Andy Holding & Tom Love's Horse Racing & Football Double

WESTERN MUSIC (NAP) (best price 7-4) wouldn’t be the first fancied horse to go to Newcastle and underperform, but now back at a track that clearly suits her better, David Barron’s filly is fancied to regain the winning thread.

Placed on her first two starts over seven-furlongs at the Midland track, the daughter of Epaulette was well backed to make it third time lucky when dropping back in trip and in what turned out to be a strongly run race for the grade, she stayed on best off all to claim the spoils close home. Sent to Gosforth Park for her latest assignment, the four-year-old could only manage fourth behind the in-form Million Reasons, and although it’s probably fair to say she wouldn’t have beaten the winner, she would have finished a good deal closer with a clearer run inside the final two furlongs. Still in decent shape based on that effort 17 days ago, her time figures suggest she’s got the beating of today’s field, so it’ll probably just boil down to whether she gets the run of the race.

Leeds started life with Jesse Marsch in defeat as they went down away to Leicester. It was a harsh scoreline you could say, the Whites actually dominated the shot count and comfortably won the xG battle at the King Power.

Marsch said the performance was more important than the result and you can see what he was trying to get at, however, with Leeds embroiled in a relegation battle, I’m sure fans would rather points on the board and scrappy performances to try to get them clear of danger.

The former Salzburg manager will get his first taste of the fervent Elland Road atmosphere under the lights on Thursday but they face an Aston Villa side who will be buoyant on the back of a couple of decent wins.

That 4-0 victory over in-form Southampton had fans purring after a couple of off key performances in the past month or so. Phillipe Coutinho played the starring role for Villa there and Steven Gerrard will know better than most how to get the maximum output from the Brazilian. 

It sets this one up to be an exciting watch, goals could well be the way to go and the 10/11 on both teams to score and over 2.5 goals looks the way in for a game between two sides that the bookies can’t split it the 1X2 market.