With Tom away this week, he has left his weekend column in the trusty hands of Betting Directory tipsters and whilst Mr Lee has been soaking up the sun, we have had our heads in the form book in an attempt to point our loyal readers in the direction of a few winners and continue Tom’s impressive strike rate with a third winning Saturday on the bounce.
The pick of this weekend’s action comes from York and Sandown, where the Channel 4 cameras will be covering seven races from across both meetings. With Royal Ascot just days away, it certainly isn’t a vintage weekend of Racing action but there are still a couple of good opportunities to get amongst the winners.
Our first tip of the week came on Wednesday in the form of an antepost selection ahead of Royal Ascot which kicks off on Tuesday next week. We have advised that you snap up a bit of the 3/1 about Yeats to win the Ascot Gold Cup on Thrusday. The only bookmaker still offering the 3/1 about the Aidan O’Brien runner, who is bidding for a record fourth successive win in the race is Ladbrokes, and we aren’t expecting the ‘Magic Sign’ to hold that price for too much longer.
It is not only Yeats who has been subject to a market move this week. In football betting, the news that Real Madrid have broken the transfer record twice in the space of a few days, first with signing of Kaka from AC Milan for £56 million and then news that Tom’s beloved Man Utd had accepted a staggering £80 million bid for Ronaldo, was enough to see the very aptly named ‘Los Galácticos’ halved in price for next season’s Champions League to 6/1.
It was while browsing the raft of bookmakers specials surrounding the Ronaldo transfer that provided much ammusement on Thursday, with Paddypower’s ’Brownaldo Market‘ the pick of the bunch. The Irish bookmaker is taking bets on what shade of brown Ronaldo will be when he makes his La Liga debut for Madrid at the end of the summer. Options range from the 33/1 outsider, Paul Scholes (pink/white) through to the 5/2 Ronseal (Dark Brown) and the 9/4 Madrid Mahogany (Light Brown) at the head of the betting, with a colour chart available to punters on request! I am still waiting for a repsonse from Paddy Power about whether I can place the same bet on what shade Channel 4 Racing presenter, Tom Lee, Will be on his return from the French Riviera – If he’s been slapping on the Factor 6, the ‘David Dickinson’ shade of Brown makes the most appeal at 4/1 with sadly no bets being taken on ‘Scouse Lobster’ on the off chance he forgot to pack his ‘Piz Buin’.
Compare the best Bookmakers Free Bets you can claim on this weekend’s Racing
Back to the more serious bets and for the first of this weekend’s tips we look towards the feature race on York’s card, the 3:10, Six Furlong, Reg Griffin Memorial Trophy. The selection is Macdillon, a lightly raced three year old who can continue his upward curve at the Knavesmire on Saturday afternoon. He makes the long trip from Devon for trainer Stuart Kittow and following an impressive seasonal debut at Newmarket where he was beaten a neck by Shamwari Lodge, who was far from disgraced when second in a competitive handicap at Epsom last Friday. Depsite his lack of racecourse experience, Macdillon certainly looks a very promising sprinter in the making and is sure to come on again for that Newmarket run following a 336 day break and with Frankie Dettori an eye catching booking to do the steering, it is safe to assume this runner will not be making the 600 mile round trip for appearance money alone. The Richard Fahey trained Sloop Johnb, who won a five furlong handicap on the course at the Dante meeting recently is another horse with a big chance in this race after hitting the ground running as a three year old and is bang in form. It remains to be seen whether six furlongs is ideal but he is a good each way alternative to the selection.
In the opener at York, Grand Art can register his second course and distance success in as many weeks in the Queen Mother’s Cup Stakes for Lady Amateur Riders. Trained by local trainer, Paul Midgley, this five year old can continue its good run of form (three wins from five so far this season) and dispite going up five pounds for the 3 1/4 length victory at York two weekends ago he should be capable of making his presence felt once again with the likely strong gallop expected to aid his hold up tactics perfectly.
We head across the English Channel for Sunday’s tip in the Prix de Diane, or French Oaks, where Stacelita is expected to take all the beating. This same race twelve months ago was won by Superstar Filly and eventual l’Arc de Triomphe winner, Zarkava. The Jean Claude Rouget trained Filly, Stacelita, could be every bit as good as Zarkava, even if she isn’t, she should have enough to win on Sunday having won her three starts this season by a cummulative winning distance of 12 lengths, including the Group One Prix Saint-Alary at Longchamp last time out. She comes up against the promising Luca Cumani trained Fantasia, who will have to improve on her last outing if she is to feature but Stacelita is certainly the one to be on and even at 10/11 with Stan James, she looks a cracking bet and if you think a Filly can land the Arc for a second year running, the current quote of 16/1 generally available about her winning at Longchamp in October could look a good price come Sunday afternoon.
Good Luck!
Weekend Tips
Saturday
York 2:10 – Grand Art each way 10/1 Bet365
York 3:10 – Macdillon each way 12/1 Ladbrokes
Sunday
Chantilly – Prix de Diane – Stacelita to win @ 10/11 with Stan James
Tags: betting, bookies, Bookmakers, Channel 4 Racing, chantilly, french oaks, grand art, horse racing, horse racing tips, macdillon, odds, prix de diane, sport, sports, stacelita, tip, tom lee, weekend, york
