The Chapman Report (2)

Nov 11, 2025 by Jeremy

While Lando Norris’s seventh Grand Prix victory of the year in Brazil was throwing a spanner in the works for those who thought SPOTY was a two-horse race between Chloe Kelly and Rory McIlroy, the bizarre possibility of a man finishing Top Female was being kept alive on Strictly.

Yet drag queen La Voix kicking out Gladiators hunk Harry in the dance-off by a 4-0 judges’ whitewash was curious to say the least.

As the popular Harry, with the pecs that seemed to have a life of their own, had finished just ahead, 30 to 29, when they danced on Saturday, it had all the makings of a close call, so the emphatic margin came as a shock.

The show seems determined to keep La Voix in until Blackpool at least. Will punters who have backed any of the other five females still standing ask for their money back if born entertainer Christopher Dennis – La Voix’s real name – outlasts them all? I wouldn’t fancy their chances with IBAS!

Not that I think it will come to that as I’m counting on TV personality Vicky and Lioness Karen fighting this one out. After stately Alex blotted her copybook with a nervy paso the market has come round to my way of thinking.

Vicky’s 39, top score of the week, though looking overmarked (was she really 4pts superior to Lewis or Karen?), was way in excess of anything she’d done before, and it’s no coincidence the judges keep mentioning her escalating points tally.

As a past winner of I’m A Celebrity she has a solid fan base and voters have started to take her bubbly vivacity to their hearts, even though we need the subtitles on to understand her broad Geordie!

While Vicky laps up being centre stage, quiet Karen is just the opposite. Out of her comfort zone when not on a football pitch, she comes dazzlingly alive in dances that showcase her fabulous leg speed.

Her performances in the past two weeks have been breathtaking, and women footballers have won two of the last three SPOTYs, so she won’t go short of support, as she and Vicky vie for Top Female favouritism.

Previous front runner Alex has been deposed. Her age, 62, is against her and she does not have the social media clout of many of her rivals. The oldest previous winner was Bill Bailey, 55 when he captured the Glitterball in 2020, though Billy Connolly’s wife, Pamela Stephenson, went darn close in 2010 aged 61. But even she, brilliant though she was, didn’t finish Top Female.

Balvinder, survivor of three dance-offs, doesn’t look good enough and there will be no Punjabi routine to save her next time, and although late substitute Amber Davis is 70 with Betfair for a reason in its Winner market – the public simply won’t buy into someone who is an established West End musical theatre star – Top Female is a different story.

In a final, where the public vote is all-powerful, she looks to have no chance against popular males, Lewis and George, but stopping her getting to the final is going to require much help from the judges.

As they keep giving her marks in the middle-to-high 30s, and deservedly so, it may need a fair bit of engineering and creative accounting to keep her out. And if she avoids the chop, she may yet end up Top Female in what is a fascinating market.

Meanwhile, George continues to hover around even-money in the Winner market. As soon as he was pushed out to 2.5, the backer(s) came for him again. Someone seems to know something because he is not the best dancer; nor improving at the required rate of knots.

Chris Hollins was not the best either in 2009 but a Daily Star vote leak suggested he was topping the public vote and he went on to win. So tread cautiously if you are taking George on, despite Lewis, possessor of the only 40 so far, looking the more worthy favourite.

In sport, Norris predictably shortened to 1/6 for the F1 drivers’ title following back-to-back wins that shot him 25 points clear with just 83 left on the table. Even his ever-shortening exchange odds of 4.4 for SPOTY don’t look off-putting as if he does clinch it, I fancy he’ll go shorter yet.

Motor racing does well at SPOTY and the timing couldn’t be more perfect. Still, McIlroy could redress the balance a bit by winning the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai this weekend so all is not lost.

And get a price on Elena Rybakina winning one of the four tennis majors next year. This six-foot Kazakhstani with the power-serve most men would die for dismantled world No. 1 Sabalenka in the WTA Finals in Riyadh and it was no fluke.

The Coco Gauffs and the Raducanus may get most of the headlines, but the women to bet on in 2026 are bombers Rybakina and Amanda Anisimova. You heard it here first.