s reserved for the men in green!

It’s into the Semi Finals of the Snooker Totesport Welsh Open on Saturday, with the Rocket Ronnie O’Sullivan looking in some blistering form. In his demolishing of Northern Ireland’s Mark Allen (who even waved a white flag on the end of his cue in jest to O’Sullivan’s dominance), Ronnie missed two golden opportunities to finish off a 147 maximum break. Had he achieved it, he would have been the first player to reach 10 maximums in professional competitions. Those chances agonising slipped by, though it didn’t hinder the Rocket’s progress any. He is looking sharp, a lot sharper than he was at the recent Masters for some reason.

Master’s Winner Mark Selby crashed and burned against John Higgins in their Quarter Final match, raising interesting points about how certain players perform above and beyond at certain tournaments. This was a perfect opportunity for Selby to stamp his authority all over the game, but instead he quietly bowed out in a 5-2 defeat. Higgins’s victory now pits him against the irrepressible O’Sullivan in the second semi final match.

Ali Carter, who, to be honest, rarely causes much of a ripple at the major tournaments, clearly likes the Welsh Open. He is the current holder, and seems to be on a severe mission to make sure that he retains it. He will now face the toughest test in his defence, as he takes on Stephen Maguire in the first of Saturday’s semi finals. Scot Maguire is one of those players who has the complete game, and the World Number Two looks as if he just needs a couple of tournaments wins under his belt to take his game onto the next level. A “nearly man” perhaps would be a fair but harsh description. He is a great player to watch though on his day, and should start as favourite against the defending champion.

Totesport Welsh Open Semi Final Match Odds
Ronnie O’Sullivan to win: 4/6 at SkyBet
John Higgins to win: 11/8 at BetFred

Welsh Open Outright Winner Odds
Ronnie O’Sullivan – 6/4 at SportingBet
John Higgins – 11/4 at Totesport
Stephen Maguire – 4/1 at Paddy Power
Ali Carter – 11/2 at BetFred

If you think Ronnie is set to make a 147 in this tournament, then he is 7/1 at Totesport

You know I’m going out on a bit of a limb here, but I think that the step up in distance may be just what Micheal Flips has been looking for and Andy Turnell’s son of champion stayer Kayf Tara is attractively priced at 14-1 with totesport to land the 2m5f williamhill.com Lanzarote Hurdle (Handicap) at Kempton. Stamina certainly shouldn’t be an issue with Micheal (yes, that is how you spell it!) Flips, who won a point to point over 3m in Ireland as a four-year-old, and there is no doubting his ability to act around Kempton either. The six-year-old beat Fairyland and Hot Diamond (both successful next time) in eye-catching fashion over two miles here just over a year ago and though well beaten at both the Cheltenham and Aintree Festivals after had excuses on both occasions, attempting to give weight away to all but one of his rivals in Grade 2 company on the latter occasion. After a fair reappearance at Ascot, it could be argued that his latest Newbury run suggests he is in the handicapper’s grip now but that was on a left-handed track. Travelling the opposite way round, Micheal Flips should feel more at home and the extra yardage can bring out the best in him here. This being a competitive handicap, dangers abound everywhere of course. Nicky Henderson appears to have kept his team ticking over during the cold spell so the claims of Tasheba have to be taken seriously. He defied a welter burden to score over 2m1f at Sandown last month and has stablemate Duc De Reigniere (12-1 with bet365) at the top of the handicap to ensure the weights remain compact here. A stayer on the flat and already a winner over 2m4f over hurdles, there’ll be plenty of takers for bet365 and Stan James‘ 5-1. Aidan Coleman is reportedly keen on the chances of his mount Aachen (15-2 with totesport), who was a prolific winner on the flat and took well to hurdles last season. But he hasn’t raced since April of last year so we’ll stick with Micheal Flips to be the spark of cheer that will lead us out of the depths of winter.

Here we go again – will 2010 prove to be another year waiting for Andy Murray to finally come of age and land a Grand Slam, or will he prove all of his doubters wrong? I’m going to stick my neck out and say it will the latter because, put quite simply, Murray is simply too good not to make the breakthrough sooner rather than later.  The 22-year-old Scot shows no sign of being under pressure to end a frustrating run of near-misses in the tournaments that really that matter and his patience could well be rewarded in the Australian Open at Melbourne over the next couple of weeks. Hardcourt is undoubtedly Murray’s favoured sphere (five of his six tournament wins on the ATP Tour last year were on the surface) and he looked in pretty good nick in last week’s Hopman Cup, despite a surprise singles defeat in the final to Tommy Robredo. Some might argue that dropping to fifth in the world rankings has done no favours to Murray in Melbourne. Holder Rafael Nadal is now a possible quarter-final opponent with US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro seeded to await the winner of that one in the last four. However, there are big questions marks against those two at present. Del Potro, a general 6-1 chance, pulled out of last week’s AAMI Classic with a wrist injury and has been nursing a sore knee for the past few weeks, while reigning champion Nadal hasn’t won an ATP title for more than eight months. The Spaniard (4-1 with totesport), despite holding a 7-2 career verdict over Murray, clearly doesn’t get around the court as quickly as he did before last year’s serious injury and, though still having all the shots in his arsenal, may be vulnerable against Murray’s mobility. Of course, even if he reaches the final, the Scot (13-2 with betfred, Victor Chandler and Paddy Power) will still have to beat either Roger Federer or Novak Djokovic. Federer (3-1 with boylesports and extrabet) is bidding for an amazing 16th Grand Slam, having bounced back from defeat in an epic final against Nadal in Melbourne 12 months ago to win at both Roland Garros and Wimbledon. He also lost out to Djokovic here in 2008, however, and maybe this tournament comes a little too early in the season for him nowadays. Indeed, I believe Djokovic may be the one to emerge from the top half of the draw. He’s been in cracking shape on the ATP Tour over the last few months, winning in Beijing, Basel and Paris at the latter end of 2009, and betfair’s 8-1 is a cracking bet considering he’ll make the semi-finals at least on all known form. Backing the Serbian and the Scot at either end of the draw seems a sensible policy to me with doubts over their three main rivals.

