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

Andy Holding's NAP

TWO TEMPTING (NAP) has had the misfortune of bumping into two pretty smart colts in the shape of Noble Order and Kingmax of late, but he appears to have come out of those encounters with a reasonable handicap mark of 75 and he might just prove good enough if taking to the grass at the first time of asking. 

A big eye-catcher on his debut at Wolverhampton back in January, Johnathan Portman’s gelding was nibbled at in the market for his next start at Kempton and although he was never in a position to land the mini-gamble, he stayed on strongly enough in the closing stages to finish an honourable runner-up to an odds-on favourite with all the best form going into the contest. Sent back to the Sunbury track on his latest outing, the son of New Bay had no answer to the smart turn of foot exhibited by the winner, who has aspirations of taking his game into the big league later in the campaign, but he beat the rest by a fair margin, so it was by no means a backward step. By a sire who had plenty of notable success last season out of a dam who had similarly quality form on turf, the lightly-raced a reasonable proposition despite the race’s complexities. 

Tom Love's Selection for Crystal Palace vs Arsenal

It’s an all London affair for Monday Night Football as Crystal Palace, unbeaten in their last six, host an Arsenal side ticking along nicely in their pursuit of a top four berth.

Of course it’s Patrick Vieira coming up against the club where he spent his best years and is fondly thought of. He deservedly picked up a point at the Emirates and given how hard his Palace side are to beat they’re always in with a chance of avoiding defeat. 

The Eagles have competed well in games against those in the top four, getting a point at Selhurst against Manchester City and only just losing out to Chelsea late on when hosting the Blues. 

Looking at the prices you see Arsenal at odds-on in places which is probably fair when you consider their decent away record backed up by positive performance data but Palace are putting up strong underlying numbers themselves and with home advantage, under the lights, I have to side with them to get something from the game. 

Having said that, the hosts do struggle to get wins on the board and getting over the line has been a problem all season. It means they’ve drawn the most games in the league (13). A point wouldn’t be a complete disaster for the Gunners so instead of taking an unreliable Palace to win or on any handicaps I’ll chance the bigger price of 5/2 about the draw here.