Starspangledbanner's odds shortened for Haydock Sprint

STARSPANGLEDBANNER has shortened in the betting for Saturday’s Betfred Sprint Cup at Haydock with Paco Boy off to France.

Read Full Story

Have Your Shout

Get posting in the Star Forums!

You can join the debate and post your own views in the lively Daily Star Forums!

CROWN ROVER'S FIT FOR A WIN

ABOVE: Crown Rover at Sunderland

3rd February 2010

By Jim Austin

Your Shout ( 0 )

CROWN ROVER (9.02), winner of the £20,000 Grand Prix over course and distance last summer, is strongly fancied to make a successful reappearance over 640m at Sunderland tonight – live in betting shops.

Last seen in public when defeated at Sheffield on Christmas Eve having won the £5,000 Ladbrokes Festival at Monmore earlier in the month, the James Wright-trained bold front-runner returns with a couple of respectable workouts at Newcastle.

He isn’t likely to be on absolute top form given the fi ve-week break, but he shouldn’t need to be to master a relatively weak field and he should dominate proceedings from start to finish.

Backing dogs at Sunderland that have no knowledge of the track is asking for trouble and, as such, recent Nottingham Futurity winner Droopys Ranger can be taken on in the last of the televised races.

There’s little doubt that Christine Parker’s dog is the fastest in the field, but he is likely to wade midfield around the bends and that could open the door up nicely for the hat-trick seeking Melview Ace (9.17).

Rarely does an open-race session at Sunderland pass without a local winner or two and Farloe Robinho (8.47) looks the best chance of one. Kelly Macari’s dog comes home after a couple of costly defeats at Pelaw Grange and Sheffield, but he has a 40 per cent strike rate over C&D and is fancied to get first run on fellow local and chief threat Vieris Newry.

Harlow’s feature is the £500 Monkey Maiden final in which Adageo (10.00) looks a penalty kick. Trained by champion trainer Mark Wallis, the two-year-old has made staggering progress in recent weeks and absolutely sluiced up in the heats to complete a four-timer, and a trademark burst of initial acceleration can see him with matters wrapped up a long way out.

Banana Joker is better drawn and, more crucially, has track experience meaning he should run Uncertain Step (9.45) a lot closer this evening, but whether he can turn around the near-six length deficit required is questionable.

Borna Payment (9.15) hacked up by 10 lengths over C&D last week and should follow up in heat three of the Monkey Stayers, with Jogadusc Jasper (8.15) and Perfect Review (8.45) fancied for the earlier qualifiers.