Last year’s Masters at Wembley Arena produced one of the best finishes of recent times on snooker’s Grand Prix circuit, with Ronnie O’Sullivan recovering from a 7-5 deficit in the final to edge out Mark Selby (a general 10-1 this time) 10-8. No surprise, then, that ‘The Rocket‘ is a general 11-4 market leader to triumph again this time around. This is undoubtedly O’Sullivan’s favourite tournament and he’ll be bringing added colour to events this week with a new purple cue supplied by sponsors Premier Inn. But though he’ll bidding for a fifth success at Wembley, it’s probably fair to say the Essex cueman isn’t exactly in the form of his life at present. He went out of the Championship League last week and lost out in the UK Championship semi-finals before Christmas, though admittedly that was only by one frame to world champion John Higgins. He also faces a tricky first-round encounter with the ever-improving Neil Robertson (14-1 with totesport). Higgins, a general 11-2 chance, is the top seed in the bottom half of the draw in the Pokerstars.com Masters but that is arguably the toughest section and a potential quarter-final with Ding Junhui may well prove to be the tournament’s pivotal clash. Ding surpassed Thailand’s James Wattana in becoming the most successful Asian player in snooker history when he landed a second UK Championship at Telford recently, capping a renaissance that seemed most unlikely 18 months earlier when he was on the brink of dropping out of the world’s top 16. However, time spent back home in China and a new fitness regime has clearly benefited Ding, who has also reached the quarter-finals of the Shanghai Masters this season as well as the final of the Grand Prix in Glasgow. Extrabet’s 11-1 will look very big if he manages to topple Higgins in the last eight. This week’s Masters is also significant in that it sees the return to top-flight snooker of veteran Jimmy White. ‘The Whirlwind‘ is only a peripheral figure on the circuit nowadays but has been handed a wild-card entry at Wembley and will take on Mark King (a general 125-1) in a preliminary round play-off for the right to meet Stephen Maguire (10-1 with Coral) in the last 16. The fact that extrabet are offering odds of 250-1 against one of the sport’s iconic figures shows just how far White’s stock has fallen since his heyday and my money will be on Ding Junhui.

A stunning performance by Team GB in the 2008 Beijing Olympics undoubtedly went a long way towards securing last year’s Sports Personality Of The Year award for Sir Chris Hoy. But the public support for a cyclist, albeit an exceptional one, also indicated a change of attitude towards less mainstream sports, which goes a long way towards explaining the sustained interest in Jessica Ennis to win this year’s award. Britain’s first-ever winner of the heptathlon gold medal at the World Athletic Championships, the 23-year-old continues to endear herself to the nation, no doubt helped by a bubbly personality and looks that, while not quite in the Denise Lewis class, are still eminently pleasing on the eye. It’s the gritty determination to succeed which is her most attractive quality, however, and it’s no surprise that ‘Tadpole’, as she’s known on the track, has leap-frogged the likes of Ashes heroes Andrew Strauss (18-1 with totesport) and former winner Andrew Flintoff (66-1 with betfred and 888sport) in the betting for next month’s accolade, betfred and Stan James‘ 4-1 being the best price now available. The market would suggest that Ennis still has it all to do to collect more votes than current favourite Jenson Button – but does she? Let’s not forget that Lewis Hamilton was an overwhelming choice of the pundits to win last year’s Sports Personailty of The Year and Button’s credentials this time are almost identical. Indeed, one could argue, his triumph in the World Drivers’ Championship has been less spectacular than that of Hamilton 12 months previously. This year’s award ceremony is also been held in Sheffield, Ennis‘ home town, which must also count for something as must the fact that female athletes have an outstanding record when it comes to winning this award. From Dorothy Hyman and Mary Rand in the 1960s, Mary Peters, Fatima Whitbread, Liz McColgan, Paula Radcliffe and Kelly Holmes have all had their names engraved on the trophy. David Haye could well be star in waiting in boxing’s heavyweight division but his low-key acquisition of the WBA world title last week hardly set the pulse rating and bet365’s 7-1 is only the best of a pretty miserly set of odds from the layers that he’ll follow in the footsteps of Henry Cooper, Lennox Lewis and Joe Calzaghe at this stage of his career and it’s the multi-talented Jessica who’ll be getting my vote on the night.