Free betting tips: Antepost selections for 2023 including horse racing, football and golf
As a new year begins, our team of tipsters have picked out their best long-range bets for 2023.
Last year's equivalent piece saw Ben Linfoot highlight the claims of 33/1 shot Tuesday in the Oaks, who duly obliged at odds of 13/2 at Epsom.
That was just one of a number of antepost winners throughout the year, with Matt Brocklebank selecting Desert Crown at 25/1 for the Derby, and tennis expert Andy Schooler picking out Canada for the Davis Cup at 33s.
All three experts provide selections below, along with Ben Coley, Richard Mann, Jake Osgathorpe, Tom Carnduff, and guest contributor Nathan Charlton.
RACING
Gericault Roque to win the Grand National
By Matt Brocklebank
Younger, progressive types have been dominating the finish of the Grand National since changes were made to the fences, with Noble Yeats the first seven-year-old winner since World War II, while in 2016 Rule The World managed to break his maiden as a chaser in the world’s most famous jumps race – he was only the third to do so and the first since 1884.
This year there is a chance GERICAULT ROQUE could borrow a leaf out of each of those past heroes’ books as he will still only be seven come the spring, and he has somehow yet to taste success over the larger obstacles having won twice from four outings over hurdles two campaigns ago.
Last season – his novice year as a chaser – was hugely promising and just about every time he turned up he ran his race, ending with very frustrating form figures of 32222 including a fine second to Corach Rambler in the Ultima Handicap Chase at the Cheltenham Festival.
His big early target this time around was clearly the Coral Gold Cup at Newbury and, following a low-key prep run over hurdles at Aintree, he duly put in another career best to finish third behind Le Milos and stablemate Remastered despite the ground coming up unseasonably quick in Berkshire.
Reversing Cheltenham form with fourth home Corach Rambler that day, it looked another important step in his chasing education and smacked of a horse with another chunk of improvement still in the locker given slightly softer conditions and a proper test of stamina.
Kept on the back-burner during the Christmas period, he looks an ideal National project for the man who so expertly masterminded Comply Or Die’s win under a low weight back in 2008.
FOOTBALL
Bayern to win the Champions League
By Jake Osgathorpe
The Champions League is the best club competition in the world, and we should see some high-class football and plenty of drama when it gets back under way. There are some excellent looking ties in the Round of 16, one which sees Bayern Munich take on PSG.
I like the look of BAYERN MUNICH progressing through that tie, and thus to win the Champions League, with the current price of 7/1 simply too big because of the tight-knit nature of their upcoming test.
PSG have the better individual quality, but as a team Bayern are just far superior, and with Manchester City as short as 8/5 in places to win the UCL for the first time, the value lies in the Bavarians going all the way just as they did in 2020.
Julian Nagelsmann’s side comfortably topped a difficult-looking group ahead of Barcelona and Inter Milan and have found their feet domestically to climb to the summit of the Bundesliga, so are trending in a really positive direction, and the underlying numbers say the same thing.
Across all of their league and Champions League matches this season, they have averaged 2.49 xGF and 1.12 xGA per game, and Bayern will be a tough team to stop in 2023.
GOLF
Sungjae Im to win the US PGA
By Ben Coley
Of all the majors in 2023, the PGA Championship might just be the best for a bet – and that's largely down to the fact that Oak Hill returns to host the event for the first time in a decade.
Designed by Donald Ross, Oak Hill is an old-school golf course which threw up an old-school leaderboard last time the PGA came here, as Ben Hogan acolyte Jason Dufner got the better of fellow fairway-finders Jim Furyk and Henrik Stenson.
Plenty has changed since and it's far from impossible that the evolution of both sport and course makes for a contrasting test, but these classical courses tend to demand a certain style of play. That remains true at Sedgefield, the Ross design used every year on the PGA Tour, and I suspect it'll remain true at Oak Hill.
All of the world's best players are capable of adapting but I'm drawn to SUNGJAE IM, who could be the latest in a long line of players to break their major ducks in this event.
Im is a quality all-rounder, who is one of the best drivers in the sport not because he hits it a long way nor because he is accurate, but because he's above average in both departments. That really should count for something here, and it's helped set him up to contend at the aforementioned Sedgefield every time he's played there.
Also close up at Augusta and East Lake, old school courses in Georgia where he now resides, Im is one of several Korean players who appear to prefer a classical, tree-lined test, although his adaptability is such that he's won in the desert and on an exposed course in Florida so far.
Ultimately I think he's underestimated as a young player who has already contended for a major, boasts the all-round skill set which should see him do so again, and has just been overshadowed a little by his friend Tom Kim lately. Don't sleep on Sungjae in 2023.
TENNIS
Casper Ruud to win the French Open
By Andy Schooler
I don’t believe CASPER RUUD is being given the respect he deserves in the current French Open market.
The Norwegian is out at 12/1 for the claycourt Grand Slam event, a price which makes him just the fifth favourite for the title. I don’t think that’s right.
Ruud was runner-up in Paris last year as he delivered on the claycourt promise he’d been showing since moving onto the main tour.
