Sydney Colt's Mail For Randwick 10 July

Hope you enjoyed the feeding frenzy last week with 3 winners from 4 tips. Better value this week. Cannot promise fluent prose but can assure you of a likely winning day if you bet astutely on the mail today.

R1 n3 Beg This one steps up to 1400m which is a huge plus.

R2 n1 OFFHANDED Bet of the day! Small field which unfortunately robs us of a price. I am told the barrier trial sectionals were outstanding. Jump aboard if you love winning.

Race 4 n6 DEE BEE NINE e/w Great e/w chance from Gai’s stable. Beaten in fast sectionals and down in weight. The pro punters have backed this already at $11 and $9. I had a small slice at $10 e/w

Race 5 n4 KICK N CHASE e/w Last start winner who comes in very well at the weights

R6 n8 ADMIRALS HONOUR e/w Bookies are betting double figures but they may have missed the fact this neddy has been the subject of ‘hit’ rides at its past 2 runs. Value!

Money lost, nothing lost. Confidence lost, everything lost.

Gelding's tips for 9 July 2010

This week the Gelding’s attention turns to Flemington.  He sees some value there.

As always the tips are on an each way and all up basis.

Race 3 Horse 8 Miss Lily Rose
Race 4 Horse 1 Oak Heart
Race 6 Horse 5 Doubtful Jack (for the girls at the Tennis club) quinella with Ghostmilk
Race 8 Horse 2 Winged Charm (also for the girls at the Tennis club)

Don’t forget that the Gelding’s horse Queen Asa is most probably running on Sunday at Bendigo.  Listen to Sportzfan Radio on Sunday at 12.30pm for confirmation.

Good luck and good punting,

The Gelding

Sportzfan Radio 161.2

@SportzfanRadio now available on iTunes!4 July 2010 161.2 -Dr Leslie’s CSA gets a run with the approval of listeners.  The Sydney Colt texts that the estimated first prize in the Sports World Series of Poker is $9 million.  The ‘F’ word talks World Cup quarter finals and Daniel says the Socceroos would win a “make believe” World Cup 4-0.  The Panel query who will welcome the Socceroos back into Australia seeing Kevin Rudd has been sacked, but then decide hardly any of them live here anyway.  The ‘F’ word also ponders the semi finals and thinks it will be a Germany v Netherlands final,  He wants Marcelo Bielsa as the next Socceroos coach.  Dalligan talks State of Origin 3 and thinks the NSW team can win 16-14 and hopes they can take inspiration from the example of the Socceroos bouncing back after their defeat by Germany.  He also calls the Karmichael Hunt experiment a debacle.  The Sports Geek explains his NRL Sports Social Media Index and says the NRL are about 7 to 8 months behind the AFL in social media as 3 teams aren’t even on twitter or facebook.  He is currently advising the Southern Football League on social media policy.

Sportzfan Radio 161.1

@SportzfanRadio now available on iTunes!4 July 2010 161.1 – Daniel wonders whether Gambo feels unsettled having been moved from panel operator after the Professor’s return from Sydney.  Daniel also ponders the NBA feeding frenzy with free agents being signed for ridiculous figures including draft bust Darko Milicic getting a $20 million contract when everyone thought he should retire.  The Panel considers throwing themselves into the free agency market for a fat contract.  Gambo talks about the ‘mono cock’ in formula one racing.  Dan Butterly talks basketball with the Knicks potentially going after Amare Stoudemire, Joe Johnson and Tony Parker.  He says the Knicks fan base want LeBron, Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade and won’t be satisfied with anything less.  The Gelding talks racing and takes the credit as he and the Sydney Colt combined for 4 winners and 4 placings from 8 selections.  Daniel and the Professor discuss the Boomers v ‘Argentina”.  Daniel nodded off during the game and wonders whether Brett Brown’s team got anything out of playing a non-representative team of rookies.  The Professor raises his idea of an NBL draft again as a means of getting publicity for the League.

Sydney Colt's Mail For 3 July 2010

Plenty of mail around from 2 pro punters and man who provides a ratings and pricing service for 2 rails bookies. Not much value but winners seemed assured. Last week we had 1 win from 2 selections with Huckelberry Friend a scratching (I’m told Gelding apparently said on the radio show it ran last – maybe he was given that bum steer by his friend Bendigo Betty)

Race 2 n7 Dal Dal Won 1 from 1 for Gai and I’m told the stable cash is going on this one.

Race 3 n6 Skyerush Last start winner who will get a suck run from barrier 1

Race 5 n1 Tripple Elegance Chris Waller has this neddy flying with wins at its past 2 starts

Race 7 n6 Electric Dreams Great run 1st up from spell when wide all way for 4th behind superstars Loce Conquers All and Hay List. This is a significantly weaker race.

Moeny lost, nothing lost. Confidence lost, everything lost.

Pim’s on Ice – now for a real coach

The autopsy has been conducted, the eulogy delivered and the culprits drawn and courted so now it’s time for Football Federation Australia to move on and recruit our next national team coach.

The likely replacements include Paul LeGuen, Sven Goran Eriksson, Carlos Alberto Parreira and Marcelo “EL Loco” Bielsa.

Prior to assessing the credentials of these candidates, I should say that the Socceroos prefer to play a confident, attacking, proactive style of football – one that reflects our true sporting culture. We witnessed the benefits of this style of play under Guss Hiddink at the 2006 World Cup.  These playing characteristics obviously affect the selection of coach. Further, the coach must instil the players with technical qualities and believe in the youth of our proud nation.

Now for the candidates…..

