Racing and Football

Strange week for football this week with Chelsea palying Monday and Thursday night, and tonight we have a midweek Old Firm game. Rangers can't quite win the league tonight in their rival's back yard, but anything but defeat will mean its as good as over in Scotland and they can focus on the UEFA Cup. Finally there's some racing worth looking at again today. Some competitive stuff as Cheltenham rounds up the jump season, but I'll be looking East at Newmarket.

2.35 Newmarket Art Connoisseur 6/4 (WON +1.57 - another impressive performance and will surely be lined up for a crack at one of the Royal Ascot sprints after this)
Looked a cut above in his maiden at Leicester, despite running green, winning by 3 1/4 lengths and beating the only other previous runner by a further head. That horse's previous fourth is proving to be good form, so this win should prove even better. The dangerous outsider is Rayvin Mad, with Peter Chapple-Hyam's horses flying at the moment

7.45 Rangers to win to nil 5/1 (LOST +0.57 - I should probably add Celtic to Tim Henman and Colin Montgomerie to my list of not to bet on. Or just give in to the fact that they are the luckiest side in the history of the world ever!)
Even if Celtic were to beat Rangers tonight and in 10 days time, if Rangers win their games in hand to Motherwell and St Mirren, they will still be four points clear with four to play, so you see the task Celtic have. But Walter Smith has been there, seen it and done it many times before. Wee Gordon Strachan (or Chesney when he moonlights on Corrie) had a decent record in Old Firm games until Walter came along and not only have Rangers won four in a row now, Celtic haven't even scored. And it is that fact that Smith has built this latest Rangers side on. No longer can they pay to attract the creative talents of Gascoigne, Kanchelskis, Laudrup etc, but they can make themselves hard to beat and that has been eveident recently. They have kept clean sheets in four of their last four matches including two versus Sporting Lisbon and one at home to Celtic. The away game at Dundee United saw some players rested between the two UEFA Cup ties. They also beat Werder Bremen, second only to Bayern in Germany, 2-1 on aggregate in the previous round. So combine Walter's Old Firm record, this steely defence, and the fact Celtic have failed to score in four of their last six games - two of which were at home to Motherwell and Dundee United - and you can see how the Teddy Bears will be confident of another clean sheet and taking the points back from the bandit country of East Glasgow.