Lewis Hamilton is running hot.

The British ex-champion, who races for the Mercedes team, proved to be the fastest driver in Friday’s practice for the Korean Grand Prix, which takes place on Sunday.

Hamilton clocked his lap at 1:38.673, which put him slightly ahead of Formula One championship points leader Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull. And Vettel recognizes him as an immediate threat.

Here are the current odds for the top contenders in Formula One betting as they are posted at Bovada:

Sebastian Vettel -163
Lewis Hamilton +350
Fernando Alonso +700
Nico Rosberg +1200
Kimi Raikkonen +1400
Romain Grosjean +4000
Mark Webber +4000
Jenson Button +6600
Felipe Massa +8000
Sergio Perez +15000

Nico Rosburg, the other Mercedes driver, was third in practice, with Mark Webber of Red Bull fourth. Things didn’t go as well for Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus, who crashed during the first practice session, plowing into the wall, but then recovered to land eighth after the second practice go-around.

Vettel goes into this race as the F1 betting favorite, as he does with most races. And he is going to, in all likelihood, wrap up the world championship early, as he did last year. He has won two Korean Grands Prix in a row.

Fernando Alonso of Ferrari (+700 to win in Korea at Bovada) is sixty points back, and has very little room for error. Vettel could literally clinch the title in the next two races.

Here are the top ten in the F1 standings as we approach the Korean Grand Prix:

1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing-Renault 247
2 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 187
3 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 151
4 Kimi Räikkönen Lotus-Renault 149
5 Mark Webber Red Bull Racing-Renault 130
6 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 116
7 Felipe Massa Ferrari 87
8 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 57
9 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 54
10 Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 36

Hamilton sits in third place, 36 points behind Alonso, and he is thinking of other worlds to conquer. And he’s not just blowing smoke. Hamilton says that when he is through driving around racetracks, he will do what many others have failed to do, which is to scale Mount Everest.

It’s not as if he has never done the mountain-climbing thing before. Just last week he climbed the 4,095-meter Mount Kinablu in Borneo, which is the 20th-highest mountain in the world, and he’s set his sights on others, which include Kilimanjaro, Mount Fuji and Mount Blanc. He’ll also find a peak or two in the United States before focusing on the big prize, Everest.

And there is growing concern that Vettel (the F1 betting favorite in Korea at -163) has been putting his foot in his mouth. The champion ruffled many feathers when he said, at the conclusion of his F1 victory in Singapore, “Whilst there’s a lot of people hanging their balls in the pool on Fridays, we’re still working very hard and pushing very hard so that we have a strong race.” Of course he’s referring to his Red Bull team, as opposed to others.

Well, you can imagine that a lot of his fellow competitors, especially those who really ARE hanging their “balls” in the pool on Fridays, were properly pissed. Nico Rosberg, who teams with Hamilton at Mercedes, suggested that that’s the kind of thing that only makes Vettel look bad and make him more unpopular. “Sebastian brings the boos on himself,” he said.

Jenson Button (+6600), Hamilton’s ex-teammate at McLaren and a former world champion, insisted that “Every team is working as hard as Red Bull.” We get that; it’s just that they don’t have as big a pocketbook.

And one of the other hot issues, admittedly a more serious one, that is going around involves driver weight, which is something that is not discussed as much as perhaps it should be. Formula One drivers, like jockeys in horse racing, have a tendency to starve themselves because they have to comply to certain weight limits. Too much of this could potentially make things dangerous for a driver in such a stressful situation.

The minimum weight limit for cars has indeed been increased for the 2014 season, from 642 kg (1415.368 lbs.) to 690 kg (1521.19 lbs.), but it is suggested that due to the introduction of new turbo-charged engines, cars will have to carry heavier equipment, so not only might that make no difference to driver weights, it could actually give them less room to breathe, so to speak.

In effect, this could wind up keeping people like Nico Hulkenberg (+2000 to be the first driver to “retire” this week) from driving next year. Hulkenberg weighs 163 pounds, and he has been told by Sauber that his ride could be in jeopardy. Button, who says that the weight policy “needs to change now,” adds that he fasts before each race and never eats carbohydrates. the lightest driver in F1 would appear to be Vettel, at 140 pounds, while the “heavyweight” is Mark Webber, at 165.

Get the most extensive F1 betting options available online at www.Bovada.lv

The Presidents Cup doesn’t quite have the tradition of the Ryder Cup, but it is an intriguing event that puts some of the best players in the world into a team format and poses a certain challenge to golf bettors as well.

It is conducted every two years, and will be played this week, starting Thursday, at the Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio, which is the site of the Memorial Tournament, which is a regular stop on the PGA Tour.

Whereas the Ryder Cup pits the United States against the Europeans, this competition features a team of golfers from all the other countries outside Europe. It’s a match play format, with singles and doubles, who will play in both alternate shot and best ball formats. There 34 total points up for grabs; naturally the winning team has to get to 17.5 points.

Thus far, to be honest, it’s been no contest. The United States has gone 7-1-1 in the nine meetings. The International team registered its only win in 1998. The widest margin was in 2000, when Ken Venturi was the captain of the U.S. team. That was a ten-point win, and in the golf odds, the Americans are +3300 at Bookmaker.eu to achieve that kind of margin again.

