A feat rarely accomplished, Williams was speaking confidently about the chances of a double. “With 55.5kg I think he can win a Caulfield Cup, be penalised and not have too much weight to win a Melbourne Cup. Whereas Fame Game, if he won a Caulfield Cup and was then penalised it’s unlikely that he’d be able to win a Melbourne Cup.”

Hokko Brave is currently priced up at $17.00 with Sportsbet to win the 2015 Melbourne Cup and is exactly the same price with Sportsbet to win the Caulfield Cup. The same bookmaker has Hokko Brave at $67.00 to do the Caulfield Cup/Melbourne Cup double.

Current favourite for both races is another Japanese raider, Fame Game, who has been allocated top weight for the race that stops a nation in November.

Well some might say they have take it too far this time with the ‘release’ of a massive hot air balloon in the shape of Rio’s famous Christ The Redeemer statue, accompanied by the slogan and hashtag #KeepTheFaith. You see almost nobody gives the Socceroos any hope in hell of qualifying out of a group containing the 2010 Finalists (Spain and Holland) and South American dark horses Chile. In fact most pundits don’t even think Australia will score a goal, let alone bag a point. So mindful of the fact that punters not betting on Australia is bound to dent revenues a tad, Sportsbet have done the only decent things they could have, pulled off a huge publicity stunt that captures headlines all over the world, gets the social media sphere spinning with positive and negative charges, and encourages the populations of Australia’s major cities (currently Melbourne) to have a bet on the Socceroos.

We are a big fan of such publicity stunts, our only gripe being about the potential lack of common sense in encouraging Australia punters to lose money by backing the Aussies. However, one thing is for sure, if our boys in Brazil know that the nation is actually rooting for them, then maybe they can raise their game enough to score a goal, or Chris forbid, get a point!

We think the most logical game for the Socceroos to get a point is against Holland, and you can back the draw at odds of 4.60.

If you haven’t got a Sportsbet account yet, they are offering a $250 Free Match Bet* and a number of great World Cup promotions. Read all about them here.

In fact the first five players in the 2014 Dally M Futures are the usual suspects; Inglis ($8.00), Cronk ($9.00), Cherry-Evans ($9.00) and Thurston ($10.00) were the top four rated chances to win the Dally M medal in 2013 according to the odds – they are now joined at the head of the market by Sonny Bill Williams at $10.00

After his recent troubles Ben Barba is way out at $15.00 can cannot really be backed with any confidence to show his form through the whole season, even despite a move back home to Queensland. Of more interest in the Dally M odds is Josh Dugan, now relocated to St George. If Dugan can keep out of trouble then $26.00 could look great value come October.

Dally M odds are volatile round to round, so it’s be important to take a longer term view when placing your bets, and we’d advise you to build a portfolio of chances at double figure odds. Sportsbet will be offering live odds on the Dally M Medal futures each week right up until the awards night.

In such an open market we’ve taken 3 live chances to take on the field and win the Dally M:

Josh Dugan at $26.00

James Maloney at $17.00

Anthony Milford at $15.00

Good Luck

New Sydney Swans forward Lance Franklin will appeal to some punters at $26.00 but forwards have a woeful record when it comes to Brownlow polling and better value might be in the usual suspects in the middle of the park. 2013 Brownlow runner up Joel Selwood won’t be far away come Brownlow Medal night, and neither will prolific pollers Dane Swan and Sam Mitchell.

Brownlow Medal odds are revised and published every week by the major corporate online bookmakers such as Sportsbet, so it’s well worth developing a portfolio of Brownlow bets at bigger odds and taking advantage of over-reactions in the odds after a player has a poor game. Players rarely poll in every game and can often come with a late season surge as Joel Selwood did last year. Yet bookmakers continue to push out players to huge prices simply because they’ve played a bad round or miss a couple of games due to minor injuries.

As with all bets, value is the key, and we’ll take five players against the field at juicy each way odds with Sportsbet:

Michael Barlow at $26.00

Travis Boak at $41.00

Ryan Griffen at $23.00

David Mundy at $41.00

Patrick Dangerfield at $11.00

Good luck!

But are you ready for race day? It goes without saying that we’ll be watching the Race That Stops A Nation, but have you sorted out how you think it’ll go this year? Will it be the foreign legion that dominates, or the homegrown talent? Is it Fiorente’s to lose? Whatever your opinion, you’ll be wanting to back it up with a bet, and the best and easiest way to do that, we reckon, is on Sportsbet. It couldn’t be easier to get yourself sorted out with an account, and the site’s a pleasure to use for plenty more than your Melbourne Cup betting. It’s safe, secure and packed with all the betting you could ever want: just follow the link to Sportsbet, and there’s a button to hit to join. Even better, you’ll get a two-for-one bet just for registering!

