Odds On Favourites

Just days after the TAB opened the books for 2012 Golden Shears World Championships, Napier shearer John Kirkpatrick has been knocked back a spot as hot favourite to win the coveted Golden Shears crown this week in Masterton.

For the past four years, Kirkpatrick, the reigning Golden Shears champion with three titles to his name has commanded the number one spot on the TAB’s betting odds, but that position is now Hawke's Bay-based Northlander Rowland Smith’s.

Smith, the winner of Golden Shears Junior title in 2004 and the senior title two years later has notched up seven open class wins in just four weeks on the season’s competition circuit as hundreds of shearers and woolhandlers had their last big shakedowns ahead of the 52nd Golden Shears and 15th World Shearing Championships.

The TAB, which last week listed Smith as 4th favourite to win, has shortened his odds and made him the favourite paying $2.50, but just ahead of Kirkpatrick, who opened at $3.00.

And in-form Hawke’s Bay shearer Dion King, fresh from securing six significant titles this season, is on the list at $4.00 a shot to win while the TAB is offering lucrative odds on 50-year-old Te Kuiti’s David Fagan, at $5.50 to win the title for a 17th time. A back injury has put New Zealand’s world champs representative Cam Ferguson back at $8.00 to win.

TAB shearing bookie Kieran McAnulty said betting had been much bigger than previous years and bets were already being lodged in towns where betting had previously been slower; the likes of Te Kuiti and Taumaranui.

“We have odds on blade shearing for the first time and odds on woolhandling for only the second year. It has only been the first day but we have seen an increase in interest though it is not till Friday and Saturday that we will really start seeing an interest.”

Betting opportunities include Head to Head options, where punters have a chance to back the winner of selected shearers, a top 3 (Place) option, and the World Shearing Championship and Golden Shears finals.

The Golden Shears Championship will be awarded on a combination of time, job and quality penalties, with the lowest score winning. The time is calculated at a point for every 20 seconds, with job points being recorded by judges on the board as the sheep are shorn and quality points by judges in the pens after each sheep have been shorn.

ENDS

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