Tres Borrachos upsets G2 Swaps at Hollywood
INGLEWOOD, Calif. -- The respect issue has been solved for Tres Borrachos.
After going off at long odds in two important stakes in the spring, Tres Borrachos pulled an upset in Saturday's $355,495 Swaps Stakes at Hollywood Park, rallying on the rail in the final furlong to beat three rivals. Two Step Salsa, the winner of two Grade 3 stakes earlier at this meeting, finished second, a head in front of Colonel John, the 4-5 favorite who was making his first start since finishing sixth in the Kentucky Derby on May 3.
Madeo finished fourth in a field that lost Nownownow and Trevor's Clever to scratches earlier in the day.
Trainer Eoin Harty said that Colonel John tired in the final furlong.
Tres Borrachos ($24) was the longest shot in the field. Ridden by Tyler Baze, Tres Borrachos raced on the rail throughout, and won by 1 1/4 lengths, finishing 1 1/8 miles in 1:49.29.
Owned by a partnership and trained by Beau Greely, Tres Borrachos won his first stakes in the Grade 2 Swaps. Earlier this year, he was third in the Arkansas Derby at 37-1 and ninth in the Preakness Stakes at 43-1 after a bad start. In his most recent start prior to the Swaps, Tres Borrachos was second to Two Step Salsa in the Grade 3 Affirmed Handicap in June.
"He never gets any respect," Greely said. "He a horse that clearly has more heart than anything."
(c) 2008 ESPN Internet Ventures
Tracks, betting firms at odds
There has been significant growth in the racing industry for account wagering companies.
Television Games Network (TVG), TwinSpires, Xpressbet and YouBet allow residents in 15 states to kick back in their recliners and watch and wager on races from their homes.
But while racetracks, including Sam Houston Race Park, return 7 percent of their revenue to purses (money paid for winning races), the account deposit wagering (ADW) companies allot between 1 percent and 2 percent of their handle for purses.
This arrangement has been a bone of contention for the racing industry. Tommy Azopardi, executive director of the Texas Horsemen's Partnership, is fighting for change. The THP has joined forces with the Thoroughbred Horsemen's Group, which was formed last December to promote individual and collaborative interstate simulcasting activities. It currently includes 20 horsemen's organizations that have contracts with 52 racetracks around North America.
"It's quite simple," said Azopardi. "The current revenue model for account wagering is broken. This is the fastest-growing segment of wagering revenue and is not adequately divided in order to fund racing."
On June 26, the THP, in conjunction with the THG, rescinded its approval for Sam Houston Race Park to send its American quarter horse signal to ADW outlets. Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie and Retama Park near San Antonio have withheld their signals since April.
The THP said the races from Sam Houston Race Park can be shown on TVG or HRTV, but the companies are electing to show races from tracks not in dispute. Azopardi encourages frustrated fans to call or e-mail TVG and HRTV.
"Racetracks give seven cents of each dollar to purses," said Azopardi. "Horsemen are clearly united in the decision to withhold the signal. If Sam Houston can pay 7 percent for purses, so should the ADW companies."
Weather watching
The American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) recently formed a task force to review the effects of weather on racing. One of the biggest factors influencing racing is wind, so the AQHA, in partnership with Praxis Software, is testing a new technology during the current quarter horse racing season.
There are four weather vanes installed at Sam Houston Race Park. The software will allow the track to give real-time weather conditions, including velocity and direction of the wind. The testing points will gather data used to analyze the effects of weather in races and provide more complete handicapping information.
Sam Houston Race Park joins Ruidoso Downs and Los Alamitos as the three racetracks in the country to analyze data for the quarter horse industry.
Around Sam Houston
Live racing at Sam Houston Race Park will take place tonight at 6 p.m. and Friday at 5 p.m., with the annual fireworks show to follow. Trainer Lewis "Tooter" Jordan will join me in a free "Introduction to Racing" seminar beginning at 6 p.m. tonight. Jordan will field questions on developing quarter horse champions. ...
