It is a very big week for top sporting events across the world. We’ve seen the end of March Madness last weekend, the start of the Premier League Darts competition on Monday (running through to Friday), the quarterfinals of both the Champions and Europa League tournaments and today we see the start of The Masters golf tournament.
The first Major of the year runs through until Sunday but on Saturday we also have one of the biggest days for betting in the UK each year when the Grand National takes place at Aintree Racecourse as part of the three-day meeting that starts today in Liverpool.
In this article, we are going to focus on The Masters and the big race in Liverpool on Saturday and give you a quick preview and our tips for both these top betting events in what promises to be a very busy week for bookmaking sites.
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Let’s now turn our attention to The Masters tournament which gets underway today from 6am ET in the United States.
The Masters Preview
With a purse of over $2 million for the winner, plus the prestige of lifting the famous trophy
and donning the Green Jacket, The Masters tournament is always one of the biggest of the golfing year. Not only is it the first Major of the year, but it is also one of the most prestigious events to win out of the Major titles.
This year’s event is back in its usual allotted slot of April, following the November Masters of 2020 which was won by Dustin Johnson. The world number 1 is back to defend his title this year and is the 9/1 favourite to land back-to-back wins with bet365.
Johnson and the other 87 golfers competing will face very different conditions at Augusta this time around compared to last November. Back then the greens were very receptive due to heavy rain. Now, the greens will be much drier, much faster which of course makes them all the more treacherous to putt on.
18 former Champions of The Masters are expected to start in the field of 88 including many former winners from bygone days such as Larry Mize, Fred Couples, Ian Woosnam, Jose Maria Olazabal and Sandy Lyle. Of course, a number of more modern winners such as Bubba Watson, Danny Willetts, Justin Spieth and Adam Scott will also be competing.
The famous course will welcome patrons for this event, although they will be limited in number and socially distanced, but that will at least give the players some kind of atmosphere to play in.
This year’s Masters promises to be an intriguing one, coming just six months after the last and with a stellar field of competitors, any one of which likely believes they can win this most prestigious event.
The Masters – Our Best Betting Tips
So who from that stellar field of top golfers is our pick to win The Masters this year? There
are a couple of the favourites that I would draw a line through straight away. I think Rory McIlroy’s form is such that he cannot really be considered to win this and similarly, I think with Jon Rahm’s wife set to go into labour, it is going to be hard for the Spaniard to maintain a focus solely on the task in front of him at Augusta.
He has also said he will withdraw from the tournament if she goes into labour while he is competing, to that is another reason to avoid a player who otherwise I would feel has an excellent chance.
Winning back to back Masters tournaments is also very tough, which I feel makes Dustin Johnson’s chances all the more difficult so I think the man to back here for the win bet is Bryson DeChambeau. He tried to overpower Augusta in November and failed but I think that experience will make him all the more dangerous this time around. He is an 11/1 shot with bet365 at the time of writing.
Grand National Preview
The 2021 Grand National will be the first for two years after the 2020 race was cancelled.
That cancellation meant Tiger Roll missed out on the chance to set National history by becoming the first horse to win three races in a row after winning in 2018 and 2019.
Unfortunately, due to a disagreement about the weight allocated to him, Tiger Roll won’t run in this race, instead competing in another race earlier in the meeting on Thursday. His absence plus the withdrawal of a number of other horses such as Ajas, Easysland and Santini, means that Cloth Cap has emerged as the clear favourite to win the race.
Owner Trevor Hemmings, whose preferred headgear at race meetings is what the horse is named after, has tasted success in the race three times previously with Hedgehunter in 2005, Ballabriggs in 2011 and Many Clouds in 2015.
Cloth Cap is a very short 4/1 to win the National at the moment with bet365 Sport, which is an incredibly short price (Tiger Roll was 4/1 in 2019 when winning the race and was the shortest price favourite to win in modern times).
A number of other horses will be its main challenger, amongst them Burrows Saint (8/1), Any Second Now (10/1), Kimberlite Candy (12/1), Minella Times (12/1), Secret Reprieve (14/1), Magic Of Light (16/1) and Discorama (18/1).
However, in a race where long odds winners are not that unusual, anything can happen in what is the most popular horse race in the UK each year.
Grand National – Our Best Betting Tips
If you don’t pick a random horse out for the National and want a tip to win the race you’d probably think I am going to stick with Cloth Cap here. While I think that the 4/1 favourite will be in the thick of things at the end of the race, I am going to plump for another option.
That horse is Kimberlite Candy, which is 12/1 at the moment but which I think come race time will have been backed in significantly. The horse has ran well at Aintree over the National fences before (finishing second twice in the Bechers Chase) and it has very strong form. I think as a win, or perhaps better still as an each way bey, Kimberlite Candy is the value bet this weekend.
