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05/27/2010 - Elmont, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - California based colt Dave in Dixie will start in this year's 142nd edition of the $1 million Belmont Stakes on June 5. The addition of Ike and Dawn Thrash's three-year-old means that 11 will likely start in the final leg of racing's Triple Crown.
"It's worth a shot," said Ike Thrash. "He worked for the last time (before the Belmont) this morning and we waited until afterward to make sure he was coming."
Dave in Dixie worked a mile at Hollywood Park Thursday morning in 1:39 3/5.
Trained by John Sadler, Dave in Dixie was second in the Robert B. Lewis Stakes at Santa Anita in February. He came back with a sixth to Sidney's Candy in the San Felipe and was a distant fifth, in his only start outside of California, in the Illinois Derby to American Lion.
Calvin Borel, who rode Super Saver to victory in this year's Kentucky Derby, will have the mount for the Belmont Stakes.
The field for the 1 1/2-mile Belmont will also include Dwyer Stakes runner-up Drosselmeyer, Preakness runner-up First Dude, Dwyer Stakes winner Fly Down, Lone Star Derby champ Game On Dude, Kentucky Derby runner-up Ice Box, Make Music for Me, Spangled Star, Blue Grass Stakes winner Stately Victor, Stay Put, and Uptowncharlybrown.
<< Weeks' walk gives Milwaukee win in 10th
Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Rickie Weeks drew a game-winning walk with
the bases loaded and two outs in the 10th, helping the Milwaukee Brewers rally
for a 4-3 win over the Houston Astros in the rubber match of a three-game
series
<< Tillman, Howard headline 2010 College Football Hall of Fame class
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Pat Tillman and Heisman Trophy winner Desmond
Howard highlight the 2010 class for induction into the College Football Hall
of Fame.
A total of 12 players and two coaches from the Football Bowl Subdivi
<< Dodgers purchase contract of P Miller, designate Ortiz
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Los Angeles Dodgers purchased the contract
of right-handed relief pitcher Justin Miller from Triple-A Albuquerque and
designated veteran pitcher Ramon Ortiz for assignment Thursday.
The 32-year-old Mil
<< New York fillies stakes gain sponsor
Elmont, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The NYRA stakes series, known as the Triple
Tiara, for three-year-old fillies has gained the sponsorship of Betfair TVG.
The series is comprised of the Acorn Stakes, Coaching Club American Oaks, and
Alabama
Dolphins cut ties with LB Torbor >>
Davie, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Miami Dolphins terminated the contract of
linebacker Reggie Torbor on Thursday.
Torbor, 29, appeared in all 16 games for the Dolphins last season -- his
second with the club -- and compiled
Golf Course Review - Aronimink Golf Club >>
Newtown Square, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - FACTS AND STATS: Course Architects:
Donald Ross (1928), Ron Prichard, McDonald & Sons (2000-01). Year Opened:
1928.
Location: Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. Slope: 130. Rating: 74.4. Par: 70.
Yardage: 7
Patriots bring back LB Burgess >>
Foxboro, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New England Patriots re-signed linebacker
Derrick Burgess to an undisclosed contract on Thursday.
The upcoming 2010 season will be Burgess' 10th in the NFL after stints with
the Philadelphia Eagles (20
South Africa tops Colombia in World Cup warm-up >>
Johannesburg, South Africa (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Teko Modise and Katlego Mphela
converted penalties and South Africa edged Colombia 2-1 on Thursday in a World
Cup warm-up at Soccer City Stadium.
Modise opened the scoring in the 18th minute an
Rule No. 1 in the gamblers' handbook states, "Avoid sports betting on meaningless games."
When you're drowning in a sea of baseball monotony, however, things change. Even a hint of pro football betting can persuade the most disciplined bettor to break a few rules.
The NFL preseason is around the corner, with a tempting Hall of Fame match kicking off on Sunday. But bettors must stay vigilant. Wagering on NFL exhibition games is an entirely different beast than the regular season. Most fans don't recognize the players on the field because starters get as much action in August as Warcraft fans get on Prom night.
The only certainty about the NFL this time of year is uncertainty – and yet there are some who say betting in August can be a gold mine.
“I actually feel the NFL preseason presents solid profit opportunities for sharp bettors and handicappers,” Sports Expert Steve Merril explains. “My experience has been that the sportsbooks fear the preseason, which is evident by lower limits and massive moves.”
The line moves are attributed to the limited knowledge available regarding playing-time distribution. One team’s top unit out on the field for one more series has an impact on the pointspread. Setting lines in the preseason often is a shot in the dark.
“We base the betting lines mostly on public perception,” Pete Korner, founder of the Sports Club in Las Vegas, says. “It’s very tough to predict, almost a guessing game.”
The preseason is all about figuring out who’s in and for how long.
“It becomes a race between bettors and oddsmakers to find out how long the quarterbacks are going to stay in,” Korner admits. “If a sharp gets the information first, he could exploit an early line. I’m a full believer in moving the line in the preseason if the books find out something late in the week.”
Determining what each team’s motive is can help bettors handicap. To do this you must pay close attention to the philosophies head coaches employ in exhibition play.
“You need to know what a coach is trying to accomplish,” says Covers Expert Bryan Leonard. “Sometimes a new coach will want to instill a winning attitude. Others just want to make sure their starters don’t get hurt."
So how do you distinguish who’s playing scared and who’s playing for keeps?
“Head coaches on the hot seat or new coaches trying to implement a winning attitude usually try harder to win in the preseason,” Merril says.
Cleveland Browns head coach Romeo Crennel fits this criteria. He’s entering his third season as the sideline boss and has yet to lead the Browns to more than six wins.
Cleveland is an enticing bet as well because of the unresolved quarterback situation. General manager Phil Savage sacrificed the Browns’ first-round pick in next year’s draft for Brady Quinn, but the former Notre Dame quarterback hasn’t signed or reported to training camp yet.
Charlie Frye and Derek Anderson split time at QB last season and it looks like either player (or even Quinn) could be the opening-day starter.
“If a team has quarterback depth and the pecking order hasn’t been decided, it’s a big advantage,” Leonard says.
Even in the third week of the preseason when starters generally play the most, the final outcome of the game is in the hands of fringe players. A team's talent, all the way down to the last man on the roster, is something to consider.
The New England Patriots have long been considered one of the deeper teams in the NFL and coach Bill Belichick has said in the past he’s unafraid of stars getting hurt in games with nothing on the line. He shocked his colleagues in 2003 by playing some of his starters on special teams in the preseason.
“We want to have the team ready to play a tough, physical game and preparation has to go into that and I imagine a certain amount of injuries go with it,” Belichick told the Providence Journal in August 2003.
Bettors can only hope to find more teams that share the Pats' business-like approach to the preseason (New England is 17-9-3 against the spread since 2000) and take advantage of teams who detest the exhibition schedule.
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In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.
And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.
Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.
So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.
Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)
The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.
As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.
The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.
In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.
Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.
And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.
So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.
There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.
So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.
And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.
There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)
Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.
Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.
Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.
So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.
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