Caulfield will come to life with the $100,000 Sir John Monash Stakes on Saturday. It should be an exciting race with a handy field of winter sprinters lined up in the race.
IASbet’s bookmaker Mark Read is tipping the favourite, Gran Sasso, to have a win.
“I Am Invincible ($3.70) will set a keen pace up front and, from his gun draw, Gran Sasso ($3.10) will be right on his hammer,” said Read. “Besides the perfect run, his current form and fitness easily sets the benchmark for this race.”
While confident about the chances of the favourite, Read believes that any boil over will be an in house job, giving Orange County a rough chance, “Orange County ($6.00) has a class edge, goes well when fresh and appreciates give in the track, ticking all the boxes as an appealing each way value in this race. Inversely, I’m opposing Damselfly ($5.00) as I regard his current quote as under the odds.”
I agree with Mark Read and think Gran Sasso is the logical choice for the big race. He’s a fit and in form horse and has responded to Chris Symons every move. With the coverted barrier number 1 he has the box seat and expected to do well.
His last run was on a dead track and showed that he is a true sprinter and took the lead from mid pack just before the striaght where he finished to a fairly comfortable win. I think that he will surprise some people come the Spring Carnival.
Mark Read’s IASbet have a huge range of horse racing markets including the Sir John Monash Stakes. They have a great promotion on at the moment, that if you use the promo code BFF100 when joining and make $50 worth of bets you will get $100 worth of free bets. Checkout their site for more info and the latest odds for the race.
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With the $10 million upgrades finishing on schedule the Toowoomba Turf Club will be presenting their amazing new cushion track with an action packed program under lights this Saturday.
IASbet’s bookmaker Mark Read identifies the inaugural $150,000 2009 Weetwood Handicap as the pick of the card, stating that the field is arguably one of the best assembled in Queensland this year.
“The pace will be strong from the outset as Wasted Emotions ($3.80) will be pressured at the front by Danzylum ($16.00) and Vocalic ($34.00),” said Read.
“My tip, and I feel strongly about this one, is Voice Commander ($4.80) ridden by the inform Tye Angland. The gelding has been racing very well lately without race patterns and conditions suiting him. He trains on a similar surface in Canberra, and, all factors considered, this event looks to be the ideal race for him.”
Although he has a poor draw at 13 he has the speed to overcome the gate and will be up there come the end of the race.
Voice Commander had a troubled race at a recent run at the Sunshine Coast but he still passed about seven horses and ran home so you can trust that the horse has returned to some former glory if he gets a good run at it.
It could possibly be Voice Commander’s final run in Queensland this year with trainer Nick Olive undecided about his future past the Weetwood Handicap. “He might have one or two starts in the early spring, probably in Melbourne, and then we’ll turn him out and bring him back for the Magic Millions in January.”
Olive also isn’t worried about Voice Commander handling the newly made cushion track under lights and said “I don’t think it will be a problem. I know it’s a bit of a different surface but he’s worked on the Acton track at Canberra his whole career so I don’t think the track will worry him at all.”
IASbet is the place to go for this weekends big race. They currently have an offer where if you make $50 worth of bets you will recieve a $100 free bet. Simply use the promo code BFF100 on the joining page.
Here’s your chance to be an online bookmaker! Australia’s IAS (International All Sports) is up for sale and the well know betting icon is yet to seal any hand over deals.
Mark Read’s IAS Board have looked at expressions of interest from rival companies including Sportsbet and Centrebet which has caused some big movements in the share price.
Early this year Centrebet made a hostile bid of near 22 Million dollars for a 90% part of IAS at 33 cents per share. At the time this seemed to me to be a generous offer considering that the shares were only worth 16 cents and increasing losses gave IAS a bleak outlook. The offer was officially rejected by IAS along with Centrebet’s other offer of 28 cents for a 50% slice of the company. The IAS directors stated that the offer significantly undervalues the shares of IAS but would continue to look at interests from other companies.
With this interest the Darwin based bookmaker saw the share price rise. Another rival company Sportsbet in late February and early March bought a little over 12.3% of IAS at this raised price of an average of 35 cents per share. This lead to Centrebet announcing that they are out of the hunt and wouldn’t make any counter offers. Matthew Tripp owner of Sportsbet commented about the acquisition “The company had bought the stake to have an influence on IAS’s future”.
That’s exactly what happened, around the same time IAS announced its half year results which gave a much brighter picture and the shares topped a high of 42 cents. Currently IAS shares stand at 35 cents and are showing to be much more stable.
IAS now has around 40,000 customers on both it’s IASbet and Canbet sites and turned over $524 million last financial year. They continue to stay very competitive with other Australian bookmakers with aggressive incentives to new players. Currently IAS give new customers a $100 free bet just for making $50 worth of bets on their websites.
Check out both IAS’s sites below
IASbet.com.au
Canbet.com.au
More information on the IAS sale checkout their corporate section here
