It only seems like 5 minutes ago,  i was jumping for joy as Ruby Walsh was fulfilling my dreams on the opening day of Cheltenham, now it’s less than a day away from the most prestige race in history the Grand National.

Steeped in tradition and much more the betting is at fever pitch as we speak, it is literally taking a cigarette paper to separate two of the most successful jump jockeys of all time at present.

Messrs McCoy and Walsh are mounting the two outstanding favourites in Don’t Push It and The Midnight Club respectively, with the latter recently taking charge of the betting as favourite at a low 8/1 with some online bookies.

With the antepost market hotting up for the grand national 2011 it’s a sure bet if you are going to win your money this year it has to be on an each way bet?

As with every year’s racing calendar we’ve got the famous Cheltenham Gold Cup to come before the top event hunt event in the year, The Grand National. The Gold Cup is now a world famous hunt race and is watched all over the world.

It’s actually older than the Grand National with its first running taking place in 1819 as a flat race. The race in its current form (as a grade 1 national hunt race) was first run in the 1950’s after its conversion to a jump race in the 1920’s. In the first years the race was dominated by the famous racehorse Arkle, who received the lowest price ever in the race’s history of 1-10, which are some of the lowest odds of any horse in history.

Last year the Cheltenham Gold Cup was won by Imperial Commander who’s hotly tipped for this year and can be found at most bookies around 3-1. Denman was second in 2010 and again is also being hotly followed for the 2011 race coming in as second favourite and can be found at a good price of 6-1. Ruby Walsh had a bad race on Kauto Star last year after being many punter’s choice for a Gold Cup winner and can be found on the roster for this year coming in at a respectable 10-1. Mon Mome, the surprise horse of the decade finished third last year at 50-1; however he isn’t running this year (perhaps to be rested for the National?) although outside 2011 National outside chance Midnight Chase can be found at a price of 25-1 for the Gold Cup, which is our choice for a winner. Finally, Long Run is well worth a mention after coming in first in the King George Chase, moving from a price of 25-1 to 7-1.  Check out the latest Cheltenham Gold Cup betting and pick up a few tips for the Grand National 2011 at Stan James today.

When we thought about it McCoy’s record over the years has been more than impressive. Whilst some claim that Westwood’s ascent is only due to the titanic Tiger’s trouser malfunction, there does no doubting his obvious talent and tenacity, however his tenure at the top has only been momentary where as McCoy has been at the top of his game for well over fifteen years.

Ultimately the BBC needed a sportsman who’d not only put in years of good work, but had performed well achieving an ultimate goal. For Westwood this would be the Masters at Augusta, an event if which he’d won would have no doubt gifted him with the BBC’s title. However, for McCoy this was the Grand National, a horse race renowned all over the world for it’s difficult fences and for the fact any horse can win, so this was McCoy’s golden moment.

Tony McCoy was a great price and hopefully many horse racing fans had a punt on this great jockey winning Sports Personality of the year as he could be found at an excellent price of 40-1 at Boyles and William Hill and if you’d really done you’re homework you could have got 66-1 at Corals or even 75-1 at Betfair.

We took 16-1 on Lee Westwood at Bluesquare, but as Tony McCoy himself will tell you, what does the price matter when you don’t win?  Surely this will stand AP in good stead for his chances of winning the classics over the coming months, including the biggest of all the Grand National 2011.

We are not quite sure at this stage of who AP will be seating in this year’s prestige event, however it’s a sure bet that the Grand National 2011 Betting will all be heading in the direction of AP, even if he ends up on striding snail.

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When the UFC started in 1993 it was something of a freak show. Using a tagline of “There are no rules!” it was more of a battle between fighting styles than a competition between athletes. Many who watched these early fights were repulsed, indeed one time presidential candidate John McCain described the events as “human cockfighting.” and helped get them banned in thirty six of the fifty states.

Seventeen years on and the UFC has come an awfully long way. Fights are no longer a battle of styles, in fact to become a champion nowadays competitors must have a well rounded fight plan training in various different boxing, wrestling and Brazilian Ju-Jitsu styles. The rules have also become tighter.

There have now been 126 UFC pay per view events and names such as Chuck “the Iceman” Liddell, Randy “the Natural” Couture and Tito “the Huntingdon Beach Bad Boy” Ortiz have permeated the public consciousness. George St Pierre and Anderson Silva, the current welter and middleweight champions are the poster boys of the sport and whilst both are exciting and at times devastating fighters I believe it is a twenty three year old from Ithaca, New York who will take this sport to the next level.

Jon “Bones” Jones is that man. Erudite, intelligent and humble, Jones could have had a career in several different sports including in the ultra competitive NFL but instead chose to earn his crust in the Octagon. Since his first fight Jones has had the crowd in the palm of his hand. His unorthodox attacks which he apparently copied from martial arts films and clips on Youtube are not meant to work in a sport which can often be confusing and boring to the casual observer. There is nothing boring about the spinning back elbows and giant suplexes which Jones regularly attempts in his fights and despite the fact he is not yet a champion I believe Jones will not only be the UFC poster boy for many years to come he will also be the first true MMA breakout star and will bring the UFC truly into the mainstream. If you fancy taking on our predictions in the UFC betting stakes then feel fee to do so, if we can win a few quid predicting the future of UFC fighting, then we are all laughing our way to the plastic surgeon for a new hooter.

The first test was full of records and full of good performances but at the end of it I think most people will agree that the biggest problem for either side is going to be taking twenty two wickets in a match and I have to say that it is surely going to be more of a problem for the Aussies.

Siddle’s hattrick apart the Australian bowlers struggled in the first test and the second innings must have sapped a lot of their natural confidence. They don’t have Warne or McGrath to rely on anymore and to be honest none of the current crop of bowlers looks like filling that void. They also lack variety and don’t have any dangerous spinners. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this Australian team change quite a bit throughout the series. That said they do have a decent batting line up, they are at home and they have that Aussie grit in their blood.

I believe that England’s pace attack of Finn, Broad and Anderson in contrast will cause the Aussies problems all series long and whilst Swann won’t be as prolific as in recent times he will always take important wickets. Something else I foresee is a return to form for KP, I think it’ll be him or Cook as England’s top run scorer. Despite an advantage talent wise England often have confidence issues and are always susceptible to a hideous collapse. All in all I can’t see anything other than a super tight affair with exciting matches throughout and England’s superior talent to edge it 2-1.