This year’s captains are Fred Couples of the U.S. team (for the third time) and Nick Price of the Internationals, who has played five times in this event but is debuting as captain.

In the golf betting odds that have been posted at Bookmaker.eu, the United States is priced as the favorite in this event:

To Win Presidents Cup
————————————–

United States -333
Internationals +250
Tie +1400

Even though the United States, by all accounts, may have the deeper team, the International team does have a number of winners of major championships including Masters champions Adam Scott, Charl Schwartzel and Angel Cabrera (who has also won the U.S. Open); British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen and Ernie Els, a two-time winner of both the U.S. Open and the British Open.

If you looked at the 24 players on both teams, the one who by far has the best history at Muirfield Village is Tiger Woods, who has won five tournaments on the course. No other players have won more than one tournament there. He is also the only player on either team with a career average under 70 at this site. He is priced at +500 in the golf betting odds to be the Top American. Els is the only player from the international team who has won at Muirfield, capturing the Memorial in 2004.

Obviously there are players of all levels of experience playing here, and sometimes that dictates the matchups that each of the captains come up with. For example, Jordan Spieth, the 20-year-old PGA Tour Rookie of the Year, will likely be paired with veterans, and reports are that all of them are lined up wanting to play with him. He is listed as a quite respectable +1200 to be Top American in the Bet365 odds.

So who could have the most impact? Well, Adam Scott was one of the top candidates for Player of the Year honors and was right there when it came to competing for the FedEx Cup title. He would love to get back toward the .500 level, as his Presidents Cup record is just 10-13-2. Schwartzel had the second best rate of birdies per round on tour. Els is the most experienced International competitor, by far, having played seven times already in the Presidents Cup. He is barely over the .500 mark for his matches, as he has posted a 17-16-2 record. Els is +900 to be the Top International in the golf betting lines.

The young gun for the Internationals – in other words, the guy who could use a mentor for a partner – is Hideki Matsuyama (+110 to be Top International player), who is 21 years old and apparently unfazed by anything. His Top 10 results in two majors – the U.S. Open and the British Open – indicate very strongly to golf bettors that he belongs. He is, however, the only in this year’s Cup who has never played at Muirfield.

There are other International players who may be perceived to be untested but bring some decent credentials to the table. For instance, Graham DeLaet, a Canadian, played well toward the end of the season, chalking up a second-place finish in The Barclays and third place at the Deutsche Bank Championship. Those were obviously two very important components of the FedEx Cup playoffs. He led the PGA Tour in driving, and that will be critical on this course. Richard Sterne of South Africa went through his PGA Tour schedule with a scoring average of 69.5, which is outstanding.

Marc Leishman, who was one of Price’s captain’s picks, finished tied for fourth place in the Masters. Brendon de Jonge obviously knows how to score, as evidenced by his total of 371 birdies, which ranks him second on the Tour. Jason Day doesn’t live to far from Muirfield, but he hasn’t experienced too much home cooking, falling outside of the top 25 on all five occasions he has competed in the Memorial. Brendan Grace doesn’t mind this format too much, as he made it to the semi-finals of the Volvo World Match Play Championship. Grace is +1200 to be the Top International at Bet365.

For the U.S., Woods, who was just named the Player of the Year despite not winning a major, has played 35 matches in the Presidents Cup (20-14-1 record). But you can’t find a player who has done better than he has on this course. Phil Mickelson has played in every Presidents Cup event, going back to 1994, and he is the only player who can say that.

Matt Kuchar can certainly adjust himself to this match play format; not only is he a former winner of the United States Amateur, he won the Accenture Match Play Championship this year. The guy he beat in that tournament final, Hunter Mahan, is also a member of the U.S. team. And Kuchar likes the course, as he won this year’s Memorial at Muirfield. He could be a value in the golf odds at +1400 to be the top point scorer in this event.

Steve Stricker is very experienced in the Presidents Cup, with an 11-8 record, and he will probably be paired with a youngster because of his demeanor. He won the Memorial on this course two years ago. Zach Johnson, the 2007 Masters champion, just won the BMW Championship (part of the FedEx Cup playoffs) and finished strong, with top tens in seven of his last eight events. A lot of people are suggesting a pairing between Wake Forest alums Webb Simpson (last year’s U.S. Open champ) and Bill Haas (son of former pro Jay Haas).

For golf betting events from around the world, you just can’t beat what they have at Bookmaker.eu!

Everybody Has a Chance at FedEx Cup as PGA Pros Pull Into Atlanta

This is one of the more exciting weeks of the year for golf bettors, possibly ranking just outside the four majors in terms of significance. There has literally been a playoff to determine who is going to win FedEx Cup, pocket a $10 million bonus and quite possibly win the award for Player of the Year. The final chapter is the TOUR Championship, which gets underway on Thursday and lasts through Sunday at the East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, which has been the host of this event since 2004.

People ask why there is so much radical movement up and down these standings during these playoffs as compared to the regular season. Well, that’s because the Tour events throughout the rest of the season are generally worth 500 points, with the exception of 550 for the World Golf Championship events, 600 for the majors and the Players Championship, and 300 for some lower-rung tournaments. But each of the events that is part of the Fed Ex Cup playoffs is worth 2500 points.

And this is not like NASCAR where they have a “Chase for the Sprint Cup” with twelve finalists who can score points, but all the other drivers can still race. This is the final step in the process where the field of those eligible for the Cup is whittled down, to the point where there are thirty players and thirty players only who are in this tournament.

