Kiwis red-hot TAB favourites

New Zealand is taking on the world next week and will almost certainly win.

That's the view of the TAB in its opening book on the world shearing and woolhandling championships which get under way in Masterton on Wednesday.

In head-to-head New Zealand v The World betting on the machine-shearing teams event, Kiwi shearers Cam Ferguson and John Kirkpatrick are rated $1.05 hot favourites to give New Zealand a third consecutive win when the final is held on Saturday, March 3.

The World (any other country) is quoted at $8.

Sports book-maker Kieran McAnulty said a separate book would also be opened with odds on each country.

Both the Kiwis have won teams titles; Kirkpatrick scoring in Norway in 2008 with teammate Paul Avery and Ferguson with shearing great David Fagan in Wales in 2010.

There is history of an upset in the teams event on a New Zealand shearing board. In 1996, also in Masterton, Fagan and team-mate Colin King would have won the title but for disqualification which opened the door for Scottish shearers Tom Wilson and Geordie Bayne.

Six world titles in machine shearing, blade shearing and woolhandling will be contested during the championships, with the TAB planning pools on most, as well as the Golden Shears features, including the famed open final, won last year by Kirkpatrick and, in 2010, by Ferguson.