05/09/2008 - Baltimore, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Local winner Icabad Crane and Holy Bull Stakes champ Hey Byrn have been added to the probable field for the middle jewel of racing's Triple Crown. As many as 12 to 14 three-year-olds may enter the starting gate on Saturday, May 17.
Icabad Crane captured the $150,000 Federico Tesio Stakes at Pimlico on Saturday, April 19. Owned by Earle Mack and trained by Graham Motion, the colt has won three of four career starts for $125,400. Jeremy Rose, who has the mount on Icabad Crane, won the Preakness three years ago on Afleet Alex in the one of the most dramatic stretch runs in recent memory.
Also headed to Pimlico will be Hey Byrn. The colt won the Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream Park at the Preakness distance of 1 3/16 miles.
"The decision to run in the Preakness was made by his owner Mrs. (Beatrice) Oxenberg," said trainer Eddie Plesa, Jr. "She has family up in Baltimore and there's no reason why we shouldn't come. She said she wants to come and taste the crab cakes. We were going to run in the Derby but we didn't get in."
Hey Byrn has earned $266,000 with four wins in eight lifetime starts. He began the year with two allowance wins and was then a distant fourth to Big Brown in the Florida Derby.
Confirmed starters for the $1 million classic also includes Behindatthebar, Big Brown, Giant Moon, Kentucky Bear, Racecar Rhapsody, Recapturetheglory, Riley Tucker, Stevil, Tres Borrachos and Yankee Bravo. A decision on Harlem Rocker is expected over the weekend and Macho Again is now headed to the Ohio Derby.
Sloppy going at Churchill Downs in Louisville kept Kentucky Derby winner Big Brown to just a one-mile jog.
Racecar Rhapsody galloped 1 1/2 miles before the renovation break under Jose Castanon at Churchill. Stevil also galloped 1 1/2 miles in Louisville and Illinois Derby winner Recapturetheglory jogged around the Churchill Downs' main track to the starting gate at the head of the stretch and then galloped a little bit more than 1 1/4 miles while well off the rail under assistant trainer Lara Van Deren.
Tres Borrachos jogged a mile before the renovation break under Andy Durnin Friday morning at Churchill Downs.
<< Federer falls; Djokovic, Roddick reach Rome semis
Rome, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - World No. 1 superstar Roger Federer
suffered a quarterfinal setback Friday at the hands of gritty Czech Radek
Stepanek at the $3.5 million Italian Masters. Meanwhile, Australian Open
champion Novak Djo
<< City in line for UEFA Cup spot
Manchester, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Manchester City could secure a surprise
route into European football next season after UEFA revealed England have
finished top of the fair play standings.
One Premier League club will now be han
<< Bayern's Gorlitz will remain on loan to Karlsruher
Munich, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Bayern Munich defender Andreas Gorlitz will
remain on loan with Karlsruher next season, the clubs announced Friday.
Gorlitz, 26, went out on loan to promoted Karlsruher this season. The deal was
extended un
<< Rangers not looking past Dundee United
Glasgow, Scotland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Rangers will attempt to capture its first
European title in 36 years on Wednesday when they meet Zenit in the UEFA Cup
final, but Walter Smith's men must first take care of their business in the
league
Padres release veteran OF Edmonds >>
San Diego, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The San Diego Padres released struggling
outfielder Jim Edmonds on Friday.
The 37-year-old Edmonds, who was acquired in a trade with the St. Louis
Cardinals in December, was batting just .178 wit
Rangers trade OF Mench to Toronto >>
Arlington, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Texas Rangers traded outfielder Kevin
Mench to the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday for cash considerations.
Mench, who in 2006 became one of just five players in MLB history to hit a
home run in sev
Sexson suspended six games, will appeal >>
Seattle, WA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Seattle Mariners first baseman Richie Sexson
has been suspended six games and fined an undisclosed amount for his violent
and aggressive actions in the fourth inning of Thursday's game against the
Texas R
Cubs' Lilly silences Arizona's bats >>
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ted Lilly tossed seven brilliant innings, and
Derrek Lee homered as Chicago downed Arizona, 3-1, in the opener of a three-
game set.
Lilly (3-4) allowed just one run on three hits, while walking two and fa
Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their “supplements” to worry about what their opponents are doing).
Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this won’t be an intelligent discussion.
Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).
Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.
Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a “truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit.” And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. “The plug-necked yahoos on your team,” you can say, “will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.”
The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesn’t focus only on your opponent’s team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.
What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Where’s your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, “I’ll try to type slower for you next time.” Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.
Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, don’t just conclude by saying your opponent is a “twerp who drafts like my grandmother.” Say that your opponent is a “sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars.” By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.
But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You won’t be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, I’m sure, to reply.
In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.
While the NFL is the sport wagered on the heaviest, college football betting lines has become more and more popular as people realize it’s a game that can be beat. The NCAA football season gets longer each year with the addition of numerous bowl games and with that comes more opportunities for more money in your pocket, if handled correctly.
Betting on college football is not the same as with the NFL, so make sure you separate the two. Because of the vast number of teams, the parity between college football programs is slight and thus, you are going to see some high numbers in the NCAA. Teams favored by more than 40 points are not uncommon especially early in the season when teams playing their non-conference schedules.
The best advice when trying to tackle these enormous spreads and is to just stay away. A team that is favored by 40 points is favored by that many for a reason while teams getting 40 points are bad enough that they shouldn’t be touched. Set yourself a spread limit. Getting rid of these games will cut down on the number of contests that you need to handicap while staying away from backdoor or front-door covers.
What is a backdoor and front-door cover you ask? A backdoor cover is a team that is getting beat by more than the spread, but scores late to get within that number thus covering the spread. A front-door cover is just the opposite where the favorite scores late and covers the number they are favored by.
These front-door and backdoor covers are common when second and third string players enter games in college football and it can be the worst nightmare for some bettors. These players can also be your best friend, but ask any bettor and he will give you more instances on losing in this situation than winning. It just seems to work out that way even though everything evens out in the end.
College football betting has some of the softest lines of any sport and it’s being able to find these lines that will make you a successful college football handicapper. The NFL and NBA have the tightest lines around and while those sports can be beat by looking at situations and systems, college football doesn’t quite work that way. It’s much more manual, but when done correctly, it’s much more gratifying as well.
Getting into the nuts and bolts of college football means looking at the many stats in order to beat the number. As opposed to pro football, college football is less dependent on situations and angles and more on certain statistics. Rushing offense and defense, pass efficiency offense and defense and turnover margins are huge. These are vital in the NFL, but even more so when it comes to college football.
Being able to run the ball in college football has always been a key factor in the overall success of a team. The same adage also goes for teams who have the ability to stop the run. Putting these two factors together can produce some positive results in a team’s record both straight up and against the spread. These numbers show huge differences in teams and the spread may not take those into effect, which is where the value comes into play.
Passing yardage numbers both for and against can be a misinterpreted statistic. However, pass efficiency has always been one of the best ways to look at a teams’ passing game ability both offensively and defensively. But is it really a true indication of how they perform? I wouldn’t say so since they are raw passing numbers with nothing else taken into consideration.
I use pass efficiency ratings when doing my handicapping but I adjust my numbers based on a number of factors including power ratings, strength of schedules, personnel and injuries. This gives a much better picture of a team’s ability to pass effectively and also being able to defend the pass. Tweaking pass efficiency stats instead of raw passing yards is the key.
Turnovers are the single most frustrating, and at times the most gratifying, aspect of a college football lines, mostly because they are so unpredictable. They are part of the game and most of the time nothing can be done to control them. However, turnovers are contagious and they can carry over from game to game and season to season.
It’s important to know how to forecast these unforeseen events and how to use them to your advantage. You can find ways to give yourself an edge by looking at past histories of teams and coaches and how they have fared in turnover wars in the past. Instead of turnovers hurting you at the wrong times, find ways to use them to your advantage.
As you can see, college football handicapping is very labor intensive and isn’t just based on where teams are ranked in the AP and coaches polls. Experience, coaching and match-ups are all important since unlike the NFL, college teams turn over much more often with new personnel at most positions every single year. Keeping current on this information is vital.
Betting NCAA football can be lucrative if done correctly, but more importantly, it’s just plain enjoyable because it can be beat. College football is one of the best sports to watch with some of the best rivalries taking place in all of sports. The only downfall is that a championship isn’t decided on the field but on a computer-based system that is the Bowl Championship Series. That will change someday and we will all be better off for it.
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your NCAA college football betting needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.
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