Here are the odds to win the TOUR Championship, as they are listed at Bet365.com. We feel compelled to list all of them, with this exclusive field:

Tiger Woods 9/2
Adam Scott 9/1
Phil Mickelson 16/1
Zach Johnson 16/1
Justin Rose 16/1
Luke Donald 18/1
Steve Stricker 18/1
Jason Day 18/1
Hunter Mahan 18/1
Henrik Stenson 20/1
Matt Kuchar 20/1
Brandt Snedeker 20/1
Jim Furyk 20/1
Jason Dufner 25/1
Sergio Garcia 28/1
Keegan Bradley 28/1
Jordan Spieth 28/1
Charl Schwartzel 28/1
Nick Watney 33/1
Webb Simpson 35/1
Graham Delaet 40/1
Bill Haas 40/1
Dustin Johnson 45/1
Gary Woodland 55/1
Roberto Castro 60/1
Billy Horschel 66/1
Kevin Steelman 66/1
Brendon De Jonge 70/1
Boo Weekely 140/1
DA Points 150/1

Out of these 30, there are just five players who will win the FedEx Cup automatically if they win the TOUR Championship:Tiger Woods, Henrik Stenson, Adam Scott, Zach Johnson and Matt Kuchar

So it stands to reason that the other 25 guys are going to need some help. Woods can actually finish 29th in this tournament and still have a chance to win the Cup.

And Woods has a strong case for Player of the Year, even though he didn’t win any majors. He won five of the 15 tournaments he has entered, including the Players’ Championship, which is the unofficial “fifth major,” along with two of the World Championship of Golf events, which carry with them a great deal of impact, Woods was also a top ten finisher in both the Masters and British Open. In 2007 he blitzed the field to shoot a tournament record of 23 under par. He’s also finished second at this course three times.

Last week he came tied for eleventh in the BMW Championship, and took advantage of a rough week for Stenson to reassume the points lead in the FedEx Cup standings.

Zach Johnson got a big boost from his win last week, as he moved into fourth place. And he tied for second place here in 2007. Jim Furyk, who fired a record-tying 59 in the second round last week and followed it with rounds of 69 and 71, got third place and is 11th in the standings. That is the same position he won the Cup from in 2010 when he captured the TOUR Championship.

If Adam Scott wins this tournament, he is most likely going to walk away with Player of the Year honors. He won the Masters, of course, but he was also very much in contention in the British Open (tying him for third) and the PGA Championship (tied for fifth). He tied for third place at the Cadillac Championship with a final round of 64, and got one of these playoff tournaments at The Barclays. His track record at East Lake includes a win in this event in 2006, as he shot eleven under par.

Hunter Mahan, who is 15th in the standings, should be very competitive in this event, as he has finished in the top ten three times at this venue, including second place to Brandt Snedeker last year. Luke Donald took advantage of some home cook9ing at Conway farms last week and used it to move himself to 29th place in the standings, which means he doesn’t need as much help as he would have otherwise.

Would Phil Mickelson be a Player of the year candidate if he won this tournament? Probably, considering that he won a major (the British Open) as well as the Phoenix Open, has two seconds (including the U.S. Open) and two thirds (including the Cadillac). After non-contention at the PGA Championship, he had a great final round of 65 at The Barclays to tie for sixth, then squandered an opening round of 63 to drop to 41st in the Deutsche Bank Championship. Last week he tied for 33rd at the BMW.

Your one and only place for golf betting is Bet365.com!

With Rory McIlroy struggling to find form we like Woods, Scott and Stenson as potential bets for this years BMW Championship

After the four majors are over and done with, PGA Tour professionals have something else that is relatively prestigious to shoot for – that of FedEx Cup champion. A critical event along that road is taking place from Thursday through Sunday at Conway Farms Golf Club in Lake Forest, Illinois (outside Chicago). For those golf bettors who are interested in following along on television, Golf Channel will provide the coverage for the first two days, with NBC stepping in for Saturday and Sunday. If you are new to golf betting, then you should navigate to our golf betting guide.

The defending champion, Rory McIlroy, is priced at 22 to 1 (+2200), U.S. Open champion Justin Rose, who won the event two years ago, is 18 to 1 (+1800). Brandt Snedeker, who won the FedEx Cup last year, is 40 to 1. Adam Scott, Masters champion and a Player of the Year candidate, who won The Barclays (the first leg of the FedEx Cup playoffs) is 13 to 1 (+1300). And Henrik Stenson, another hot hand who took home $1.44 million last week at the Deutsche Bank Championship, is 12 to 1 (+1200).

At 5Dimes, these are the players who are priced at 30 to 1 or better: Use the odds converter if you need to.

Adam Scott (13 to 1)
Dustin Johnson (25 to 1)
Henrik Stenson (12 to 1)
Jason Day (30 to 1)
Jason Dufner (22 to 1)
Jordan Spieth (25 to 1)
Justin Rose (18 to 1)
Keegan Bradley (35 to 1)
Luke Donald (35 to 1)
Matt Kuchar (20 to 1)
Phil Mickelson (15 to 1)
Rory McIlroy (22 to 1)
Steve Stricker (18 to 1)
Tiger Woods (13 to 2)
Webb Simpson (35 to 1)

There are seventy players in the field, and the BMW Championship is part of the process for determining the winner of the FedEx Cup, which is conducted using a points system. After the Deutsche Bank, which along with The Barclays is part of the FedEx Cup Playoffs, the number of eligible players was whittled down to the 70 who will tee off Thursday, and after the BMW is concluded that number will be further reduced to 30, and those are the competitors who will play in the Tour Championship, which is where the FedEx Cup winner will ultimately be decided because each player will be sitting in a position where he has a mathematical chance.

