Here’s wishing all our readers an excellent New Year, and all the best for 2015.

It’s going to be a busy year, and it could easily be a lucrative one if your luck’s in. It could be that you won’t want to rely on your luck, of course, when you’re making the odd bet in 2015, and to help with that we’re going to be bringing you all the news and insight we can in these pages – you’ll get the inside track just as soon as we do, and we’ll be bringing you all the specials, offers and deals that we think you’ll like the look of, too.

So if it’s NRL odds or AFL odds you’re after, or if it’s Racing, Cricket or something else that you’re interested in, check back in with us for a very happy (and hopefully lucky) 2015!

But can NSW rally in time to take the last game? Wednesday’s game was full of emphatic signs that the Maroons are too strong. But if the punch-throwing shows us anything, it’s that the NSW players aren’t prepared to take a backward step. Robbie Farah made 19 tackles in the first 26 minutes of State of Origin II, and if he has to make the same again to get the Blues over the line, you can bet he will. The odds as they stand are $1.95 for NSW, and $1.85 for Queensland. Too close to call this far out, but you can be sure we’ll be watching the odds…

But what will be the factors that decide the series? Blues star Nathan Hindmarsh reckons it’ll be in the engine room of the team that NSW can forge a platform from which to win. Certainly, the Blues look to have a great deal of depth in their forwards, with good young players coming through to line up against an older Queensland pack, but will it be enough to put an end to the Maroon run?

It really has the feel of a close series already – looking at the odds for more than 6.5 tries tells you the bookies don’t think either side will run away with it on the 5th: you’ll get $1.68 for fewer than 6.5 tries, and $2.15 for more. A look at the winning margins betting tells the same story: you’ll get $3.50 for a NSW win by 10 or fewer points, and $3.20 for a Queensland win by the same margin. The odds stretch out – the bookies think that if anyone is going to run away with it, it’ll be Queenland – but the smart money looks to be on close games.

The race is a huge $500,000 affair, not bad for a 1200m run. Nothing is ever guaranteed, but pundits are swearing blind there are two runners in the big one that could well be strolling past the line with ease.

The jockey from Melbourne, Nash Rawiller, is going to be on Lucky Secret. And the good news for him is that he has been riding the same horse for his last three wins. However, there is another secret at The Winterbottom, namely Waratah’s Secret, another great little runner, to be run by Paul Harvey, who is no slouch by any means.

Waratah’s secret is a three year old, and one that has been totally spruced up energy wise by the trainer, one David Harrison. Harrison must be aiming high. It’s all gearing up to be a great race, but what about the results? What’s the score on this?

As regards Waratah’s Secret, IASBet has the young horse on at 4.40, which is hardly something to ignore. So everyone likes the Secrets, but some bookies are tipping it the other way, so we’ll give you more bang for your buck here, and name a couple of good options for you to consider come race day.

Apache Cat has been getting some favourable press recently. While Neil Evans from Centrebet names Danny Beau as a possible player. He’s on at 8.0.

You got all of that? I know, none the wiser. But give it a go. Maybe a few safe bets will involve the spilling of some Secrets…

Although there was no golden egg of a win for Kirklees in the Caulfield Cup on Saturday, my shout Shamoline Warrior easily clinched the Norman Robinson Stakes having been priced at 3.80 favourite with IASbet.

Then the main event got under way. Although a fair bit of cash must’ve gone down the plug when Viewed bombed up the inside, I had the safety net of Roman Emperor, who I’d recommended as a placings shot at around 6.00 with many bookmakers. He ran a great race to finish as runner-up and on the final turn looked well in it and could even have pinched the whole thing were it not for a final kick from Viewed, who was on 13.00-odd with many bookmakers before the race.

As such I feel my backside has emerged from Caulfield Cup day pretty much intact after a bit of a tanning in certain events over the last couple of weeks.

Onwards to Wednesday’s Geelong Cup when stacks of horses need to win to get a decent boost up the order of entry for the Melbourne Cup.

Luca Cumani-trained Basaltico was quickly installed as the favourite for this one and the English galloper has shrunk to 6.50 with IASbet having hovered at 7.00 before the weekend. Also in the running is Godolphin stable horse Crime Scene.

For me at the moment this weekend’s main Moonee Valley event of the Cox Plate has one clear contender – current favourite Whobegotyou. He got me once earlier in the season when I advised against him in the Dato Tan Chin Nam Stakes but paid me back with a victory in the Yalumba Stakes. He is the one to beat on Saturday and is on 2.95 with Centrebet, while Heart Of Dreams, likely to be his main challenger, is around 6.00. ‘Whobe’ hardly shrank after he drew barrier 10 for the race, so could dip further.

My mojo is back and so is my patchy confidence. Turf’s up.