What could be important, certainly in terms of potential price change, is the fact he also became a real contender on hardcourts in 2022, reaching the US Open final, as well as finishing runner-up at the ATP Finals and the Miami Open.
I wouldn’t be surprised if he started the year well (he’s 25/1 for the Australian Open) and if he enjoys the pre-European clay part of the campaign then there’s every chance he’s already shortened up prior to getting the red dirt under his feet in April.
I’ve mentioned Ruud’s under-rated serve in the past but am happy to do so again – his figure of 86% of service games won on clay was the third highest on tour last season and if you filter out those who served fewer than 200 games on the surface, he was top.
The return is the area where improvement is needed, especially if he’s to start beating the true elite on a regular basis, but in Ruud I see a player determined to make the necessary changes and definitely think this is a price which might not be around come May, especially when you consider the doubts over the fitness of Rafael Nadal, one of those currently above Ruud in the market.
FOOTBALL
Aston Villa to win the FA Cup
By Tom Carnduff
While we can’t predict a team’s full route to the final, we do know the third round fixtures, and one of those with a favourable tie is ASTON VILLA, making the 33/1 best price on them to WIN THE FA CUP particularly eye-catching.
The positive for Villa and this competition is that they are nestled into mid-table. Relegation shouldn’t be a worry while the European places may be a step too far at this stage of the process.
That allows them opportunity to focus on the FA Cup and bringing some silverware to Villa Park. They will have been pleased to see Stevenage at home coming from the third round draw.
Unai Emery’s appointment as the replacement to Steven Gerrard is, in the short term at least, looking like a positive move, with the attack seeing necessary improvement and scoring on a more regular basis.
With a talented squad already available and likely additions to come in January, Villa look a team on the up and FA Cup success will represent a significant sign of their present potential and future ambition.
RACING
Silver Knott to win the Derby
By Ben Linfoot
There was so much to like about SILVER KNOTT’s juvenile campaign with a Classic tilt in 2023 in mind that I have to be with him at 25/1 for the Derby at Epsom in June.
Campaigned at two like he was the second incarnation of Charlie Appleby’s first Derby winner, Masar, Silver Knott won the Solario Stakes at Sandown, just like Masar, and then ran in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, just like Masar, to close his first season in training.
Silver Knott got much closer to Breeders’ Cup glory than Masar ever did, going down by just a nose in a thriller, but he has set himself up beautifully for a middle-distance campaign at three.
By Lope De Vega, whose progeny are 12/60 at 20% at Epsom, he’s out of God Given, a Group One-winning half-sister to 2016 Coronation Cup winner, Postponed.
With Epsom coursing through his veins and the step up in trip expected to bring about more improvement, Godolphin’s Autumn Stakes winner is taken to land a third Derby in six years for his excellent trainer.
SNOOKER
Ronnie O'Sullivan to win the World Championship
By Richard Mann
Like a fine wine, RONNIE O'SULLIVAN is maturing beautifully, and the 47-year-old is backed to win an eighth World Championship in Sheffield in May.
O’Sullivan was in a league of his own when claiming a record-equalling seventh Crucible crown last spring, producing a devastating mix of mesmerising brilliance and unwavering resilience to beat long-time rival Judd Trump in the final.
O’Sullivan has claimed to loathe the World Championship marathon in the past, but not anymore. He is older and wiser now, his game more well-rounded, and as two prestigious titles already this season demonstrate, he is still very hard to stop on the biggest stage, in the biggest events.
With nothing left to prove, all that remains for O’Sullivan is to put the finishing touches to his legacy. There is no better place to do that than in Sheffield, at the Crucible, where an eighth World Championship victory would move him clear of Stephen Hendry.
CYCLING
Enric Mas to win the Tour de France
By Nathan Jackson
Although it’s hard to look past Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard for Tour de France glory, ENRIC MAS looks to be a rider that is unappreciated by the bookies therefore making him an eye catching each-way selection.
Mas finished the second half of his breakout season in strong form, finishing second in the Vuelta a Espana behind 2022 sensation Remco Evenpoel, then beating Tadej Pogacar in the mountainous one-day race at Giro dell'Emilia (Italy), before rounding off the campaign with a very strong second at Il Lombardia.
The only downside that Mas could face is the lack of strength of the Movistar Team compared to the likes of UAE Team Emirates, Jumbo-Visma and INEOS Grenadiers who will all have stronger teams on paper. Given the possible lack of depth within the Movistar Team, this could result in Mas having to do a lot of unnecessary work to make up for his teammates.
That said, the recruitment of mountain specialist Ruben Guerreiro from EF Easy-Post Education, will prove to be a positive signing for the team alongside being a strong domestique for Mas in the mountains.
Finishing fifth in the 2020 edition and sixth in 2021, Mas is now arguably in the best form of his life. Pogacar and Vingegaard proved that they are not invincible at last year’s edition of Le Tour and can be broken. With the right scenario of the two favourites fighting it out, this could pave the way for Mas to slip through and gain much valuable time.
Unsurprisingly, Mas has attracted each-way support already and I suspect he might become the first Spaniard to finish on the Tour de France podium since Alejandro Valverde in 2015, and who knows, maybe even wear the prestigious Maillot Jaune as the riders roll into Paris.
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