And oh, a $10 million bonus will be awarded.

Right now, only eleven players are guaranteed spots for next week, so there will be a lot of “jockeying” as the BMW gets underway.

Surely it is no big surprise to anyone that Tiger Woods is the tournament favorite at 13 to 2, or +650 at 5Dimes. Even though the site of this event changes, he has nonetheless had plenty of success in the event. In fact, Woods won this event three times when it was known as the Western Open. Since it took on BMW as a sponsor, he has won it twice – in 2007 and 2009.

The reason that all 30 players will have a chance to win the FedEx Cup when they play the Tour Championship is that the points will be reset in such a way as to make that possible. However, there is a perk for those who go into that event in Atlanta next week among the top five point getters – any of them will be guaranteed the FedEx Cup title if they win that tournament.

It really is like one big major.

Right now three players stand far above the rest in terms of points – Woods, Scott and Stenson. Some calamity would most likely have to happen to all three for one of them not to win the Cup. So there will be, essentially, 67 players looking for at least a top three finish in order to give themselves a real opportunity come next week. Any player who is currently among the top twenty in points has the ability to assume the #1 spot with a win this weekend.

Woods was right there at The Barclays (tied for 2nd) but disappointed with 65th place last week in Boston. Scott and Stenson are riding on a little momentum, having won those tourneys. And Rose, the 18 to 1 shot, has a chance to make a move here because of his superior ball-striking ability. Want a longshot possibility? How about Graham DeLaet, the Canadian birdie machine (fifth on tour in that category) who missed the cut in the PGA Championship, but then tied for second in The Barclays and grabbed third place in the Deustche Bank, but still finds himself 34th in the points standings. He goes to Lake Forest priced at 40 to 1.

Looking for a unique angle? Well, there aren’t many tour pros who have played this course, because it has never been home to a PGA Tour event. But there is someone who is VERY familiar with it. Luke Donald (35 to 1 at 5Dimes) is actually a dues-paying member, so he is likely to know the course inside and out, even though it has been spruced up quite a bit for this PGA event. In 54th place in the points standings, Donald will have to do something rather dramatic to get himself back in real contention; in fact, in all likelihood he’ll have be a top five finisher on his “home” course.

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The scheduling of the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy, the seventh and final edition of the tournament that the ICC World Test Championship will replace in 2007, lends itself to placing some value bets on the destination of the silverware.

The 2013 ICC Champions Trophy will run from Thursday 6 June to Sunday 23 June, with eight teams – Australia, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka and the West Indies – at famous venues in Birmingham, Cardiff and London. The competition will conclude fewer than three weeks before England and Australia battle for the Ashes.

There is no bigger event on the cricket calendar than the Ashes so to think that England and Australia will be 100 per cent focused on the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy when the First Test at Trent Bridge in Nottingham is programmed to get under way on Wednesday 10 July is, frankly, ridiculous.

England’s squad for the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy includes nine of the 11 players who played in its 247-run Test defeat of New Zealand at Headingley in Leeds – Nick Compton and Matt Prior are the odd men out – while Australia’s roster for the competition features six of its Ashes tour party, including Michael Clarke, David Warner and Shane Watson.

England and Australia are two of the three favourites for the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy, with bookmaking quoting best odds of around 4-1 about the hosts and a top price of around 11-2 about the defending champion and two-time title winner.

To the uninitiated that means that Bet365 are offering odds of around 9-5 that either England or Australia take out the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy, which seems like a very short price given the proximity of the tournament to the Ashes and, also, the poor record of host nations in the event.

Even after acknowledging that 1998 ICC Champions Trophy host Bangladesh and 2000 ICC Champions Trophy host Kenya had very little chance of triumphing on home soil, the performances of ICC Champions Trophy hosts have been disappointing. Joint 2002 ICC Champions Trophy host Sri Lanka shared the trophy with India but England (2004), India (2006) and South Africa (2009) fell short, with only the English making the final.

And then there are the world rankings. Neither England nor Australia is the number one team in one-day international cricket, while the English have only three batsmen or bowlers in the respective individual top 10s and the Australians have only two in the higher echelons.

Betting exchange punters could lay England and Australia but one would probably have to lay odds of around 9-4 in order to entice a backer. That, of course, means betting at 4-9 and that short a price will not be everyone’s cup of tea.

Backing South Africa at odds of around 9-2 and/or India at odds of around 7-1 makes much more sense than siding with England and/or Australia. South Africa has five superstars ranked among either the top 10 batsmen or bowlers, including the top two rated willow wielders, Hashim Asla and AB de Villiers. The Proteas batsmen are level on 882 points.

Also, do not read too much into South Africa’s fourth place in the current team rankings. The Proteas have played only 26 matches during the time period that counts, which is a lot fewer than most of their rivals, so they have not had the same number of opportunities to accrue some easy rankings points and bolster their 113-point average.

