Gerwyn Price may well be wearing an extra big smile when he walks onto the stage at Leeds on Thursday bidding to boost his chances of reaching the Premier League Darts finals night at the end of the month.
Few sporting achievements will top winning the 2021 world championship at the Alexandra Palace in London but lifting the Premier League Darts trophy across the city at the O2 after reaching the final two years ago would be close – as would reaching the final of the Greyhound Derby at Towcester.
Just 40 minutes before he steps on to the oche to face Rob Cross in this week’s Premier League shootout, the 40-year-old Welshman will be glued to the first heat of this year’s blue-riband event and hoping his blue bitch Icemans Girl finishes in the first three to qualify for the next round of the competition, which concludes on Saturday, June 14.
More than 170 of the best racers from England and Ireland are battling to bank the £175,000 jackpot which goes to the winner of the sport’s showpiece event so there’s work to do for Icemans Girl, trained by Nathan Hunt, but she has won ten of her 26 races with victories over the 500metres at Towcester as well as at Romford, Crawford, Perry Barr and Monmore and she’s each-way value at 125/1 with William Hill.
Proper Heiress, a dog known as Harry in the Mark Wallis kennels despite the misleading name, was tipped in this column at 50/1 after winning the Olympic at Hove before Christmas.
He has since beaten top-quality opposition in the Winter Derby at Monmore, the Kent Plate at Central Park and more recently the Juvenile at Towcester where he left Bockos Diamond trailing in his first race since roaring to victory in the Irish Derby at Dublin’s Shelbourne Park in November.
Proper Heiress is now just 9/1 with competition sponsors StarSports and better value is available by backing Maxine Locke’s Hove Puppy Cup champion Headford Asher, who can also majestically glide around the track from any trap, at 33/1 with bet365, Bet Victor, Sky Sports and Betfred.
Wide runner Slick Sentinel will be in the mix throughout for Patrick Janssens and is 50/1 with the sponsors, bet365, Paddy Power and Betfred while Irish raider Cheap Sandwiches, a more than creditable second in the Irish Derby, is 14/1 with Ladbrokes and Coral.
Meanwhile, Droopys Bookem just missed out on our portfolio but is worth backing to be the best of Tom Heilbron’s runners at 9/4 with bet365.
Barca v Inter semi-final could go all the way
Barcelona and Inter Milan fought out a thrilling draw in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final in Spain and the return leg at the San Siro may be decided in extra-time or by a penalty shoot-out.
The draw at full-time is 3/1 with Bet Victory while Inter are 5/4 with BetGoodwin to qualify for the final in Munich.
Marcus Thurman broke the deadlock after just 30 seconds last week and is 11/5 with Unibet and BetMGM to be on the scoresheet again this time around while teenage sensation Lamine Yamal is 3/1 to find the net for Barca. A 2-2 score after 90 minutes is 10/1 with bet365.
• The team which misses out on automatic promotion to the Premier League often folds in the Championship play-offs but Sheffield United are much better than their rivals and are 9/5 with Paddy Power and Betfair to win at Wembley. Leyton Orient are 9/2 with the same firms to grab League One honours and they go 9/1 for Chesterfield to prevail in League Two.