Trainer Dwayne "Sleepy" Gilbreath is off to a fine start, winning five of his 11 starts over opening weekend. Rodrigo Vallejo had six wins to lead the jockey standings, and Jerry Windham had two winners to top all owners after the first three days of the meet.
Big Brown set to return
Big Brown, the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner, is back in training. He worked out Wednesday at Aqueduct, covering five furlongs in 1:06.73. Trainer Rick Dutrow has indicated Big Brown will make his next start on Aug. 3 in the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park.
(c) Chronicle
Odds are catching up
Horse racing faces an uncertain future.
Today, with the national media looking for anything in any field that causes controversy, things sometimes get blown out of proportion.
For example, if one basket of peaches in Georgia became contaminated it would make national news and every peach would be pulled from your nearby grocery store. If an alligator decided to have someone's Yorkie for dinner, trappers would kill every gator in a lake to make sure they destroyed the right one.
One problem confronting horse racing is that everybody from the smallest children to elder statesmen love horses. PETA doesn't care that more alligators are killed in Florida in a day as nuisances than horses dying on the track. That doesn't make good press because people don't have the same affection for alligators as they do horses.
Horse racing also has been lucky.
Breakdowns are a common occurrence in horse racing and have been for many years, but the sport has been lucky enough to escape major breakdowns on national television.
The public would see those occasional breakdowns in the big races such as Ruffian (1975), Go for Wand (1990), Union City (1993) and Prairie Bayou (1993). These breakdowns were spaced so as not to seem to be an epidemic and came when the world's reaction to unfortunate occurrences wasn't so dramatic.
The past couple of years, the odds have caught up with horse racing. Barbaro suffered an injury that ultimately led to his death during the running of the 2006 Preakness Stakes, George Washington broke down in the 2007 Breeders' Cup Classic and was euthanized, and Eight Belles was put down for injuries suffered in this year's Kentucky Derby.
When Big Brown was defeated in this year's Belmont Stakes, the first thing the public did was scream that something was wrong with this horse that was performing in an evil sport. Ironically, more attention was focused on his health than on that of Charismatic, who may have been headed to winning the Triple Crown in 1999 when he broke down just yards from the Belmont Stakes finish line. He still finished third and was pulled up just past the wire.
One of the problems today is everyone is an expert. We have people who know nothing about horse racing telling the horsemen how to run their business. I agree that maybe some things need to be addressed -- i.e., breeding just for bucks and not stability -- but having people that know nothing about a horse, other than they rode one at the fair one day when they were a kid, advising veteran horse people on what to do is ridiculous.
Some of the suggestions being thrown out have no validity, but they sound good.
Some are saying horses shouldn't be raced until they are 3-year-olds. Racing 2-year-olds is not a problem if trainers make sure not to put a baby into serious training until its knees close.
The major problem as I see it, and I know this will not be accepted well by Florida horse people, is 2-year-old-in-training sales. Making a horse run a fast quarter-mile before his body is ready makes for a fragile horse later in life.
Another suggestion is shortening the distances of the Triple Crown races. Most trainers will tell you longer races are easier on a horse than a sprint. In a distance race, horses tend to be one-paced with a short sustained run. In sprints, horses generally need to go full tilt for most of the race.
People have suggested lengthening the period between Triple Crown races. Once again, most trainers will tell you it is easier to keep a horse on form for a five-week period than over a seven-week period.
Now there is a cry to reduce weight. Many say horses should carry 116 pounds in the classic races instead of 126. Wasn't it just a year or so ago that these same voices of conscience were clamoring to have the minimum weight raised so that it would be easier on the jockeys?
But maybe these suggestions, even if they are not the correct answers, are good for the sport. Maybe the old-timers and their offspring who run the game need these discussions to open up so the sport may improve.
(c) 2008 The Villages Daily Sun
Most profitable period for putting down a Triple Crown bet might have elapsed
Bettors can still wager on or against Big Brown in his bid to make Thoroughbred racing history Saturday, but the deadline for the optimal way to play the Triple Crown in Las Vegas might have passed.