Finally with regards to South Africa, it should go all right in British conditions given the balance of its team and it should be 100 per cent focused on the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy since its next assignment – a tour of Sri Lanka – kicks off with no fewer than eight limited-overs matches.

As the world’s number one one-day international side, India warrants more respect than quotes of around the 7-1 mark. No team’s players are more across the limited-overs form of the game, while Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni are the world’s number three and four batsmen, according to the latest charts.

India will receive massive support throughout the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy and, with the final set down for Edgbaston in Birmingham, one should note that England’s second largest city has a large immigrant population. If England does not reach the title decider, a side such as India, Pakistan or the West Indies would become the de facto home team.

South Africa is the best 2013 ICC Champions Trophy bet at odds of around 9-2 but one can take a more conservative approach by dutching 7-1 India with the Proteas. The end result is two live contenders at odds of around 9-4. The only downside to the punt is that India and South Africa have been grouped together in the round-robin phase.

With Juddmonte having released an updated list of mares that are visiting Frankel in his first year at stud and media speculation mounting that Black Caviar will join them, now is a good time to consider the Frankel sire betting markets.

Frankel is, in the opinion of many horse racing experts, the world’s best thoroughbred ever. Foaled in 2008, Frankel is a bay horse by Galileo out of Kind. Frankel made his debut at Newmarket on 13 August 2010, beating fellow newcomer and future King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes winner Nathaniel by half a length, albeit with a bit to spare.

By the time that Juddmonte boss Khalid bin Abdullah Al Saud took the decision to retire Frankel to stud, the top-rated thoroughbred of all time had won 14 consecutive contests, including the 2011 English 2,000 Guineas. Since 1900, of British thoroughbreds only Ribot has won more races than Frankel and finished his career unbeaten. Frankel’s record of nine successive Group One victories is unsurpassed, with only American filly Zenyatta equalling that superb tally.

Odds pertaining to Frankel’s first crop have been put up and taken down by bookmakers at regular intervals since his last racecourse appearance in October 2012 but, of those that are available currently, the 6-1 about him siring a winner of an English Classic with his first crop is the most interesting.

Frankel has the bloodstock world at his hooves. Breeding experts, particularly those who place great importance on the dosage index, believe that Frankel did remarkably well to win so many races at seven furlongs and a mile. According to dosage disciples, Frankel was bred to excel over middle distances and several of them advised backing him to win the English Derby over 12 furlongs at Epsom before he began his three-year-old season in Newbury’s Greenham Stakes. With a dosage index of 0.94 and centre of distribution of 0.10, Frankel’s profile is very similar to that of 2012 English 2,000 Guineas and 2012 English Derby winner Camelot (0.94 and 0.10). Camelot ran in the 2012 English St Leger and would have completed the first English Triple Crown since 1970 had Joseph O’Brien given him a half-decent ride.

So, unlike many expensive, high-profile stallions, Frankel has the potential to sire a winner of any of the five English Classics that range in distance from one mile to 14 and a half furlongs. Of course, much will depend upon the quality of the mares that Frankel covers in his first year as a stallion. But the early signs are very good indeed.

The most recent list of Frankel visitors that Juddmonte has published includes more than 60 Group One-winning and/or Group One-producing mares. Nine of the mares – Dancing Rain, Finsceal Beo, Light Shift, Maycocks Bay, Musical Treat, Quest To Peak, Ramruma, Sariska and Waldmark – have English Classic-winning form either as a racer or as a dam. And the list of mares is very likely only to improve in quality as berths become scarcer and Frankel’s owner gets fussier.

While most of the other 12 horses that received a Timeform rating of at least 140 had successful stud careers, none of them sired an English Classic winner with their first crop, although neither Harbinger nor Sea The Stars have had the chance yet. That is one reason not to snap up the 6-1.

However, there are three reasons why the 6-1 represents a value bet. First, Frankel’s sire, Galileo, got the job done when Sixties Icon won the 2006 English St Leger, justifying a starting price of 11-8 to prevail by two and a half lengths from The Last Drop, with Red Rocks in third.

Second, Frankel is the best thoroughbred ever in the eyes of most horse racing aficionados. His Timeform rating of 147 is two pounds higher than that of 1960s superstar Sea Bird and a baker’s dozen superior to that of his sire, Galileo, who has won countless awards since becoming a top stallion.

And third, when complete, Frankel’s book of mares is likely to be the finest to visit a new stallion in horse racing history. It will be the thoroughbred equivalent of this year’s Miss Universe delegates making babies with the supposedly hottest man on the planet, Channing Tatum.

If one takes the 6-1 available at Bet365 about Frankel siring a winner of an English Classic with his first crop, one will have an interest in the bloodstock story of the millennium until the English 1,000 Guineas, English 2,000 Guineas, English Derby, English Oaks and English St Leger are contested in 2017.

The Masters Tournament, also known as The Masters or the US Masters, is the first of golf’s four major championships on the calendar and, arguably, the most prestigious of the lot.

Unlike the three other major events, the Masters Tournament takes place at the same venue every year, with the Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia having staged the competition since its establishment in 1934 when Horton Smith won by one stroke, shooting four under par to edge out Craig Wood.

Smith did not receive one of the famous green jackets. That Masters Tournament tradition did not start until 1949 when the legendary Sam Snead won the first of his three titles.