In latest developments the barrier draw went off on Tuesday and saw Denman and Trusting drew seven and ten respectively, which did nothing to alter their position at the top of the online horse racing markets.

There’s some minor variation out there at this still relatively early stage. Betfair has got Denman on 2.82, with Trusting on 4.70. Over at IASbet the same pair are on odds of 2.70 and 4.80 respectively.

There are two others which are well in the mix – Manhattan Rain, on 6.80 and So You Think on 8.80, both with Betfair, and after this the closest chance is Starspangledbanner on 14.50.

1600m is the distance and the prize pot is a cool $1 million, but the Guineas is about much more than cash, despite what its name might suggest to the layman. It’s an Australian horse racing event which dates back to 1881 and which actually drew its influence from England, namely the 2,000 Guineas Classic, which also means set weights – a rarity in Australian thoroughbred racing. The first-ever winner was Wheatear and it’s been run every year since, with Whobegotyou claiming the glory last year.

So much attention is focussed on Trusting and Denman because they are widely seen as two of the brightest colts in Australian racing, and both are in fine form; Denman will make it seven wins in a row if he wins on Saturday.

Unless you’ve been in a bunker filled with jelly for the last six months, you should also know it’s the first truly major group 1 event of the spring and as such can be a useful guide for those wondering how the runners will do throughout the rest of the campaign.

I’ll be watching the build-up like a hawk and bringing you all the market movements throughout the week, brandy in hand, cash in a tight fist, which may only get tighter as the days tick by. We shall see.

I’m carefully picking over the corpse of the George Main Stakes today, fingering the debris to try and figure out what went wrong.

If I could I’d don my wellies and trudge along the track at Randwick, peering at the scarred turf for clues, but I fear the stewards would throw me off. Not for behaving oddly, but for reeking of post-loss brandy which drowned my tears on Saturday night.

Anyway, the George Main was won by the Cummings-trained Road To Rock, who was hovering around 40.00 before the race and beat off the sub-2.00 favourite Racing To Win, plus my shout Black Piranha, who was second.

I know what you’re thinking – ancient history now, forget it and look to the Epsom on Saturday. Trouble is, I’ve just realised two things;

1.Road To Rock is in the Epsom on Saturday
2.This is not the first time an Anthony Cummings horse has pulled off an upset

Cummings also trains Turffontein, who gobbled up the Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes at Caulfield last week as a 15.00 shot, so the warning signs are obvious.

The man is on a roll and must be a master of deception. Therefore at this early stage the bookies are all cautious for the 1600m Epsom and have Road To Rock on 6.00 joint second favourite alongside Drumbeats. The spelling nightmare of Rangirangdoo is the favourite on 3.80, with IASbet.

Thankfully Black Piranha, one of my soft spots, is up on 8.50 with the same bookmaker despite an impressive second to the upstart on Saturday.

Matters are somewhat clouded further by some amusing and insightful comments by trainer Gai Waterhouse, who wins the unofficial quote of the week award.

“The system at the moment is buggered”, she said via AAP of the Epsom handicapping set-up, demanding more of a “sliding scale”.

With that nugget in mind, I’ll be tracking the horse racing betting markets for the Epsom throughout the week and will also be swotting up on the NRL grand final to ensure my system isn’t buggered by the weekend.

Helpfully, it distracts from the fact that my shout Black Piranha was ‘close but no cigar’ in the Cameron Handicap at Newcastle on Wednesday, coming second to Absolutelyfabulous.

In my defence, it was the first race of the season for Black Piranha, so in my view he’s still well on track for a strong shot at the Cox Plate. At 200 metres it looked like jockey Tye Angland had to alter course somewhat, which might be what took my dignity in this one.

Anyway a few early facts on the Underwood. It’s a Caulfield, group 1 affair over over 1800m for three year-olds and up with prize money totalling $350,000.

Whobegotyou ended an 11-month losing streak with the win at the weekend and is to be reunited with jockey Michael Rodd on Saturday. Mark Kavanagh had a dilemma after that win on whether he would go straight into another race at the weekend, and appears to have decided to take the chance to match the horse up with his stablemate Maldivian in the race, who himself is a Cox Plate winner.

Elsewhere, Predatory Pricer and Whobegotyou are fighting a separate duel, having faced each other three times before – Predatory Pricer has two wins from these meetings to just the one for Whobegotyou. Sub-plots galore for this one then, and I won’t be trying to call it until Friday at the earliest. Whobegotyou has already made me look like a wally once, so I’ll be watching his odds very carefully.

The betting is already getting interesting with Whobegotyou the favourite with IASbet on 2.60 and Vigor second favourite on 6.00 with the same bookmaker, having dropped from 7.50 earlier in the week. Typhoon Tracy and Heart of Dreams are on 8.00, with Predatory Pricer looking interesting all the way out on 12.00. Made up your mind? No, neither have I.