Before the Kentucky Derby each year, bettors can find odds in Las Vegas casinos on whether a Triple Crown winner will emerge from the year's crop of 3-year-olds. It hasn't happened since Affirmed won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes in 1978.
This year's odds were typical: minus-1000 (risk $10 to net $1) on the "no," and plus-700 (risk $1 to win $7) on the "yes," there will be a Triple Crown winner.
Whether the Kentucky Derby winner is one of the race's favorites or a long shot, however, the odds on the Triple Crown proposition usually change substantially after the Derby, in the two weeks leading to the Preakness.
As author and handicapper King Yao points out in his book "Weighing the Odds in Sports Betting," if a short-priced horse wins the Derby it invariably goes off as a monster favorite in the Preakness. If a long shot wins the Derby, its odds drop dramatically enough to make it either the favorite or one of the top choices in the Preakness.
The two most recent Kentucky Derby winners before Big Brown - Street Sense and Barbaro - were both heavily backed in the Derby and went off as the favorite in the Preakness.
Other recent Derby winners that went off at short prices include Smarty Jones (4-1) and Fusaichi Pegasus (2-1), who both went off below even money in the Preakness.
According to Yao, longer shots that won the Derby have their odds driven down in the Preakness in part because of media hype that fans readily buy:
* Giacomo (50-1 in the 2005 Derby) went off at 6-1 in the Preakness.
* Funny Cide (12.8-1 in 2003) went off at 1.9-1 in the Preakness.
* War Emblem (20.5-1 in 2002) went off at 2.8-1 in the Preakness.
Triple Crown bettors in Las Vegas can take advantage of the situation in one of a couple of ways.
They can bet "yes" on the Triple Crown at about plus-700 or plus-650 before the Kentucky Derby, then come back and bet the "no" on the Triple Crown at a reduced price after the Derby, potentially locking in a profit or setting up a freeroll. Or, as Yao suggests, bettors could refrain from wagering before the Derby and play the "no" on the Triple Crown after the Derby, taking advantage of the lower odds.
This year, for example, a bettor could have played "yes," there will be a Triple Crown winner in 2008, at plus-650 in April at several properties including Wynn Las Vegas. Then, the week before the Preakness, he could have bet "no," Big Brown will not win the Triple Crown, at odds of just minus-110 at any of several properties including the MGM Mirage joints, guaranteeing he'll win some money regardless of the outcome of the Belmont Stakes.
This method does carry some risk, of course. It's possible a long-shot Derby winner could buck the trend and also go off as a long shot in the Preakness, erasing any value in the Triple Crown prop. More likely, though, is the possibility a Derby winner would not race in the Preakness because of an injury or some other unforeseen circumstance. It's something to keep in mind for next year's Triple Crown season.
Big Brown, favored throughout his Triple Crown run, is listed at about minus-220 against the rest of the Belmont field in Las Vegas race and sports books, with the field, or all others, at plus-180. (As always, odds are subject to change.)
With Big Brown starting from the No. 1 post and second betting choice Casino Drive at No. 5, an odd-numbered horse winning the Belmont is a big favorite of nearly minus-900 against the evens in one of several propositions available on the Belmont. In head-to-head matchups, Big Brown is about minus-275 against Casino Drive, with Casino Drive minus-180 against Denis of Cork.
(c) Las Vegas Sun
Belmont Stakes: Triple Crown Odds Spoilers in this Millennium
Below are the stats for the three contenders for the Triple Crown in this millenium. According to the Triple Crown odds these three horses looked like they would each easily win the Triple Crown in their respective years. All it takes is one small thing to go wrong, a stumble at the gate, caught on the rail, etc. This year Big Brown looks unstoppable, but whose to say what could happen the day of the Belmont Stakes. It seems like a Triple Crown curse. Even though Big Brown looks too good to beat, something could happen to his hoof again, he could get bumped coming out of the gate or there could be another horse that is ready to run his heart out that day and beats Big Brown by a nose. So many things can stop us from seeing a new Triple Crown winner. But if things go as planned for Big Brown, no problems at the gate, no problems with the hoof, this really could be the year of a historical Triple Crown betting event.
