Zenyatta versus five in Vanity

Horseracing Betting Lines

06/10/2010 - Inglewood, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Leading Horse of the Year candidate Zenyatta will go after a third straight win in Sunday's $250,000 Vanity Handicap at Hollywood Park. The undefeated mare has five challengers in the 1 1/8-mile race on Hollywood's synthetic track.

Owned by Jerry and Ann Moss, Zenyatta has a record-tying 16 race win streak and can break the tie she has with legendary horses Citation and Cigar. Her career earnings currently stand at more than $5.9 million.

Zenyatta, trained by John Shirreffs, will start from post five with reigning Belmont Stakes winning jockey Mike Smith riding. The six-year-old will carry the same 129 pounds she toted when she won last year's Vanity.

"The weight was pretty much what we were expecting," said Shirreffs, who is seeking his record fifth win in the Vanity. "We're just trying to focus on the Vanity and not on all of her accomplishments.

"Mike Smith is the good guy in all of this. We were really happy celebrating his victory in the Belmont Stakes (with 13-1 longshot Drosselmeyer). Mike is a rider and a horseman, so he is invaluable."

Zenyatta began her 2010 campaign by winning the Santa Margarita Handicap at Santa Anita Park and followed with a 4 1/4-length win as the 1-20 favorite in Oaklawn Park's Apple Blossom Handicap.

The last two years Zenyatta has been voted champion older female and for 2009 finished second for Horse of the Year to Rachel Alexandra. She won the 2008 Breeders' Cup Ladies Classic and last year became the first female to capture the Breeders' Cup Classic.

Shirreffs will also send out Zardana, owned by Arnold Zetcher. The six-year- old mare will be ridden by Victor Espinoza from post three.

Zardana is best known for having defeated Rachel Alexandra in the first running of the New Orleans Ladies Classic in March at the Fair Grounds. Rachel will start in Saturday's Fleur de Lis at Churchill Downs.

In her last start Zardana was a disappointing fifth in the La Troienne at Churchill Downs on April 30. That race was won by Unrivaled Belle with Rachel Alexandra second. Zardana has won eight of 20 lifetime starts for $438,276.

Here is the complete field for the 69th Vanity in post position order: Miss Silver Brook, Joe Talamo; St Trinians, Martin Garcia; Zardana, Victor Espinoza; Will O Way, Tyler Baze; Zenyatta, Mike Smith and Cherryblossommiss, Rafael Bejarano.

Post-time for the Vanity will be 7:40 p.m. (et).

Stockmarket-casino Horseracing Betting News

<< Danks impressive in White Sox's win over Tigers
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Omar Vizquel and A.J. Pierzynski each homered to back seven shutout innings by John Danks, as the Chicago White Sox topped the Detroit Tigers, 3-0, in the rubber match of a three-game series. Danks (5-5) w

<< Sharapova lands in Birmingham quarters
Birmingham, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Two-time titlist Maria Sharapova won a pair of matches on Thursday in order to reach the quarterfinals at the rainy $220,000 Aegon Classic. The second-seeded former world No. 1 Sharapova fin

<< United's Wallace out 2-3 months after surgery
Washington, D.C. (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - D.C. United announced Thursday defender Rodney Wallace underwent successful surgery on his fractured left fibula and will miss 2-3 months. Wallace suffered the injury on June 5 against Real Salt Lake

<< Reds rally in eighth to edge Giants
Cincinnati, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Brandon Phillips hit a game-tying, two-run triple in the bottom of the eighth inning and scored the go-ahead run on a single by Joey Votto, as the Cincinnati Reds rallied to beat San Francisco, 7-6.

<< Latos, Padres shut down Mets in opener of doubleheader
Flushing, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - David Eckstein went 2-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored, as the San Diego Padres earned a 4-2 win over the New York Mets in the opener of a day-night doubleheader at Citi Field. Adrian Gonzalez turne

Manuel, Girardi announce All-Star staffs >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Philadelphia Phillies manager Charlie Manuel and New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi announced on Thursday their on-field staffs for the 2010 All-Star Game, to be played at Angel Stadium of Anaheim

Meier signs new five-year deal at Miami-Florida >>
Coral Gables, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Katie Meier signed a new five-year contract Thursday to remain the head women's basketball coach at the University of Miami. Meier, hired in April 2005, led the Hurricanes to one their

Bills finalize contract with Arthur Moats >>
Buffalo, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Linebacker Arthur Moats, the 2009 Buck Buchanan Award winner, signed his rookie contract with the Buffalo Bills on Thursday. Moats, a sixth-round selection out of James Madison, was named the FCS defensive pla

Quintero helps Astros edge Rockies >>
Denver, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Humberto Quintero went 3-for-4 with a solo homer and knocked in two, as the Houston Astros held on for a 5-4 win over the Colorado Rockies in the finale of a four-game series at Coors Field. Tommy Manzella

Cahill shines as A's top Angels >>
Oakland, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Trevor Cahill pitched a career-high eight innings and held the Angels to one run, as the Athletics earned a split of a four-game series against their American League West rivals with a 6-1 win. Cahill (


Online Sportsbook Football Betting

Why Sports Betting is so much fun?

