Golden Shears – You can bet on it

Golden Shears – You can bet on it

The TAB today opened betting on whether the Golden Shears in Masterton this week will produce a “new” Open shearing champion.

It’s now one of 15 options being offered at the 55th annual shearing and woolhandling championships in Masterton.

It reflects the enthusiasm being shown as the sport marks the final Golden Shears of 16-times winner David Fagan, who has announced he will retire at the end of the season next month.

The 53-year-old Fagan has been the favourite since the TAB opened Golden Shears betting three weeks ago with a Win pool in which punters who back against Fagan will have their bets refunded if the legendary Te Kuiti gun scores one last win in the event he last won in 2009..

TAB sports bookmaker Kieran McAnulty says it’s a tribute to Fagan who has shorn in 26 Golden Shears Open finals, dating back to his first in 1984, when he was runner-up to brother John.

“We have a seen a surge in interest in betting on the Golden Shears this year, most likely due to this being David Fagan's last Shears and the Money Back Special we are offering on the Winner book,” he said.

In the new option today, punters can bet on whether Saturday night’s Open shearing final will be won by a former winner, or whether another shearer will be draped with its famous “yard of purple ribbon” for the first time.

Other former winners in contention are 2006 winner Dion King, of Hastings, and 2010 winner Cam Ferguson, of Waipawa.

A win by a past champion is paying $1.60, and win by a new champion is paying $2.20.

John Kirkpatrick, the winner in 2002, 2008, 2011 and 2012, is out with injury and defending champion and new World champion Rowland Smith has been taking a break from competition for the season.

The TAB is focusing on the Open-class shearing and woolhandling events, the PGG Wrightson National Circuit final, and test matches between New Zealand and Australia, marking the 40th anniversary of the first transtasman series tests in the summer of 1974-75.

Options on the glamour Open shearing championship include top-three finishes and who will make the six-man final, as well as head-to-head best-finish options.

The favourite to win the Golden Shears Open woolhandling title is defending champion Joel Henare.

The three-day Golden Shears, held in Masterton every year since 1961, start on Thursday with lower-grade heats. More than 300 shearers and woolhandlers have ented, from as far as Scotland and Southern Chile.

ENDS

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