November 19: Weekend Fancies

Horse racing at Haydock and Navan, International Rugby and Premier League Football are the subjects of the latest edition of the weekend fancies.

By Niall Cronin and Conor Heneghan

Weekend Patent

Ireland take on the All Blacks at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday and going on the form of the respective sides, it has the potential to be a humbling experience for Declan Kidney’s men. New Zealand are coming off the back of a ridiculously comfortable win over Scotland in which they conceded only three points, while Ireland could easily have lost to Samoa, but instead came away with a barely deserved ten-point victory.

Talk of an Ireland upset is ambitious in the extreme and we think that New Zealand will win out pretty easily in the end, although not by the same margin by which they beat the Scots.

We’re not proud of this, but we think New Zealand to beat Ireland by 16-20 points is decent value at 11/2.

Click here to read JOE’s preview of Ireland v New Zealand and here to see a video of New Zealand captain Richie McCaw sharing his thoughts on Saturday’s game.

The Paul Nicholls trained Imperial Commander is the odds on favourite for the 3.25 Betfair Chase at Haydock on Saturday, having won the gold cup, but we reckon you should take a chance on WHAT A FRIEND. This classy horse won the Lexus Chase at Leopardstown and is sure to be primed for the day. Tomorrow could be his Gold Cup while Imperial commander might be left to work with bigger targets later on in the season.

What A Friend is available at 10/3 in the Betfair Chase at Haydock.

The big game of the weekend in the Premier League is the North London derby between Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur at the Emirates. Even though Spurs are now firmly established amongst the Premier League elite, their away record against some of the top dogs in the Premier League leaves a lot to be desired.

They haven’t won away to Arsenal, for instance, since 1993 and although we don’t think that particular statistic will change tomorrow, we reckon they’ll come away from what could be a cracking game with a point to show for their efforts.

You can back them at 13/5 to do so.

Click here for JOE’s five things to look out for in the Premier League this weekend.

A €3 patent (total outlay €21) will return €1 short of €550.

Break the Bookie

In the 2.45 Troytown Handicap Steeplechase at Navan on Sunday, we’ve stumped for SIEGEMASTER trained by Dessie Hughes. Brian Cooper takes five pounds off and he’s over priced at 14/1. He carries a lot of weight in soft ground, but it shouldn’t really be an issue for him, as he’s classier than most.

Siegemaster is great value at 14/1 in the Troytown Steeplechase at Navan.

We’re going back to Ireland’s encounter with New Zealand for the second of our more ambitious punts of the weekend, where the first tryscorer market offers pretty good value for money. Probably the best player in the world at the moment, Dan Carter, was at his scintillating best against Scotland last weekend, scoring one try and playing a hand in plenty of others.

This weekend, the out-half is an extremely tempting 16/1 to be the first to touch down at the Aviva Stadium, a price that simply can’t be ignored.

Dan Carter to score the first try in Ireland v New Zealand is available at 16/1.

Following their shock defeat to Sunderland last Sunday, Chelsea will be looking to get back on track against Birmingham at St. Andrews. It’s not an easy place to go, however and with the Blues struggling for goals and Alex McLeish’s side having a reputation for being stingy at the back, there mightn’t be much goalmouth action at either end.

It’s a longshot, but we think that a 0-0 draw is a possibility at 8/1.

A tenner on the above three bets will return €22,950, which will probably be the cost of a ticket for a rugby international in the Aviva Stadium this time next year.