Betting Sports

The most popular sports to bet on are NFL and college football along with NBA and NCAA basketball. There are multiple betting opportunities within those sports, beginning with the basic wager on a game’s outcome (also called betting the side). College Football Point spreads are used in both football and basketball in an attempt to even the attractiveness of each team in a match-up. ( See our article detailing how and why point spreads are made)

But you could also simply bet on the money line, or straight-up winner of the game. Oddsmakers use the money line so that more money must be risked on the favorite or expected winner and less money on the underdog to balance the action on both sides. While money line gambling is an attractive option for football and basketball bettors who only care about picking a winner, it is the primary option for those bettors who enjoy wagering on MLB baseball and individual sports like boxing, tennis, golf and racing events such as NASCAR. ( More details on playing the Money Line)

Points (or Runs) Scored

Another bet across all major team sports including football, basketball, baseball, and hockey involves wagering on the amount of scoring in a game, called an Over/Under total. For example, the Over/Under total on Super Bowl XXXIX was 48, which means a bettor could wager whether there would be more or less than 48 points scored by both teams combined in the game.

The final score of Super Bowl XXXIX was 24-21; the scoring of both teams added up to 45, which means the game went Under . So Under bettors won, and Over bettors lost.

Future Bets

Sports gambling doesn’t end there. Betting sides and totals are the most common wagers available everywhere, but many sportsbooks also offer future bets on big upcoming events like who will win next year’s Super Bowl and what movie will win Best Picture at the Academy Awards.

The main advantage of futures is that you can get appealing odds by betting far in advance. For example, with NFL futures you often can get much higher odds on a team by betting before the season even starts. A NFL future bet on a team to win the Super Bowl odds might be 20/1 in the preseason; but by midseason, their odds might decrease to 10/1 if they turn out to be legitimate championship contenders.

Proposition Bets (or Prop Bets)

Proposition bets , also known as prop bets, focus upon the more exotic aspects of a game and are generally reserved for events that are widely televised. Prop bets are extremely popular when it comes to wagering on the Super Bowl in Las Vegas. The Imperial Palace Casino’s sportsbook is well-known for the enormous number of prop bets offered. For example, you can bet on:

Types of Bets

Straight Bet

Involves one individual wager, whether it be on your team to cover the point spread, to win the game straight-up on the money line, or to go over/under the total.

Sports Betting Parlays

A parlay is a single bet that links together two or more individual wagers and is dependent on all of those wagers winning together. The benefit of the parlay bet is much better odds than placing each individual bet separately since the difficulty of hitting it is much higher.

Standard payoffs on a two-team parlay are 13/5; while a three-teamer pays 6/1; and a four-teamer 10/1.

Parlay cards are also fairly common in sportsbooks and popular with bettors, as they are released early in the week with set odds that do not change in return for a slightly lower payoff.

Round Robin Betting

Adventurous bettors who enjoy betting parlays sometimes put together a series of parlays called a Round Robin . A three-team Round Robin consists of one three-team parlay and three two-team parlays. For example, Joe likes teams A,B,C – with a Round Robin he has a three-teamer with ABC, and two-teamers with AB, AC, and BC.

Betting Teasers

Similar to a parlay, a teaser bet is a single bet that links together two or more individual wagers, but is different in that the point spread is adjusted to your advantage on each individual wager. In exchange for the points, you get less of a return on your bet compared to a parlay. For example, a 6-point teaser would move the line on a 7-point favorite from -7 to -1, meaning the team would have to cover 6 less points. Each of the individual wagers must win or the bet is a loss.

These are the main types of sports bets available today. But as sports betting continues to grow, sportsbooks will continue to develop new and creative ways to bet. We’ll continue to track these changes to the sports gambling landscape, so check back often and we’ll tell you all about it!

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs.

Numerous College Basketball teams take final big step to March Madness betting

So, what turned on the lock spigot? Well, after what felt like weeks of teams treading water and slipping back into the bubble muck, a bunch of them finally decided to say "to heck with parity" and won games that should put them into the Big Dance.

