PAUL NICHOLLS’ long-serving head groom Clifford Baker and National Association of Stable Staff president George McGrath are among the nominees for the 2012 Godolphin Stud and Stable Staff Awards, the shortlist for which was revealed on Wednesday. There are ten remaining finalists in each category of the awards and a glittering ceremony will be held at the Jumeriah Carlton Tower Hotel in London on February 27, where the winners will receive their prizes from two-time champion jockey Paul Hanagan.

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Arda Ocal (@arda_ocal) and Jimmy Korderas (@jimmykorderas) of #AftermathRadio on thescore.com spoke with former WWE Manager and current WWE employee “Downtown” Bruno Lauer (Harvey Whippleman). Highlights from the interview are as follows:

Talking about his association with WWE, what are his current duties with WWE today: “I work behind the scenes, take care of all the details, whatever needs to be done for the television production and PayPerViews, and I’m just happy do be doing it after 32 years in the business. Another way to look at it and how I describe it in my book would be ‘WWE concierge’.”

Does he feel the era of managers for WWE have past, or would he love to see the era of managers for WWE return in the future: “If it came back again, it would be brand new to alot of people. I wouldn’t want

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Sports Betting Overview Any team that uses injuries as an excuse for poor play needs to look at the Pittsburgh Penguins over the last two seasons. Last season, the Penguins lost superstar Sidney Crosby in January for the rest of the season. But the team plodded forward and was still one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference. Then the Penguins lost superstar Evgeni Malkin a month before the playoffs last season and still wound up competing well in the first round of the playoffs before losing to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Now the Penguins face the very real possibility that it will have to move forward without Crosby permanently.

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Manchester United could only draw in the home fixture against Newcastle in late November but the champions followed that result up by carding five consecutive Premier League victories, conceding just once in the process before they were stunned by Blackburn on Saturday.

The Magpies’ form has been less consistent but they’ll undoubtedly feel that if struggling Rovers can prevail at Old Trafford then they can beat Sir Alex Ferguson’s side at St James’ Park. Alan Pardew’s men are 9/2 with Stan James to do just that but it’s hard not to feel that Manchester United, Victor Chandler’s 3/4 favourites, will bounce back from Saturday’s reverse.

Given that they have only conceded three goals on the road this term, in nine matches, the Red Devils should also prevail ‘to nil’, an outcome bet365 rate at 2/1 and more specifically the same firm chalk 15/2 against a 2-0 away victory.

At Goodison

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The playoffs are once again upon us which brings immense excitement to NFL fans and great value to sports bettors. As we have detailed previously in this blog as well as in our series of Bet Sharp articles, there is excellent value betting on home underdogs from week 15 on especially when dealing with home dogs of 8+ points.

With the Rams (+11.5) covering the spread in their season finale against the 49ers, home dogs of 8+ points are now 20-8 since 2003. This exceptional record is good news for Tim Tebow and the Broncos who are currently 8-point underdogs for Sundays game against the Steelers.

While there have been 28 games that have fit this system since 2003, only one of those games has taken place in the playoffs.

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