Summer Bird and Quality Road top Travers
Horseracing Betting Lines
08/26/2009 - Saratoga Springs, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Belmont Stakes champ Summer Bird and Florida Derby winner Quality Road top a field of seven three-year-olds in Saturday's $1 million Travers Stakes at Saratoga Race Course. The 1 1/4 mile Mid-Summer Derby will be run for the 140th time.
The quality of the Travers' field was greatly reduced this week with the defection of Rachel Alexandra to next week's Woodward Stakes and the announcement that Mine That Bird is still recuperating from recent throat surgery and will be held out of the race.
Quality Road, owned by Edward Evans, has been made the 8-5 favorite off his record setting victory in the Amsterdam Stakes. The colt will be ridden by John Velazquez from post four.
Trained by Todd Pletcher, Quality Road won the Amsterdam in a Saratoga record of 1:13.74 for 6 1/2-furlongs. He won the Florida Derby in March, but missed the Triple Crown races with an injury. The colt has won four of five career starts, including the Fountain of Youth, for $722,830.
Summer Bird is the 3-1 second choice in the morning-line and will break from post six with Kent Desormeaux in the saddle. The chestnut colt is coming off a second-place finish to Rachel Alexandra in the Haskell Invitational earlier this month at Monmouth Park.
Trained by Tim Ice, Summer Bird was third to Papa Clem in the Arkansas Derby before finishing sixth in the Kentucky Derby. The colt has earned $973,040 for owners Drs. Jayaraman with two wins in six starts.
Rachel Alexandra's stablemate Kensei is the 7-2 third pick in the program for Stonestreet Stable and trainer Steve Asmussen. The colt will be ridden by Edgar Prado from the outside post.
Since returning to the races in April, Kensei was second in the Derby Trial, third in the Woody Stephens Stakes and has consecutive wins in the Dwyer and Jim Dandy Stakes.
Kensei has won four of seven career starts for $528,628.
Here is the complete field for the Travers in post position order: Hold Me Back, Julien Leparoux, 15-1; Charitable Man, Ramon Dominguez, 6-1; Warrior's Reward, Calvin Borel, 8-1; Quality Road, John Velazquez, 8-5; Our Edge, Alan Garcia, 15-1; Summer Bird, Kent Desormeaux, 3-1 and Kensei, Edgar Prado, 7-2.
All seven colts will carry 126 pounds
The 140th running of the Travers will be shown on ESPN with a scheduled post- time of 5:47 P.M. (et).
Miami, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Florida Marlins have placed first baseman Nick Johnson on the 15-day disabled list with a strained right hamstring. Johnson hasn't played since leaving an August 16 contest versus the Rockies when he
<< Buffalo Bills 2009 Season Preview
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Terrell Owens was on the free agent market for less than
four days when the Buffalo Bills came to the rescue and awarded him a one-
year, $6.5 million contract on March 8th.
That fact would seem to have much more to do wit
<< Colorado playing less rockier than before
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - John Denver is full of you know what, according to Lloyd
Christmas when he expected the Rocky Mountains to be a little rockier.
Christmas was, of course, headed in the opposite direction of Colorado after
making a wr
<< Sinking Cubs hoping for better results against Nats
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Playoff aspirations are fading quickly in the Windy City,
where the struggling Chicago Cubs will resume a three-game series versus the
Washington Nationals at Wrigley Field.
Chicago fell nine games behind first-place St. L
<< Determined Giants to hold another matchup with D-Backs
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The San Francisco Giants are still within striking distance
of a playoff spot and will continue a three-game series with the Arizona
Diamondbacks this evening at AT&T Park.
The Giants remained four games behind Colorad
Minneapolis, MN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Minnesota Timberwolves president David Kahn issued a statement Wednesday regarding Ricky Rubio, saying no deal of any kind has yet been reached with the club's first-round pick. Earlier Wednesday, Sp
Roger and Serena look to defend Open titles >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 2009 Grand Slam season will conclude
in the next few weeks, as tennis giants Roger Federer and Serena Williams look
to defend their titles at the U.S. Open.
