Westbrook Worth Supporting
Only a week into Dancing On Ice and the markets have reshuffled so dramatically we believe there has been a massive over-reaction to the limited information we have to go on so far.
There has been a huge gamble on Gary Lucy, now a best-priced 3-1 second favourite, following backstage footage of him skating proficiently, and Hayley Tamaddon has shortened to 5-2 after a very impressive first performance on the ice.
Meanwhile, Jeremy Sheffield has taken a walk in the market, from 4-1 ante-post favourite to 16-1 after behind-the-scenes VT revealed that he is likely to be behind the front runners in terms of skating ability. Having recommended you keep Sheffield green, we suggest you go in and back him again because 16s is simply too big to resist on the Outright, as is the 8-1 for him to be Top Male. In interview he came across as a charming bloke and it is probably better for his long-term prospects on the show that he isn’t that great to begin with, but with plenty of room for improvement, especially given his ballet background.
We are unconvinced that Lucy will get the public vote – something about his personality didn’t sit right – while there remains a question mark over Tamaddon as she looked like she was trying a bit too hard to be liked by the public while her actual routine on the ice was over-performed.
The woman to back now at a best-priced 12-1 on the Outright, and 9-2 to be Top Female, has to be Daniella Westbrook who struck just the right tone in her VT to gain the public’s support, and proved herself a natural ice dancer:
After being bottom of the judges’ leaderboard Emily Atack has drifted to a tempting 28-1 on the Outright and 10-1 to be Top Female, as she has room to improve, quite possibly polled among the top three last Sunday, and could yet challenge Tamaddon and Westbrook in that latter market.
This week the men take to the ice for the first time and with grounds for thinking Bobby Davro (class clown), Dr Hilary Jones (daytime favourite), Mikey Graham (Gately sympathy) and Jeremy Sheffield (good looking older man who possesses a certain substance compared to the other male skaters) will be popular with the public, and based on the assumption Gary Lucy will top the leaderboard, the value call has to be to back Danny Young at 12s and Kieron Richardson at 14s to be next eliminated. Sinitta’s exit came as something of a surprise and there could easily be an even bigger shock in store on Sunday.
Rob Furber