Can McCoy really win Sports Personality of the Year?
Currently topping the Sports Personality of the Year Awards betting for 2010 is fifteen times National Hunt Champion Jockey Tony McCoy at a best price 7/4 with William Hill and Coral/Eurobet.
This strikes me as looking rather short considering he's only once finished third before despite breaking all sorts of records and a jockey has never won this award in it's fifty-six year history. Indeed even housewives favourite Frankie Dettori could only manage third place in 1996, the same year he had gone through the card at Ascot.
So what makes things so different this time around? Well 'A.P.' as he's widely known, finally managed to win the Grand National after years of trying in April and few will forget the emotion he showed after the race, but at the odds available at present surely the value lies elsewhere.
Currently second favourite at around 5/2 with Paddy Power is US Open champion and Ryder Cup winner Graeme McDowell from Northern Ireland.
There have been two past winners from the world of Golf, notably Nick Faldo in 1989 and Dai Rees way back in 1957, plus five others made the top three so I expect the man from Portrush to go very close.
Plus points for the likeable Irishman are that he holed the winning putt for Europe in a spectacular Ryder Cup victory recently and back in June bagged his first major with a hard fought victory at the spectacular Pebble Beach course in California.
The main negative would appear to be that neither of these events were shown live on terrestrial television so he may not have reached as wide an audience as many people think.
Athletes have a great record in this competition and in Jessica Ennis have a realistic chance of scooping the main prize for the eighteenth time. Popular with both the press and the public, which is no mean feat, the Sheffield lass with a beaming smile and a personality to match will have her supporters.
The facts are though that she hasn't really achieved any more this year than last where she finished an honourable third to Ryan Giggs and my feelings are that a similar position on the rostrum awaits.
At huge odds of around 100/1 is Andy Murray who just last week landed the Shanghai Masters Tennis tournament without dropping a single set and disposed of Roger Federer in the final with the minimum of fuss.
Now although this isn't enough to warrant my recommendation, what we must consider is that the Barclays ATP World Tour finals are being held at the O2 Arena towards the end of November and Murray's matches will be shown live on BBC television.
A win there just a couple of weeks before voting for this award commences and those treble figure odds would be a thing of the past. With only Colin Montgomerie rivalling him for the Scottish vote, momentum could gather behind Murray at just the right time.
So my advice would be to back Andy Murray each-way now in the hope that he lands the season ending finale in London. Should this happen then the place part of our bet could be even bigger than his actual odds to walk away with the 2010 Sports Personality of the Year Awards.