2002-When the gate opened, War Emblem stumbled badly and dropped to his knees, nearly falling, causing him to fall back in the field right away and denying him the early lead and front-running trip he has been known for. War Emblem's remarkable run for a Triple Crown ended that day. As the field turned into the long home stretch of the grueling 1 1/2-mile Belmont, Sarava and Medaglia d'Oro regained control. The two battled down the stretch, but it was Sarava who won by a half-length to become the longest shot to win the Belmont. War Emblem the Derby and Preakness winner finished eighth.
Pgm Horse Jockey Win Place Show
12
Sarava Prado 142.50 50.00 22.40
8 Medaglia d'Oro Desormeaux 16.00 10.60
5 Sunday Break Stevens 7.10
$2 Exacta 12-8 2,454.00
$2 Trifecta 12-8-5 25,209.00
$2 Superfecta 12-8-5-11 145,334.00
2003-- NY bred Funny Cide was going for the Triple Crown after winning big in the Preakness and the Derby. There was only a field of 6 horses that day, Funny Cide was sent off as the even money favorite, with Kentucky Derby runner-up Empire Maker the second choice at 2-1. Funny Cide got through on the rail to set the early pace, which wasn't his running style, especially in a 1 1/2 mile race, the Belmont Stakes. Empire Maker played the stalker role this time, staying to the outside within a length of the leader. Turning for home, hall of fame jockey Jerry Bailey asked Empire Maker for his run and got it. Empire Maker surged to the front pass and drew off to the upset win.
Pgm Horse Jockey Win Place Show
1
Empire Maker Bailey 6.00 3.70 2.80
6 Ten Most Wanted Day 5.80 3.20
4 Funny Cide Santos 2.70
$2 Exacta 1-6 44.00
$2 Trifecta 1-6-4 67.00
2004-- Smarty Jones was going for the Triple Crown after destroying his competition in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness. Smarty Jones, breaking from the far outside in post 9, was put into contention immediately by Jockey Stewart Elliott, who had been flawless aboard him through eight straight wins. Smarty Jones had a 6 length lead coming to the top of the stretch, but he wasn't alone for long, Birdstone collars Smarty Jones in deep stretch before pulling ahead to win.
Pgm Horse Jockey Win Place Show
4
Birdstone Prado 74.00 14.00 8.60
9 Smarty Jones Elliot 3.30 2.60
6 Rotal Assault Day 6.10
$2 Exacta 4-9 139.00
$2 Trifecta 4-9-6 1,589.00
$2 Superfecta 4-9-6-8 11,679.00
Big Brown could take the Triple Crown; make sure you bookmark OnlineSportsHandicapping.com for all your Triple Crown odds and horse racing previews.
(c) 2008 Sports Handicapping
Big Brown betting odds remain stable in spite of hoof injury
While no other horse has been able to slow down Triple-Crown candidate Big Brown , a slight crack on the inside of his left front hoof might. Big Brown seems to be holding his betting favorites status according to oddsmakers at SportsBook who have the 3-year old colt installed at 3-1 odds in spite of the injury. Big Brown has missed two days of training due to the hoof injury and will miss more.
" I think any injury regardless of how small is something to be concerned about in terms of betting," said Point-Spreads.com horse racing handicapper Reno Gold. "There is no doubt, serious handicappers will be keeping their eyes on the odds the next few days."
The crack in Big Brown's hoof called a "Quarter Crack" is being treated by veterinarian horse specialist Ian MacKinlay who doesn't think the injury is serious nor will it affect the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner in the upcoming Belmont Stakes on June 7.
"We're all concerned because there's a big race coming up," trainer Rick Dutrow Jr.was quoted as saying by the Associated Press. "But Ian has us pretty well relaxed. He's telling me it's nothing and he'll be fine in a few days."
Dutrow and hoof specialist McKinlay were pleased with the progress Big Brown showed Monday morning, and feel he remains on schedule to try to become racing's 12th Triple Crown winner when he goes to post in the 140th Belmont Stakes.