Federer will head to the Big Apple seeking a
United acquires Shipalane to replace Khumalo >>
Washington, D.C. (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - D.C. United acquired midfielder
Tiyiselani Shipalane on loan from the Harrisburg City Islanders of the United
Soccer League's Second Division. Shipalane will serve as a roster replacement
for Tha
Fire defender Soumare transfers to French club Boulogne >>
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chicago Fire defender Bakary Soumare has been
transferred to Boulogne of the French first division pending the completion of
a physical, the Major League Soccer club announced on Wednesday.
"We would like to
Penn State and Indiana to square off at FedExField >>
Bloomington, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Indiana University announced Wednesday it
has reached an agreement with the NFL's Washington Redskins and FedExField to
play a home date on its 2010 schedule against Penn State at the Redskins' home
in Land
Big 12 Conference betting odds
Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State
Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.
Work left to do:
Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.
Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.
Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.
What Is the Point Spread?
What are Sports Betting Point Spreads?
In any football or basketball game (the main sports that use point spreads) there are two teams playing against each other.
Those teams, though, are rarely exactly evenly matched – meaning that typically one team has a better chance than the other to win the game. If bettors were allowed to bet on who was simply going to win the game, smart ones would obviously bet on the better team (likely winning more than 50% of the time in the process).
If winning were that easy the Las Vegas and online sportsbooks would stop taking any bets! This is where the point spread comes in: the basic function of the point spread is to balance the likelihood of each team “winning” by adjusting the final score by the point spread. After this adjustment is made you get the Against The Spread result (ATS result for short).
Let’s look at Super Bowl XXXIX, New England Patriots vs. Philadelphia Eagles. Most people believed the defending champ Patriots to be the better team – so if betting were simply based upon which team would win the game, an uneven majority of people would have wagered on New England. But, by using the point spread, the bookmakers adjusted the terms of the bet, evening the proposition so about half the people believed the Pats to be the smart bet, while the other half considered Philly to be the smart bet.
How to Read Point Spreads
New England Patriots -7 vs. Philadelphia Eagles
The better team, called the Favorite, is expected to win the game and must “give” or “lay” points to the weaker team. The favorite is listed with a minus sign and the number of points they are favored by (e.g., New England -7)
In the case of our example, New England must not only win the game, but they must win by more than 7 points for Pats bettors to have a winning ATS result. An Eagles bettor wins his bet either if:
- Philly wins the actual game by any amount of points
OR
- Philly loses the game by less than 7 points.
-
There was also the possibility that the final score could land exactly on the spread number (for example, the Pats winning 28-21 when -7), which is called a “push” or “no action” and a refund is then issued to bettors of both teams.
The same game with the same point spread can be considered from the weaker team’s perspective: The Underdog (Philly in the case of our example) is not expected to win the game and online football betting thus receives or “gets” points given by the stronger team. When a game is stated from the underdog’s perspective the team is listed with a plus sign and the number of points they are underdogs by:
Philadelphia Eagles +7 vs. New England Patriots
Keep in mind that Philadelphia +7 and New England -7 is the same point spread on the same game, simply stated differently. The first is from the underdog’s perspective; the later is from the favorite’s.
For Those Who Like to Consider Things Mathematically
Not a must, but for some a mathematical approach is insightful. You can determine the ATS winner by either:
- Subtracting the point spread from the favorite’s score (thus the minus sign before the number) and then compare to the underdog’s score
OR
- Adding the point spread to the underdog’s score (thus the plus sign before the number) and then compare to the favorite’s score
Who Really “Won” the Super Bowl odds ?
Let’s look at the actual result of Super Bowl XXXIX: New England 24 Philadelphia 21
The favorite, New England, won the game but not by more than the point spread they were favored by (7), so the ATS result was a LOSS for Pats bettors.
Looking at it from the underdog’s perspective, Philly did not win the game, but they lost by less than the point spread (7), so the ATS result was a WIN for Eagle bettors.
Mathematically considered, 24 for the favorite Pats minus 7 equals 17, which is less than the 20 the Eagles scored, so the underdog Eagles win the ATS result (or you could figure 20 plus 7 equals 27 for the Eagles, which is more than 24 for the Pats).
Emily’s boyfriend understood the point spread and wagered $100 on the Eagles at +7. The Eagles may not have gotten a Super Bowl ring, but since they won the ATS result Emily’s boyfriend cashed his bet – giving him money to take her out to a nice dinner.
And now hopefully you understand how to read point spreads, putting you one step closer to joining the fun of sports betting.
To visit this internet sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting and World Series odds.