Get all of your Melbourne Cup odds 2013 here!

Puissance De Lune sustained the bone chips injury whilst dead heating with Budriguez in the Group II Blarney Stakes at Flemington but recovery process has gone without a hitch.

2012 Melbourne Cup challengers feature heavily in the Cup odds betting early on, with Fiorente at $11.00 and Mount Athos at $13.00. It’s A Dundeel comes next at $15.00 and then it’s $21.00 the field.

Reigning Melbourne Cup champion Green Moon is a $26.00 for a repeat success, but most interesting of the others is Jakkalberry at $41.00. Placed in the race last year at huge odds and still improving he might be worth a speculative interest at big odds.

Firstly, the media build-up and the betting are being dominated by Bart Cummings – he who has trained 12 Melbourne Cup winners and dominated group 1 events this season.

Secondly, we have the emergence of five or six horses from the rest of the field. It’s a clear gap, with half a dozen runners all over the tipping columns and a distinct lack of talk about the other 18 runners in the field.

Pull up a chair, allow me to re-fill my pipe and I’ll try to take us through both of these issues before we hopefully come out with a good overview of what will happen at Flemington on Tuesday.

Firstly, dear Bart has three runners in the field and is coming in off the back of a spring where he has trained winners left, right and centre. As of Monday evening his three chances, Viewed, Allez Wonder and Roman Emperor, were the 4.80 favourite, a 31.00 shot and 8.50 third favourite respectively with Sportsbet.

Such is the anxiety over the presence of Cummings’ trio of chances that Sportsbet has developed the ‘Second Cummings’ offer – whereby if a Bart Cummings horse wins and your horse comes second you get your money back – with a $100 maximum refund.

While Allez Wonder will have to up her game considerably to pull out a win, Viewed and Roman Emperor are both genuinely likely to be there or thereabouts. As such a modest insurance wager for Viewed might be a good idea as value is likely to be poor at this stage – while Roman Emperor is looking good for something heavier at 9.60 with Betfair.

So is all the talk about Bart a little over the top? Not when you consider Viewed has already won the Caulfield Cup this year. And the Melbourne Cup last year. However, Bart’s last win in the Cup was 10 years ago in 1999 with Rogan Josh.

Still, even if you fancy Alcopop at 6.00 with Betfair, or Shocking on 11.00, do you feel comfortable not backing Bart? I don’t and will be insuring accordingly.

Outside of aforementioned Roman Emperor, Viewed, Alcopop, Shocking and Daffodil at 16.00, the field, in my view, is of limited quality. However, there are some very interesting placings bets of decent value. Jockey Glen Boss has won this race three times in a row from 2003 to 2005 on Makybe Diva and is piloting Changing of the Guard at 7.40 for the placings with Betfair. Elsewhere there’s 12.50 for promising Godolphin horse Crime Scene. And if you’ve not quite had enough of Bart, Allez Wonder is 9.80 to make the placings.

It all comes down to this. A simple battle with Bart. Turf’s up.

Mr Clangtastic remains my shout in the Metropolitan at Randwick tomorrow but he could be pulled from the race if the heavens fail to open. Trainer Marc Conners has been quoted by AAP saying he’ll wait until the last possible moment before making a decision and if the track is good or better he probably won’t be running, such is his preference for the wet.

This begs the question, if he’s not in it, who is going to come out on top? Mr Clangtastic is currently on 5.50 with Sportsbet, while Speed Gifted is current favourite on 3.60 and Ready To Lift is on 6.00 and is my second shout.

I’m not planning to go mental tomorrow though – as the week has gone on the markets for both the ten-race card at Randwick and fixtures for Flemington have become more open and there’s plenty of bookie mantraps ready to chomp your wallet down to size tomorrow.

If you must have a swing at the Epsom Handicap Rangirangdoo has held firm all week and looks reasonable on 3.00 with Sportsbet.

Time to turn back to the NRL betting markets for Friday now, and naturally plenty of cash is going to be put down tomorrow before Sunday and could alter odds slightly, but I don’t expect the head-to-head odds to change much.

Betfair has Melbourne Storm as the favourites on 1.63 and Parramatta Eels are on 2.56. I’ve already said this week that finals betting gives me the creeps, but don’t be fooled by the fact Parramatta have been on a storming run – the Storm are still the better side from the season over all and can become the team of the decade if they win.

On Sunday I’ll make you feel green at the gills by taking you through some of the great NRL upsets, just to cause uncomfortable confusion, but tipsters everywhere are going for the Storm and I’m joining them.

Tomorrow I’ll be providing you with a Randwick overview before racing gets under way – just remember to watch the skies. Turf’s up.