"This morning we stopped and saw him early and a lot of heat had come out from yesterday, which is an excellent sign," McKinlay said.
"This could also be a very good thing because he burnt his heels (at Pimlico) and it gives him time to get over that, Dutrow said. " No way missing four, five or six days is going to affect the outcome and his racing ability when he runs."
(c) 2006 Point Spreads
Millson: Big Brown the 7-to-2 Kentucky Derby favourite
Larry Millson, May 2, 2008 at 7:59 PM EDT
LOUSVILLE -- Big Brown was the 7-to-2 Kentucky Derby favourite as of 7 p.m. EDT on Friday. Earlier in the week, the colt who is undefeated in three career starts, was made the 3-to-1 favourite in the morning line for Saturday's race at Churchill Downs. Scheduled post time is 6.04 p.m.
As of 7 p.m. Friday, the Kentucky Derby odds from all betting sources were: No. 1 Cool Coal Man, 36 to 1; No. 2. Tale of Ekati, 45 to 1; No. 3. Anak Nakal, 57 to 1; No. 4. Court Vision, 14 to 1; No. 5. Eight Belles, 8 to 1; No. 6. Z Fortune, 17 to 1; No. 7. Big Truck, 20 to 1; No. 8. Visionaire, 22 to 1; No. 9. Pyro, 5 to 1; No 10. Colonel John, 4 to 1; No. 11. Z Humor, 67 to 1; No 12 Smooth Air, 40 to 1; No. 13 Bob Black Jack, 26 to 1; No. 14 Monba, 30 to 1; No. 15, Adriano, 24 to 1; No. 16 Denis of Cork, 27 to 1; No. 17 Cowboy Cal, 42 to 1; No. 18 Recapturetheglory, 47 to 1; No. 19 Gayego, 21 to 1; No. 20 Big Brown, 7 to 2.
Friday afternoon: The rain that appeared to be on its way at 5 a.m. finally did come later in the afternoon. Then it came down hard enough to make for a sloppy track. Hard to say how that will affect Saturday's Kentucky Derby.
It made for a wet afternoon for the Kentucky Oaks Day crowd of 100,046.
The rain meant that Elusive Lady was scratched from the Oaks because she has "never shown an affinity for running on an off track" according to her trainer John Kimmel.
The $581,659 Oaks was run on a sloppy track and Brereton C. Jones's Proud Spell found it no problem in winning the 1 1/8-mile race for three-year-old fillies by five lengths at odds of better than 3 to 1.
Little Belle was second and Pure Clan was third. Proud Spell ran the distance in 1:50.01.
Trainer Larry Jones and jockey Gabriel Saez have a chance for a rare Kentucky Oaks-Kentucky Derby double. Saez rides Fox Hill Farms' Eight Belles, who is trained by Jones, in Saturday's Kentucky Derby.
Eight Belles is the only filly in the Derby. She also was entered in the Oaks as a precaution but it was decided that she would go against the colts.
Jones did not feel that the wet track helped Proud Spell. "She can handle any kind of surface and actually Churchill's track when it gets wet is very good."
The most recent rider to win the Kentucky Oaks-Derby double was Jerry Bailey in 1993 who won with Dispute and Sea Hero.
Trainer Ben Jones did the double in 1952 with Real Delight and Hill Gail.
The Oaks-Derby double with Proud Spell and Eight Belles would pay $212.00.
The Oaks- Derby Double pay outs with Proud Spell are: Cool Coal Man, $436.00; Tale of Ekati $312.20; Anak Nakal, $778.00; Court Vision, $132.20; Eight Belles, $212.00; Z Fortune, $143.60; Big Truck, $848.40; Visionaire $235.60; Pyro $55.80; Colonel John, $54.80; Z Humor, $644.80; Smooth Air, $369.60; Bob Black Jack, $514.80; Monba, $281.60; Adriano, $297.00; Denis of Cork, $224.20; Cowboy Cal, $593.80, Recapturetheglory, $578.60; Gayego, $227.00; Big Brown $37.80.
(c) Copyright 2008 CTVglobemedia Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved.
|