The king of the Augusta National Golf Club is Jack Nicklaus, with the Golden Bear having won an incredible half a dozen Masters Tournaments between 1963 and 1986. Tiger Woods is closing in on Nicklaus, though. Woods has four Masters Tournament titles to his credit but he has not worn his green jacket since edging out Chris DiMarco in 2005.

Impossible To Ignore Credentials Of Woods

With Woods returning to the top of the Official World Golf Ranking ahead for the 2013 Masters Tournament, bookmakers have had a very easy decision as to which golfer in the limited field merits the tag of championship favourite.

Woods has not won the Masters Tournament since 2005 but most golfers would kill for his Augusta National Golf Club record over the last seven years, which includes no fewer than six top-six finishes. Woods is trading at odds of around 9-2 to break his major championship barren run – he has not won a big one since taking out the 2008 US Open – and anyone who does not consider him a serious contender is an idiot.

After all, Woods has won both of his last two starts and his game is suited perfectly to the Augusta National Golf Club course. Woods is one of the longest drivers in professional golf and he tops this year’s PGA Tour eagles and strokes gained putting charts. Woods will be there or thereabouts when the 2013 Masters Tournament enters its final stages.

Day Could Go One Better Than Two Years Ago

The cream rises to the top at the Augusta National Golf Club – one can count the number of recent shock winners on the fingers of one hand – so it makes sense to concentrate on big-time golfers who can hit the ball a long way, birdie or eagle par fives on a regular basis and get up and down in two strokes when they run into trouble around the greens.

No Australian has won the Masters Tournament but Jason Day could make history in 2013. Day finished in a tie for second place on his first appearance at the Augusta National Golf Club two years ago and one can ignore his 2012 performance when he withdrew not even halfway through his second round.

Bookmakers are quoting Day at odds of around 66-1, odds at which he makes very strong each-way appeal. Day has started this year by making seven cuts in a row and posting three top-10 finishes, while his 2013 PGA Tour driving distance ranking of 13th and par five birdie or better ranking of 12th mark out him as having skills suited to the event.

Bradley And Hanson Other Strong Contenders

Keegan Bradley made his Masters Tournament debut last year when he finished joint 27th. Bradley has the game to be a major force at the Augusta National Golf Club, with the American being in the top five rankings for both driving distance and par five birdie or better on the 2013 PGA Tour. Also, Bradley has demonstrated that he can hold it together when the acid is on, winning the 2011 PGA Championship and going close to winning back-to-back editions of that event.

Bookmakers are offering Bradley at win odds of around 28-1 and, like Day, he makes each-way appeal, particularly if one can get those odds with a firm paying six places. Another golfer worth a look is Peter Hanson because he is generously priced at odds of around 80-1 based on his statistics and his tie for third position in the 2012 Masters Tournament.

Offer Makes BetVictor The Place To Back Roughies

Many bookmakers are offering 2013 Masters Tournament special offers. The pick of them is BetVictor’s deal that means it will refund all losing pre-event winner bets, up to maximum of 50 British pounds or 50 euro, if either Rory McIlroy or Woods visits the Butler Cabin to put on a green jacket.

BetVictor is betting not much bigger than 9-4 that either McIlroy or Woods triumphs in the 2013 Masters Tournament and, while that price incorporates a healthy theoretical profit margin, the true probability of its offer being activated is still around the 20 per cent mark.

Obviously, it is not worth backing Woods with BetVictor – one is better off shopping around and picking out another 2013 Masters Tournament special offer – but if one is going to oppose the warm favourite then it is the place to do it.

Bookmakers and punters alike considered Warburton as the hot favourite prior to the 2013 Six Nations Championship in which his Wales team got off to a terrible start, losing its opening game versus Ireland in Cardiff and being the flavour of the month in markets on the tournament’s wooden spoon.

But Wales rallied to defeat France in Paris, Italy in Rome, Scotland in Edinburgh and, ultimately, England in Cardiff to win back-to-back titles for the first time since the late 1970s. And according to reports, Warburton’s leadership on and off the field was instrumental in his side’s success.

British and Irish Lions coaching legend Ian McGeechan has come out in support of Warburton, praising him for the manner in which helped Wales turn around its fortunes, even though he did not regain the captaincy after sustaining an injury during its home loss to Ireland. He led by example, irrespective of who was wearing the captain’s armband.

Since World War Two, there have been 17 British and Irish Lions tours of Australia, New Zealand and/or South Africa. In what must be a positive for Warburton, players from the best performing home team in the tour year’s Five Nations Championship or Six Nations Championship have captained the composite side in the southern hemisphere 14 times, with only exceptions being three Irishmen – Karl Mullen (1950), Robin Thompson (1955) and Brian O’Driscoll (2005).

Fourteen out of 17 equates to 82.4 per cent and odds of around 1-5, which goes a long way to explaining why bookmakers installed Warburton at 1-3 last year.

With British and Irish Lions royalty such as McGeechan – he was the touring team’s head coach in 1989, 1993, 1997 and 2009, winning the 1989 series in Australia and the 1997 series in South Africa – going on the record to support Warburton, now is the time to take advantage of the big swing in the betting market on the official captain.

It cannot hurt Warburton’s chance that the 2013 British and Irish Lions coach is Warren Gatland, the Kiwi whose decision it was to make the openside flanker Wales’s second youngest skipper ever at the tender age of 22 years and 242 days.

