TAB extends betting on Golden Shears

TAB extends betting on prestigious Golden Shears Shearing Championship

Tuesday, 23 February 2011, 12.05pm
Press Release: TAB
Media Release
23 February 2011

The New Zealand TAB will offer various betting opportunities on the annual Golden Shears Shearing Championship to be held in Masterton, 3-5 March 2011.

Masterton-based TAB shearing Bookie Kieran McAnulty said the TAB was very excited about building on the success of last year’s events by further expanding the betting opportunities on offer for the Golden Shears.

“The TAB has never previously offered so many betting opportunities on the Golden Shears and with the whole event attracting considerable attention from New Zealanders we expect a large amount of interest from our punters.” He said.

He continued by stating, “This is a fantastic opportunity for punters to get involved in what is an important event in New Zealand’s sporting calendar and cultural identity. We were overwhelmed by the interest in Golden Shears betting last year and with a self-service TAB terminal on-site this year, and with the expansion in options, we anticipate this interest to grow even further.”

Betting opportunities now include Head to Head options, where punters have a chance to back the winner of selected shearers, a top 3 (Place) option, odds on the PGG Wrightson National Circuit Series, the Trans-Tasman Shearing test, the traditional Maori v Pakeha Shearing event, and, for the first time, betting on the Golden Shears Woolhandling title.

The Golden Shears Championship will be awarded on a combination of time, job and quality penalties, with the lowest score winning. The time is calculated at a point for every 20 seconds, with job points being recorded by judges on the board as the sheep are shorn and quality points by judges in the pens after each sheep have been shorn. As always this year sees an impressive array of local and overseas shearers vying for world shearing’s greatest honour.

“The Golden Shears is the ultimate accolade for any international shearer which always brings the best out of each competitor. Although we have named our favourites the TAB is fully aware of the genuine possibility of an upset this year, especially with a number of up-and-coming youngsters who have already made their mark on the national circuit” Mr. McAnulty said.

Napier’s John Kirkpatrick, Te Kuiti’s David Fagan and World Champion Cam Fergusson of Waipawa are New Zealand’s greatest hopes, competing against an international contingent lead by Gavin Mutch of Scotland.

John Kirkpatrick is $2.50 favourite to add to his 2008 title; however last year’s champion Cam Ferguson ($3.50) and Golden Shears Legend David Fagan ($5.00) are also highly favoured by the TAB. “These odds have been out for over a week now, and it seems punters were chomping at the bit to get on their favourite shearer, with an overwhelming amount of money being invested in John Kirkpatrick, David Fagan and up-and-comers Adam Brausch (at $17.00) and Jason Win, who opened at odds of $60 but is now $20, purely due to the weight of money we have received. He is by far our worst result.”

‘The New Zealand Racing Board holds a commitment to increasing the profile of Shearing by passing a proportion of funds placed with the TAB back to New Zealand Shearing, so we see expanding our betting opportunities to include Woolhandling and installing a TAB terminal on-site for the first time an expansion of that commitment.” He said.

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