In this week’s four-timer, racing from Kempton, Premier League football and two French fancies in the Heineken Cup. It could land you €260 for your tenner, y’know.
By Conor Heneghan & Shane Breslin
Well Regarded to place in Lanzarote Hurdle (place-only market @ 15/8)
The hot betting heat in the weekend racing is the Lanzarote Hurdle at Kempton, in which 20 handicappers go to post at 2.50. Well Regarded, the one we picked out in our weekly Saturday Six racing column, looks to be ahead of the handicapper. It’s a competitive race, but the 15/8 in Paddy Power’s place-only market, which returns a dividend if the selection finishes in the first four, could be the best bet.
Liverpool v Stoke (Steven Gerrard to score anytime @ 6/4)
In one 30-minute cameo against Newcastle over Christmas, Steven Gerrard showed just how much Liverpool had been missing him and he has been showing few ill-effects from his long-term injury woes.
Fresh from his winner against City during the week, we fancy him to hit the net against Stoke at Anfield and as Roberto Mancini will testify, woe betide Tony Pulis if he has anything bad to say about Gerrard’s teammates in the tunnel afterwards.
Toulouse v Connacht (Toulouse -27 to win @ 10/11)
At the risk of being controversial, we’re going to side against an Irish province in the Heineken Cup. Toulouse came to the Sportsground a couple of months ago and inflicted a 36-10 defeat on Eric Elwood’s side, and they look to have improved even on that over the past few weeks – their most fruitless performance came in a 30-15 win over Bayonne, while they put up 45 points away to Montpellier and 51 at home to Lyon last weekend.
For all that they’ve come close to taking the scalps of Harlequins and Gloucester in their debut season in the competition, Connacht are on a hiding to nothing in France. Toulouse have a fairly front-rank side on duty, including Dusautoir, Picamoles, Clerc, Medard and McAlister, and it would be no surprise if they comfortably covered the 27-point spread.
Saracens v Biarritz (Biarritz +7 to win @ 10/11)
Biarritz have failed to qualify for the knockout stages of the Heineken Cup only three times in the last 12 seasons, but that will be four in 13 if they don’t come away from Sunday’s clash with something to show for their efforts.
The Basque outfit have struggled badly in the Top 14, but given the quality of their squad, it would be foolish to write them off. They mightn’t defeat Peter Stringer and Saracens this weekend, but we’d fancy their chances of coming away with a losing bonus point at the very least.
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ podcast – listen to the latest episode now!
