Post positions drawn for 24th Breeders' Cup

Horseracing Betting Lines

10/23/2007 - Oceanport, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Post positions and the morning-line odds have been set for the 24th running of the Breeders' Cup World Championships, which will be held this Friday and Saturday at Monmouth Park for the first time.

The featured race is the $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic at 1 1/4 miles. The event has drawn an excellent field of nine thoroughbreds, including Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense and Preakness champ Curlin.

The favorite for the Classic is four-year-old colt Lawyer Ron, who has established himself as the top older horse in North America. The winner of the Whitney and Woodward Handicaps is 5-2 in the program with John Velazquez riding. The pair will start from the inside post with Street Sense and jockey Calvin Borel next to him in post two.

Street Sense and Curlin are both 3-1 in the morning-line, with Curlin breaking from post four with Robby Albarado in the saddle. There are a total of five three-year-olds in the Classic field.

"I think it's one the best fields that's been put together," said Street Sense trainer Carl Nafzger. "You just can't get a better field put together. You got speed, you got closers. They've been beat, but they've been beat by each other. I think it's going to be a great Classic and I'm just glad to be part of it."

Haskell champ Any Given Saturday, 4-1 in the program, will start from post three with Garrett Gomez riding. Kentucky Derby runner-up Hard Spun has drawn post eight with Mario Pino and is 8-1. Santa Anita Derby winner Tiago is 12-1 with Mike Smith in the saddle. Tiago, coming off a victory in the Goodwood Stakes, will start from the far outside post.

"He's gotten bigger and stronger and he's more focused now, more into his races," Tiago's trainer John Shirreffs noted. "It's a terrific field for the Classic and we're glad to be part of it. It's a real treat for me to be here and stabled with Carl (Nafzger). I have the greatest respect for him. The old bull rider and the ex-Marine, we make a fine pair."

Completing the field for the Breeders' Cup Classic is George Washington, Awesome Gem and Diamond Stripes.

With the addition of three new races, that will be conducted on Friday, there are now 11 Breeders' Cup World Championships races.

The first three Breeders' Cup races will be televised on Friday by ESPN2 from 4:00-6:00 p.m. (et). On Saturday ESPN will broadcast from 12:00-7:00 p.m. (et) with the remaining eight races. Trevor Denman will again call the races.

Friday's weather forecast calls for mostly cloudy skies, winds from the east at 10 m.p.h. with a high near 65. A few showers are expected on Saturday with a high near 70 and winds from the south at 5-10 m.p.h.

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SPORTS BETTING: NFL Football Sportsbook Betting

NFL owners, already life's biggest winners, want to try their luck with the lottery.


That was the news out of their meetings last week, where team bosses voted unanimously to allow stamping state and local lottery tickets with franchise logos, if, ahem, any governments wanted to do a deal.

A shocker: Within days the Pats announced they'd be sponsoring the Massachusetts state lottery, the Skins said they'd slap their sticker on Virginia scratch-offs and the Ravens admitted they were talking to Maryland lottery bosses. In all likelihood, it won't be long before every team is a presenting sponsor of scratch-offs or just plain old pick fives. "The change in policy was approved 32-0," said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. "So you can expect to see more deals soon."

It's a branding opportunity too big for the owners to ignore, and one a couple of dozen baseball franchises have enjoyed for years. The fact the NFL has been slower to act than those slack-brained Seligites is indicative of its complicated relationship with all forms of gambling. Consider this: Last Thursday, as the Pats and the Redskins finalized their new lottery deals, a lawyer representing the NFL argued before Delaware's Supreme Court that the state's newly signed sports betting law should be repealed.

The NFL betting is the face of opposition to sports gambling . And as much as it would like to share that responsibility with other leagues, that's not going to happen as long as more than 40% of all money legally wagered on games is bet on football. That's why the Brewers can do a multi-million dollar deal with a local casino, or the Celtics can make their own pact with the Mass lottery, and the response is, "Sweet, let's play." But when the NFL does it the stakes are higher, and everyone from NPR's Frank Deford to the Associated Press to the guys blogging at Deadspin will line up to play gotcha.

So I asked Aiello, who surely knew there'd be piling on, how the league can rail against being bait for sports bettors, then allow its franchises to be just that for lotteries, the most insidious and addictive form of gambling around. He emailed me this response: "We are not moral crusaders. NFL personnel are permitted to engage in legal forms of gambling, except for betting on NFL games. We are making a distinction here between the spread of gambling on the outcome of our games and supporting state lottery scratch-off games, that have nothing to do with the outcome of our games."

Here's where I should rip him. But, the thing is, he's right. Not to get Obama on you, but this is a complicated, nuanced issue. As much as lotteries are considered a tax on the poor, the NFL isn't a socially obligated government program -- it's just a business. Scratch-off's help the bottom line, sports betting doesn't. Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors … But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal.

Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors. And it's okay to mutter something obscene when the league pretends gambling doesn't help drive TV ratings and fan interest and put money in owners' pockets. But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal. The Bears should put an orange "C" on every deck of cards dealt at Harrah's in Joliet; the Eagles should slap their logo on roulette wheels at the Borgata in Atlantic City; the Dolphins should hold training camp at the El San Juan in Puerto Rico.

Seriously.

The NFL's problem, when it comes to the gambling world, isn't hypocrisy, it's worse: The bosses lack vision. That's why the league is picking unwinnable fights in Delaware and taking pot shots from critics after making smart sponsorship deals. Roger Goodell and his gang are acting and thinking locally rather than globally, which is rare for them, especially compared to their professional (and amateur) counterparts.

The NBA held its All Star game in Las Vegas and David Stern's kingdom didn't crumble (although the town did bring plenty of players to their knees.) I'd say it's 6 to 5 and pick 'em that Lebron will make a road swing through Sin City before his career is over.

Even the NCAA College Football Betting is more progressive on this issue than the NFL. Several years ago Rachel Newman Baker, college sports' gambling czar, opened a dialogue with Vegas bookmakers to learn about how they do business. She's visited Nevada sports books, studied their operations and listened to how they regulate action. Now she knows she can expect a call from bookmakers, who lose money when sports are fixed, if they think something sketchy is going on in NCAA games. She's not in favor of sports betting, but, as she once told me, "I know it's not going away, either."

The NFL can't seem to accept that. And until it can find peace with the idea, it'll get flack, even when it's right.

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