Monday, March 7, 2011
Sports World |
- Phillies' camp all about Cliff Lee
- Which horses can spring a Cheltenham surprise?
- Dubh looks the Arkle Chase value bet
| Phillies' camp all about Cliff Lee Posted: 07 Mar 2011 09:43 AM PST As the Philadelphia Phillies opened camp for spring training, everyone looking at March Madness odds knew there would be a lot of media attention. Afterall, the Phillies are a World Series contender and are loaded with All-Stars and future Hall of Famers. But as it turns out, most of the attention from March Madness Betting pundits is on one guy. The newest guy, Cliff Lee. He is also the guy who many expect will help the Phillies win another World Series in 2011. So despite a starting rotation of Roy Halladay, who is the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner, Cole Hamels and Joe Blanton, who have World Series rings and Roy Oswalt, who has more 20-win seasons and All-Star game appearances than Lee, everyone is talking and following Lee. It makes sense seeing as how the team landed his talents. The Phillies stunned the baseball world when they lured Lee away from the Texas Rangers and out of the grasp of the New York Yankees. When you pull off something like that, it turns Lee into an instant rock star and home town hero. Lee got a taste of the World Series with the Phillies in '09 and the Rangers last year. But he didn't win a title and he chose Philadelphia because he wants to get over that hump in Philly. This will be the second stint with the Phillies for Lee. He first joined the Phillies in 2009 in a trade with Cleveland. He had a sensational postseason, going 4-0 and earning two wins in the World Series. But the Yankees won the title in the end. Lee never actually wanted to leave Philadelphia, but the team feared it wouldn't be able to afford him when his contract was up after the season. So, he was dealt to Seattle on the same day Halladay was acquired from Toronto. The Phillies then tried to reacquire Lee last July, but ended up getting Oswalt from Houston instead. Now the Phillies have all of those pitchers in their lineup and easily possess the scariest pitching staff in baseball. The most exciting part for Lee heading into the 2011 season is he can simply focus on pitching again. Lee doesn't have to worry about trade rumours or wonder where he'll end up going in the summer this time. He is with the Phillies for the full season and one that he hopes ends with his first World Series title.  |
| Which horses can spring a Cheltenham surprise? Posted: 07 Mar 2011 04:15 AM PST Although plenty of the focus at the Cheltenham Festival is on the Championship events it is often the handicaps that see some of the biggest gambles landed as horses who have been specially prepared for the day come to life. So where are the potential "plots" this year, well with the weights now published here's a selection of horses who could well score at decent prices in the Festival handicaps. First up is the Nicky Henderson trained Tanks For That, he's had a light campaign, although he has one piece of form that advertises his chance very well, his second to Champion Chase contender Woolcombe Folly in December. Since then he has only been seen out once over hurdles and although he wasn't competitive in that outing it kept him ticking over. Remember that the Grand Annual that he is to be aimed at is named after the trainer's father and Henderson has won the race before with Greenhope who was given a very similar preparation to Tanks For That and anyone looking to bet on Cheltenham racing should remember this. It's not often that you see a Royal Ascot winner running at Prestbury Park but David Pipe's Junior will be a versatile contender in whatever race he runs in. He's in the Pertemps Hurdle and a couple of chases, with the Pipe team leaning towards the Kim Muir. With a decent amateur doing the steering in that race he would be an interesting contender especially on good ground. Snap Tie has not raced since winning a novice chase at Cheltenham in October 2009 and at first glance does not look the most obvious candidate for the County Hurdle. But his Cheltenham record bears close inspection (2-6-1-2-2-3-7-1) and the seventh in the Champion Hurdle saw him unluckily left at the start. There is a quiet confidence from the Hobbs team and Snap Tie is being steadily backed with plenty of Cheltenham 2011 bets. There are sure to be plenty of extra plots in the run up to the Festival but those three are of interest from three powerful stable which have had Cheltenham Festival handicap success in the past and should be respected when the money comes.  |
| Dubh looks the Arkle Chase value bet Posted: 07 Mar 2011 02:20 AM PST Outside of the hugely competitive handicap events at the forthcoming Cheltenham Festivals, there are few championship races that look quite as wide open as the Irish Independent Arkle Chase on the opening day of the meeting, writes Elliot Slater. It's hard to say with any certainty just which one of the three market principals - Medermit, Ghizao or Finian's Rainbow – will actually be sent off favourite, and each one of the trio will arrive at the starting tape for the two-mile novice chasing event with strong claims based on solid form coming into the race. Having given the matter plenty of thought, I have chosen to look slightly further down the ante-post list for the race and keep coming back to the chance of Ireland's Realt Dubh, currently on offer at odds of around 8/1. Lots of punters will be focused on the Cheltenham Gold Cup betting, but the Arkle Chase looks set to be an intriguing contest. There are very few form lines connecting the form of this season's British and Irish novice chasers so it is hard to say conclusively that the British horses are better – as the market suggests. Possibly because so many of the Irish races have been run on very testing ground, bookmakers and punters alike are assuming that only heavy conditions will suit the Irish raiders, but as the ground is likely to be on the soft side of good on the opening day of the fixture and there will be a beautiful covering of grass, that, in my opinion, rather negates the ground argument. Realt Dubh has won three of his five novice chases (two at Grade 1 level), jumps well, has a fine cruising speed, and a willing attitude. He ran creditably at Cheltenham in 2009 over hurdles when seventh to Mikael d'Haguenet over a trip in excess of his best, is in fine form, and represents the Noel Meade/Paul Carberry team that should always be respected. I would suggest that 8/1 is a very fair price, and should the ground ease before the opening day of the four-day extravaganza those odds will have appeared very generous indeed compared to his likely SP. Meanwhile, the Grand National betting prices have been fluctuating vastly since the publication of the official weights last month. Punters clearly can't decide who has the best chance of landing the race, and favouritism is likely to be contested until the off.  |
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