Disagree with some of these? Then here's the challenge. Take all of the "should be ins" and make a legit case that each should be ahead of the team that's a lock. Then find 10 more teams that also should be placed in the bracket ahead of that lock team. Not so easy, is it?

If you want more evidence that these locks should be good to go, check out what our research department dug up. Since the NCAA Tournament went to 64 teams in 1985, only six teams from a "big six" conference have had a record of 10-6 or better in conference play and not been selected: Colorado (2004) and Nebraska (1999) from the Big 12, Boston College and Seton Hall (both 2003) from the Big East, Indiana (2005) from the Big Ten and UCLA, which somehow went 12-6 in the Pac-10 in 1988 and still missed out. (Note: Five teams went 11-7 and didn't get in, the latest being last season's Stanford team, which had a brutal nonconference run.)

Yes, 10 conference wins doesn't always mean what it used to because of unbalanced schedules, but this season, it should be plenty good in all but the extreme cases (see: Iowa).

In a way, this is a welcome development, because this is a bubble watch, not a lock watch. We can finally be done with teams like Maryland and Virginia Tech and start really bearing down on at-large battles such as Syracuse-West Virginia and Appalachian State-Georgia Tech.

Interestingly, all the shifting of teams into lock status appears to be more administrative than impactful. The number of remaining available at-larges didn't change one iota. The only difference is that teams on the bubble now have a clearer idea of which team(s) they are competing with for those precious bids.

The Bubble Breakdown
CONFERENCE LOCKS SHOULD BE INS AT-LARGES TAKEN
(assuming no auto bid outlier)
ACC Betting Odds 6 0 5
Big East Betting Odds 5 0 4
Big Ten Betting Odds 2 2 3
Big 12 Betting Odds 3 0 2
Pac-10 Betting Odds 5 1 5
SEC Betting Odds 4 0 3
MVC Betting Odds 1 1 1
MWC Betting Odds 2 1 2
TOTAL 28 5 25

As always, I've tried to be as inclusive as possible while only including teams that would have a reasonable chance of at least being discussed if this were Selection Sunday. If your team's not on here, there's probably a good reason (or three) -- start with the RPI and SOS numbers and work your way down.

(Please remember, per selection committee criteria, that records displayed are Division I only. Next update: Feb. 28)

If you have a legitimate grievance, or just like talking bubble, send an e-mail. Polite ones with fact-based arguments have a much better chance of receiving a response. I apologize in advance if I can't get back to all of you.

Atlantic Coast Conference

Work left to do: Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech

The ACC moves to six locks as BC, Va Tech and Virginia all got their 10th ACC wins, which should be more than enough this season, and Maryland rallied past North Carolina to get the final piece the Terps needed. After that? It could end there unless FSU, Ga Tech or Clemson picks things up in a hurry.

 

Work left to do:

Clemson [19-9 (5-9), RPI: 41, SOS: 42] The Tigers are closer to locking up the collapse of the year award (in a good battle with OK State) than they are to grabbing an at-large. Clemson's been very competitive, but there's no really positive way you can spin nine losses in 11 games. They now cannot get to .500 in ACC play and still must head to Virginia Tech in the season finale (after hosting Miami). Unless the Tigers win both and/or do some serious work in the ACC tourney, they very well could be left out. There are no great nonconference wins, but ODU, App State, Miss. State, South Carolina and Georgia are all respectable W's.

Florida State [18-11 (6-9), RPI: 48, SOS: 14] The Noles got thrashed at Maryland to run their losing streak to five, but then pounded NC State at home to set the table for what likely is an elimination game at Miami. You can at least make a case for the Seminoles at 7-9 in ACC play (and some work in the ACC tourney), but 6-10 is not going to cut it. Wins at Duke and over Florida will resonate, but the computer numbers remain questionable. Beyond Florida, FSU thrashed bubble buddy Providence, but there's not a ton beyond those two games that will help. They didn't show well in big-time opportunities against Pitt and Wisconsin (before the Florida win).

Georgia Tech [18-10 (6-8), RPI: 51, SOS: 46] The Jackets beat Wake on Wednesday but couldn't get it done at UVa on Saturday, which could be a crucial loss with UNC and BC (both at home) remaining and 8-8 almost a certain need for at-large consideration. A nonconference win over Memphis helps, but the RPI and SOS are not at-large quality right now; if you combine those with a sub-.500 ACC mark, that could spell NIT for GT.

For more College Basketball betting lines go to MySportsbook.com

Additional basketball lines can be found at: www.MySportsbook.com

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com - this sportsbook accepts credit cards.