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08/07/2010 - Saratoga Springs, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Blame, ridden by Garrett Gomez, overtook odds-on favorite Quality Road late in the stretch to win Saturday's $750,000 Whitney Invitational at Saratoga Race Course. The victory gives the four-year-old colt a guaranteed spot in this year's Breeders' Cup Classic.
Quality Road, trained by Todd Pletcher, was the 2-5 morning-line favorite and was sent off as the 1-2 pick for the 1 1/8-mile race. Blame was the 3-1 second choice in the six horse field.
With John Velazquez riding, Quality Road set a leisurely pace followed by Haynesfield, Musket Man, Blame, Jardim and Mine That Bird. Quality Road went the first half-mile in just over 48-seconds.
Around the turn for home Quality Road was still in command with Musket Man second and Blame on the outside moving into third. At the top of the stretch the favorite had a clear lead with Blame moving past Musket Man into second.
With a furlong to run Blame was right behind Quality Road and gaining. Just yards until the wire Blame caught Quality Road and was able to register a nose victory at historic Saratoga.
Musket Man held on for third followed by Haynesfield, Mine That Bird and Jardim.
The time for the Whitney was 1:48.88 on a fast track.
Trained by Al Stall, Jr., Blame posted his fifth straight win, all in stakes events. The colt has won eight of 11 lifetime starts, and the $450,000 from Saturday pushes his career earnings to more than $1.5 million.
The four-year-old, owned by Adele Dilschneider, was coming off a win in the Stephen Foster Handicap in June at Churchill Downs. Last year at Saratoga Blame won the Curlin Stakes for three-year-olds.
Blame paid $8.80, $3.00 and $2.20. Quality Road returned $2.40 and $2.10, and Musket Man paid $2.50 to show.
<< Castro still ahead at Wichita Open
Wichita, KS (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Roberto Castro posted a four-under 67 on
Saturday to remain atop the leaderboard after the third round of the Wichita
Open.
Castro finished 54 holes at 19-under 194 and is one stroke clear at Crestvie
<< TFC tops Chivas USA to extend home unbeaten streak
Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Toronto FC continued it's home dominance with a
2-1 Major League Soccer win over Chivas USA on Saturday at BMO Field.
The Reds improved to 7-6-5 overall and 6-0-4 at BMO Field, where they haven't
lost yet this
<< Frost catches stumbling Calcavecchia on last hole
Blaine, MN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mark Calcavecchia and David Frost both carded
rounds of six-under 66 to share the lead Saturday after two rounds of the 3M
Championship.
Calcavecchia carried a three-shot lead to the 17th hole, but made bac
<< Palmer, O'Hair lead; Tiger headed for worst finish
Akron, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ryan Palmer and Sean O'Hair are knotted in first
place after Saturday's third round of the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational at
Firestone Country Club.
Palmer fired a seven-under 63, while O'Hair had a six-un
Bodine takes Nashville truck pole >>
Lebanon, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Todd Bodine claimed the pole for Saturday's
Nashville 200 Camping World Truck Series race after topping the charts in
qualifying at Nashville Superspeedway.
Bodine, the current points leader, posted
Yankees drop Red Sox minus A-Rod >>
Bronx, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ramiro Pena starred as a fill-in for the injured
Alex Rodriguez, knocking in a pair of runs as the New York Yankees posted a
5-2 victory over rival Boston in the second of a four-game set from Yankee
Stadium
Crisp, Gonzalez helps A's top Texas >>
Oakland, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Coco Crisp homered and drove in three runs, and
Gio Gonzalez tossed seven shutout innings to lead Oakland over American League
West-leading Texas, 6-2, in the middle installment of a three-game series.
Gonzalez
Braves promote Minor, option Kawakami >>
Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Atlanta Braves purchased the contract of
highly-touted left-hander Mike Minor from Triple-A Gwinnett Saturday and
optioned pitcher Kenshin Kawakami to the minors.
Minor, the Braves' No. 1 pick
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.
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:
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.
Not a must, but for some a mathematical approach is insightful. You can determine the ATS winner by either:
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.
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