Turning to the series itself, it remains somewhat surprising that bookmakers are favouring the British and Irish Lions over Australia in the great southern land. The away side is trading at odds of around 8-11, with the inverse available about the home team and the draw at odds of around 28-1.

The British and Irish Lions have won six of their eight series in Australia but most of them took place before Gatland was born 50 years ago. Importantly, the northern hemisphere side lost its only series versus the Wallabies in rugby union’s professional era, going down 1-2 after taking out the first game before losing the next two matches.

Indeed, the record of the British and Irish Lions since rugby union ceased to be an amateur sport is poor. They beat South Africa 2-1 in 1995 but lost 1-2 to Australia in 2001, crashed 0-3 to New Zealand in 2005 and slumped to a 1-2 loss in the republic in 2009 as the Springboks got their revenge.

Quite how the British and Irish Lions, winners of only two of their last nine Test games, are the favourites to win this year’s three-match series in Australia is strange. Even privately, one would be surprised if Gatland thought that his collective of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales players was entitled to be rated as the most likely winner.

The Wallabies are not in one of their golden eras but they were the Rugby World Cup 2011 bronze medallists, bouncing back from a lacklustre loss to Ireland in the pool stage to beat South Africa and Wales in the knockout stage. There was no shame in losing to New Zealand in Auckland as the All Blacks were – and still are – the best side on the planet.

The International Rugby Board’s latest world rankings, up to date as at Monday 25 September 2013, place Australia third on 86.87 points, with England fourth (83.72 points), Wales fifth (83.36 points), Ireland ninth (78.05 points) and Scotland 10th (76.86 points). The rankings may have their faults but they provide an objective assessment of the 100 countries that play international rugby union currently.

So how have usually rational people such bookmakers reached the unanimous conclusion that the British and Irish Lions are the favourites to win in Australia this year?

Well, they have probably made the schoolboy error of looking at the likely British and Irish Lions squad and forgetting that only 15 of them can be on the field at any one time.

Also, they have probably got it into their heads that the travelling hordes of British and Irish Lions supporters will transform Suncorp Stadium, Etihad Stadium and ANZ Stadium into virtual home grounds for the away team. There will be thousands of Lions fans in Australia but the possibility of them outnumbering Wallabies fans in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney is not all that great. The locals will come out in big numbers to support their side, as they always do.

Despite defeating Carlton by 40 points in the NAB Cup tournament, we won’t be touching them at 100-1. Pre-Season is a bad measurement of a team’s ability

Australians absolutely love the Australian Football League, which is why the world’s top Australian Rules competition had an average attendance of more than 30,000 people last season, a mark for which most sports events would kill.

Most similar to Gaelic football, Australian Rules football is played between teams of 18 players (Gaelic Football is 15-a-side) on a large oval-shaped field, with many sides using modified cricket arenas because of the requirement for grounds much bigger than those on which sports such as football and rugby league take place.

Indigenous Australians say that Australian Rules football grew out of one of their games but what is beyond debate is that one of the current 18 Australian Football League teams, Melbourne, published the first edition of the laws of the game in 1859 and the sport has gone gangbusters since.

The Victorian Football League started in 1897 and Essendon won the first premiership in what was one of only two years in which the title was determined without any form of Grand Final. The Victorian Football League became the Australian Football League in 1990 as the tournament had by that stage become national and not centred upon Melbourne and its environs. Now more than half of the 18 sides are based outside Victoria. New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia each have two teams.

Essendon and Carlton are the most successful sides in Victorian Football League/Australian Football League history. The Bombers and the Blues have won 16 titles apiece. The other teams are the honour roll are, in descending order of success, Collingwood (15 titles), Melbourne (12 titles), Hawthorn (10 titles), Richmond (10 titles), Geelong (nine titles), Fitzroy (eight titles), Sydney/South Melbourne (five titles), North Melbourne (four titles), Brisbane (three titles), West Coast (three titles), Adelaide (two titles), Port Adelaide (one title), St Kilda (one title) and Western Bulldogs (one title). Fremantle, Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney have yet to win a premiership but they are relatively young sides.

The 2013 Australian Football League season will start with Sydney bidding to become the first team since Brisbane 10 years ago to mount an ultimately successful premiership defence. The Swans defied the odds several times during 2012, most notably when shocking Hawthorn in the Grand Final. Sydney won 91-81 and its tireless midfielder, Ryan O’Keefe, picked up the prestigious Norm Smith Medal.

Do Not Buy In To Pre-Season Results

Brisbane won the pre-season NAB Cup tournament, defeating Carlton by 40 points in its championship match at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne. But there is a reason as to why the Lions are trading at odds of around 100-1 to win this year’s Australian Football League Grand Final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Punters are not interested in them.

That is because Australian Football League punters do not rate NAB Cup form highly. Only five times has a side won both competitions in the same season – Essendon (1993, 2000), Hawthorn (1988 and 1991) and Geelong (2009) – in spite of there being a massive cash bonus on offer.

Despite losing four of its five pre-season games, Hawthorn will go into the 2013 Australian Football League campaign as the premiership favourite, with bookmakers quoting the Hawks at odds of around 7-2. Punters are not reading too much into Hawthorn’s NAB Cup results, particularly as it went down by one point in three of its four defeats. The Hawks thrashed North Melbourne 122-41 in their last warm-up match, a sign that Alistair Clarkson’s team are worthy of great respect.

