Friday, January 28, 2011

Week-end preview

An utterly disappointing pair of losing recommendations on the Thursday racing card at Meyday. Clearly Silver clearly did not like the blinkers, and Irish Flame was 4th which was not enough for a Place finish. While I was looking at the de Kock stable to power through the meeting, it came away empty-handed, and it was Godolphin that took the share of the spoils.

You will notice that I have made some changes to the blog contents and removed the history of recommendation page, as well as the strike rate count. It was really getting too time consuming to update these on a daily basis. That does not mean that I will stop giving predictions or have changed my approach to analyzing racing or football in any way. Far from it. I will still be focusing on writing what I believe are sure-fire punts, and will keep differentiating between hopeful and sure ones. The plan for me is to better the 87% strike rate achieved so far (minus the 2 failures yesterday), and it will be obvious if I am achieving the goal or largely deviating from it.

Saturday is the FA Cup and I can't find any match to recommend because FA Cup matches are a nest for surprises. In La Liga, Barcelona travel to Hercules for a tough match. Hercules are the only team to have beaten them in the League this season with a shock win at the Nou Camp. With their current devastating form, I believe Barcelona are poised to gain a measure of revenge; they should be winning this, and draw at worst. So a draw-no-bet on Guardiola's men is recommmended.

Real Madrid travel to Osasuna in a largely easier trip than Barcelona. I think they will win it, but will err with the side of caution and have them as draw-no-bet as well. What will the impact of Adebayor be? I think he definitely makes them more dangerous. Mourinho works well with seasoned forwards (Drogba, Benni McCarthy, Milito, Ibrahimovic, Eto'o), with the exception of Shevchenko. He will probably get the best out of Adebayor.

In the Dutch League, I like PSV Eidhoven as it hosts bottom-club Willem. They should be winning this handily as they march towards the title.

In horse racing, I like Buaiteoir in the Lingfield 13:25. He won going away his last race, and his current form should him among the first finishing 3. This Mineshaft gelding is a Place recommendation.

Finally, Andy Murray plays Djokovic in the Australian tennis final. I will surely be rooting for Murray to win his first Grand Slam. I think it will be very tight and it will simply be a matter of who gets the good breaks and is better on the day. It's too tight to call, but Go Murray!


Win: PSV Eidhoven
Draw-no-bet: Barcelona, Real Madrid
Place: Buaiteoir

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