Paul Le Guen

Le Guen had successful coaching stints at French clubs Lyon and PSG and Scottish giants Rangers. He recently resigned from his post as the national team coach of Cameroon following his side’s inglorious exit from the World Cup after losing all three of its group matches. Further, and despite boasting the talents of players such as Samuel Eto’o and Alex Song, Cameroon were the first team officially knocked out of the 2010 World Cup.  The abovementioned results speak for themselves….

Sven Goran Eriksson

Erikkson enjoyed an extremely successful tenure as a club football manager in the Swedish, Portuguese and Italian leagues from 1978 to 2001, most notably with Italian club, Lazio.  In the period 2001 to 2006 he coached the England national team.  Despite having coached many of England’s “golden generation” of players, Eriksson failed to take England beyond the quarter final stages of both the 2002 and 2006 World Cups and most notably, failed to engineer a win over a ten man Brazil side in the 2002 World Cup quarter final.  Further, Eriksson had a disastrous and short stint as the manager of the Mexican national team – in fact, immediately after he was sacked in April 2009 the Mexican fans’ association held a ‘victory rally’ attended by approximately 30,000 angry supporters! In short, Eriksson has been unable to replicate his club football success on the international stage.  Finally, he would cost a pretty penny.  In my opinion, it would not be money well spent. 

Carlos Alberto Parreira

We’re getting warmer now….

Parreira has enjoyed a distinguished coaching career.  He coached Brazil to victory in the 1994 World Cup, 2004 Copa America and the 2005 Confederations Cup.  Further, he is one of only two coaches that has led five national teams to the World Cup: Kuwait in 1982, United Arab Emirates in 1990, Brazil in 1994 and 2006, Saudi Arabia in 1998 and South Africa in 2010. 

Nevertheless, and somewhat surprisingly, he failed to take Brazil beyond the quarter final stages of the 2006 World Cup.  This, despite having attacking talents such as Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Adriano and Robinho at his disposal.  Further, and like Eriksson, he will not come cheap and frankly, I would prefer seeing Football Federation Australia investing the money in grassroots football and unearthing the next Harry Kewell and Tim Cahill. God knows we need more of them….

So that leaves the madman, Marcelo Bielsa

Bielsa coached the Argentine national team from 1998 to 2004 and enjoyed mixed success.  The team exited the 2002 World Cup at the first round but were runners-up at the 2004 Copa America and won the 2004 Olympic Games.   Bielsa is the current coach of the Chilean national team and it is here that he has truly worked wonders.  Under his guidance the team has undergone many historic firsts, including their first win over Argentina in official matches and beating Paraguay away from home for the first time in nearly thirty years.  Further, Bielsa fast tracked many young talents throughout Chile’s qualification campaign and employs an attacking brand of football – Chile scored the most goals in the South American qualification stages of the World Cup. 

Bielsa’s relationships with the media are also good. 

His interviews are stimulating and he has been known to field every last question from the assembled media at his press conferences.  Further, he once famously stated:

“Every section of the media should get the same attention from me, from the capital’s most prominent TV channel to the smallest newspaper in the provinces”.

A refreshing change from “Pim’s and (very) dry” who, amongst other things, publicly smashed the A-League and later, rather than backing away from his comments reportedly remarked, “I’m Dutch, we’re honest”.

Bielsa is reportedly paid $1.5 million per annum to coach the Chilean national team – a figure less than what Football Federation Australia paid the man who couldn’t get and/or afford a decent haircut.  

There are increasing suggestions Bielsa will leave his post now that Chile has exited the World Cup….

As Deborah Harry once sang, “I want that man”.

Mark “The ‘F’ Word” Fiorenti – discussing all things concerning the World Game.

Gelding's tips for 3 July 2010

Well, the Gelding had quite a good ‘financial year’ on the punt and is looking to start the new financial year at a sprint.  His attention is drawn to Moonee Valley tommorrow but a word of caution to keep an eye on the weather as rain may be a factor overnight!

The Gelding is sticking with horses he has backed before and all are last start winners so that is good form. 

The bets as always are on an each way and all up basis.

Race 3  Horse 1 – Sunday Rose (for the girls at the Tennis club)
Race 4 Horse 3 – Das Machen
Race 6 Horse 3 – Oak Heart
Race 7 Horse 2 – Ghostmilk (also for the girls at the Tennis club)
PS – Update on Sportzfan Radio’s own Queen Asa – her next start will be at Kimore next Tuesday in a Maiden over 1450 metres (if not balloted out).  A better performance is expected however we are looking to get the horse up to 1600 to 2000 in the third or fourth start this campaign.  It is then that it will be expected to be winning.

Good luck and good punting!  

The Gelding

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Australia vs Serbia: The Chevaps tasted good but only if we’d sampled them sooner…along with a side of Sauerkraut

“Don’t bother chasing women or buses…..Chances are, you’ll miss both” – author unknown.

The same arguably applies to World Cup and tournament football.

The Socceroos’ inspiring 2-1 win over Serbia was brilliant but not enough to earn qualification for the second round of the World Cup. A team only gets three bites of the cherry and Australia effectively wasted one of them against Germany. As such, it was always playing catch up football and needed a miracle to progress.

Having said that, the Socceroos earned some redemption and will go home with their heads held high. Pride in the shirt has been restored and Australia’s second ever World Cup win (and first over a European nation and heavyweight, I might add), removed any doubt they deserve a place on the World’s biggest sporting stage.

The Socceroos were (finally) due some luck at this tournament and they certainly rode it against the Serbs, who were close to their best despite the scoreline. A combination of wasteful finishing, particularly by Milos Krasic, and Mark Schwarzer’s brilliance kept Serbia at bay in a one sided first half. But a dominant second half performance by the boys in green and gold secured the points and some well earned respect.
Continue reading Australia vs Serbia: The Chevaps tasted good but only if we’d sampled them sooner…along with a side of Sauerkraut