Hawks And Swans Could Meet In Another Decider

Carlton and West Coast have been the major 2013 Australian Football League market movers, with punters expecting big things from Mick Malthouse’s Blues and John Worsfold’s Eagles. But Hawthorn is the favourite for good reason.

On its day, Hawthorn is head and shoulders above the other 17 Australian Football League sides. If the Hawks play to their potential, which they did on a couple of occasions last year, none of their rivals are going to beat them. Hawthorn’s squad is the strongest in the competition and Lance Franklin, known to Australian Rules football fans as Buddy, is unstoppable when he is in the mood. Franklin kicked 13 goals in a 2012 game versus North Melbourne.

Reigning premier Sydney is unfashionable with Australian Football League punters again but it stands out as the team most likely to stop Hawthorn justifying favouritism. The Swans beat the Hawks two times out of three last term, including in the match that mattered most, and they have recruited Kurt Tippett in the interim. Tippett is not one of the most liked Australian Rules football characters but he knows how to boot a goal and he will have served his lengthy suspension by the middle of the 2013 season. The ex-Adelaide forward provides Sydney with another X factor, making John Longmire’s side fairly appealing at odds of around 6-1.

Two-time Winner Represents Brownlow Value

Carlton may not have what it takes to go from Australian Football League pretender to contender in its first season under Malthouse but Chris Judd may make bookmakers pay for listing him at odds of around 20-1 to win the Brownlow Medal. The Blues midfielder is a two-time winner of the prestigious individual award and one knows that he will catch the eye of the voting umpires if his team wins more than their fair share of games under new management.

Essendon Is Not Going To Be The Bomb

Essendon has been the subject of the pre-2013 Australian Football League season headlines but for all the wrong reasons, with the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority investigating the Bombers for various serious offences.

Bookmakers are offering odds of around 8-13 that Essendon does not make the Australian Football League Finals Series for the second year in a row. The Bombers were three wins away from making the cut in 2012, losing their last seven matches to finish in 11th place. Surely the odds are very much against Essendon having a good season in 2013.

Australia lost its last Test match versus India in Mohali by one wicket in a great contest but one cannot see this week’s Third Test of its 2013 tour being anywhere near as tight given the extraordinary suspension of four Australians.

Vice-captain Shane Watson, fringe batsman Usman Khawaja and a couple of pace men, Mitchell Johnson and James Pattinson, are out of the good books of Australia coach Mickey Arthur and skipper Michael Clarke after failing to take part in a team analysis exercise following their side’s embarrassing, record-breaking innings defeat in last week’s Second Test.

That Clarke has come out and said that the bans are not the consequence of only one incident suggests that Australia’s cricket squad has more significant, deep-rooted issues than the failure of four players to hand in their homework on time. The captain is confident that his personal friendships with Watson, Khawaja, Johnson and Pattinson will endure but that sounds like wishful thinking on the skipper’s behalf.

Legendary former Australia captain Ian Chappell has gone on the record saying that cannot imagine how the suspensions and subsequent media coverage are going to help the touring team as its struggles to match an in-form India side that believes that the Australians cannot play spin bowling.

Chappelli believes that too many people are having a say in the running of Australia’s cricket team, something that he thinks should be the responsibility of the skipper in conjunction with the manager. He understands that team discipline is important to Clarke – the Australia captain has form in this regard having been behind the move to send home Andrew Symonds five years ago – but that this week’s suspensions are too harsh and will do more harm than good.

Some might say that Australia will be better off without at least a couple of its four banned players. Watson is not really worth his place as a middle-order batsman who does not bowl, while Johnson is up and down like a yo-yo. But Khawaja would have come into the side for Phil Hughes and Pattinson has taken twice as many wickets as any other Australia bowler in the first two Tests combined.

No Pattinson means no Australia bowler averaging under 30 on tour will play in Mohali and, of Australia’s batsmen, only Clarke and Moises Henriques are averaging over 30. Before the four-Test series got under way, opinions were divided as to how it would pan out, particularly given India’s home loss to England in 2012. Now most people are on the same page. Thankfully, not everyone is so India is a good bet.

There has been a betting move for India to win the Third Test that starts in Mohali on Thursday but the home team remains odds against in a couple of places. Surely offers better than even money will not last very much longer so step in and get with the Indians before it is too late.

Had it not been for Clarke, India would have defeated Australia even more emphatically than they did in Chennai (eight wickets) and Hyderabad (an innings and 135 runs). The Australian skipper is mentally strong – he responded to the break-up of his high-profile relationship with Lara Bingle by blasting a century – but this week’s events are about more than him. He is going to take to the field of the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium with the weight of a cricket-mad country on his shoulders, with most of his compatriots thinking that he and Arthur have lost the plot.

If Clarke does not fire in Mohali – he is Australia’s one and only top-class player of spin – then the week is going to get worse for him, Arthur and other Cricket Australia officials. The knives are out for them because back-to-back Ashes series are not that far away and Australians are very worried that they will cop back-to-back hidings off England.

England is trading at odds of around 8-15 to win the Ashes series in its backyard, while it is available at odds of around 9-4 to win the Ashes series in England and Australia.