Sheikh Mohammed has made his latest jockey signing to his Godolphin operation by capturing the services of Silvestre De Sousa.

The Brazilian had his best season to date in 2011 by finishing second in the Jockeys Championship behind Paul Hanagan.

De Sousa was favourite to succeed Richard Hills as the number one jockey for Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum before this appointment, that’s after the Hills had confirmed his retirement to take affect after this year’s Dubai World Carnival in March. Those looking at the online betting should remember this.

Simon Crawford, the racing manager to Godolphin, offered De Sousa a contract two weeks ago but the 31-year old wanted time to go away and think about it in which he decided to accept the proposal on Tuesday.

The new deal means De Sousa will ride for both trainers Saeed Bin Suroor and Mahmood Al Zarooni who both look after Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin owned horses.

De Sousa is currently riding Dubai as part of the World Cup Carnival at Meydan. He has already ridden nine winners for Godolphin in the last month in what is his first winter in the Middle East. Anyone following the betting odds should bear this in mind.

The big race of the 2012 flat season in Britain is the Lincoln Handicap at Doncaster on March 31. The opening Classics of the season will be across Guineas weekend at Newmarket beginning on May 5 with the colts up first, followed by the fillies on the Sunday.

De Sousa will be hoping he can pick up one of Godolphin’s best chances in the Derby this year at Epsom on June 2. The operation has had just one winner in the race and that was as far back as 1995 when Walter Swinburn rode Lammtara to victory for the Saeed Bin Suroor-trained three-year old.

The 13th series of the Six Nations Championship kicked off on the 4th of February 2012. The countries involved in the prestigious competition are: England, France, Wales, Scotland, Italy and Ireland. In this particular article I shall be primarily focusing on the Scottish national side. I will talk about Scotland’s results along with their up and coming fixtures, a little bit about their most effective player and their history in the prestigious competition.

Scotland’s first matchup was a home game against their British rivals England. The score ended in a 6-13 defeat with the English claiming them all-important points. I was quite surprised by this result, especially when considering the Red Rose have been unable to obtain a victory at the Murrayfield Stadium in eight years. The player that aided Scotland in avoiding embarrassment in this game was their fly half Greig Laidlaw. Those looking for Six Nations Betting Tips need to remember this.

The 26-year-old managed to score all of Scotland’s points in their match against England and kept his fellow Scotsman in the match. The Scottish national side’s second match was an away encounter against Wales. Despite Scotland’s best efforts, the Welsh coasted to victory in this match with the score finishing on 27-13. Scotland’s third and most recent encounter was a home bout against the most successful Six Nations outfit France. The Scottish were defeated for the third time despite an all round good performance. The score in this particular match ended 17-23. People looking for rugby betting websites need to bear this in mind.

Scotland’s next two fixtures see them face Ireland at the Aviva Stadium, Dublin, and the Italian national side at the Stadio Olimpico, Rome. The Scot’s match against the Irish will almost certainly end in a defeat to the Scottish. Their final matchup against the Italians will be a close game with Scotland slightly edging it.

Since the Six Nations Championship began the Scottish national side have failed to win the competition. Teams like Wales, Ireland, France and England contain far too much firepower for the Scots to overcome.