Lookin At Lucky tops final three-year-old poll

Horseracing Betting Lines

06/07/2010 - New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Preakness Stakes winner Lookin At Lucky came out in first again in the final NTRA Thoroughbred Three-Year-Old Poll of 2010. The colt was followed by Kentucky Derby champ Super Saver and Belmont Stakes winner Drosselmeyer.

Lookin At Lucky garnered 17 first-place votes and 197 points in the final balloting. That's an increase of one first-place vote and 10 points over last week's tally.

Super Saver, who along with Lookin At Lucky did not run in the Belmont, finished second with a single first-place vote and 159 points. The colt lost a first-place vote from last week.

Drosselmeyer had not received any points in the next-to-last poll, but finished third in the final one with 154 points. The Travers Stakes is on his schedule for the summer.

"We'd like to think, come Saratoga time, at the end of the meet, they run the Travers, and that maybe he'd have an opportunity to run in there," said Drosselmeyer's trainer Bill Mott. "That's what I'm hoping."

Preakness runner-up First Dude, third in the Belmont, moved up one to fourth in the poll with 119 points.

Belmont runner-up Fly Down jumped from 11th with 23 points to fifth with 93. Fly Down had defeated Drosselmeyer in the Dwyer Stakes last month.

Holding steady at sixth is the retired Eskendereya with one first-place vote and 71 points.

Filly Blind Luck came in second in Saturday's Hollywood Oaks and fell from fourth to seventh. She picked up one first-place vote and 64 points.

Ice Box, second in the Run for the Roses, finished eighth in the Belmont Stakes as the 9-5 favorite and dropped from third to eighth in the poll. He finished with 57 points.

Wood Memorial runner-up Jackson Bend is ninth with 51 points and Santa Anita Derby champ Sidney's Candy completes the top 10 with 28 points.

There were no significant changes in the NTRA Thoroughbred Poll, which continues through the Breeders' Cup in November.

Zenyatta, who will start in Sunday's Vanity Handicap, is the top vote-getter with 13 first-place votes and 184 points. Her lead has been reduced to two with Met Mile winner Quality Road receiving seven first-place votes and 182 points.

Lookin At Lucky is third with 123 points followed by Rachel Alexandra (75), Misremembered (71), Super Saver (59), Blame (54), Blind Luck (48), Unrivaled Belle (36) and Tuscan Evening (32).

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Sportsbooks to bet on football

Recently I had an email debate with an angry reader who said I did not understand "the science of oddsmaking", as he called it.

He said I was wrong for suggesting oddsmakers care about who wins or loses games.

"Oddsmakers only care about splitting the betting public 50/50 on both sides of the line and keeping the commission (a.k.a. juice)," he wrote.

He might have been right about not understanding "the science of oddsmaking". After all, I'm not an oddsmaker. That said, I stick to my assertion that oddsmakers (a.k.a. sportbooks) often do care about who wins games.

Granted, as a general rule, sportsbooks try to balance their action so that they're not exposed to big losses. However, there are times when this is difficult to pull off, regardless of how much a line has moved. There are also times when that general rule is ignored and a book pursues risk.

Generally speaking, it's safe to say the books in Vegas are risk-adverse. Unlike in the past when the wise guys ruled the town, Vegas is now corporate and the goal of most casinos is to make as much money as possible with as little risk as possible.

Thus, Vegas sportsbooks try everything in their power to balance the action. They're satisfied simply collecting the juice. But these profits are small, especially compared to the take from other casino games, namely slot machines.

Because the profits at Vegas sportsbooks are so small, you could argue that many casinos operate sportsbooks simply as a novelty to keep the tourists happy.

With a growing aversion to risk, it should come as no surprise that Vegas bookmakers have been panicking this NFL season.

Despite huge pointspreads, a disproportionate percentage of bettors are still laying their money on favorites like the Eagles, Colts, Pats and Vikings rather than the dogs (a common trend for the largely recreational bettors that visit Vegas).

And much to the dismay of the books, those favorites are finding ways to cover the thick chalk. In fact, prior to Week 7, the four teams listed above are a combined 16-2-2 (88 percent) against the spread. (The tables turned dramatically in Week 7, but more on that later.)

The result has been an early-season beating for the books, and a bonanza for bettors.

While Vegas increasingly hates risk, it's no longer a major player in the sports betting world. Most of the betting action now takes place offshore where sportsbooks are not as obsessed about balance. In fact, some books encourage exposure to risk because the rewards can be so much bigger.

Consider MySportsbook.com. On its website, the book has odds pages which actually display the amount of action it's getting on games. In other words, you can see how much action the book is taking on both sides of a pointspread, moneyline or over/under.

One look at these numbers and it's obvious MySportsbook.com does not balance every game. In fact, far from it.

Take last weekend's matchup between St. Louis and Miami. By game time on Sunday, 83 percent of the betting action at MySportsbook.com was on the Rams; only 17 percent was on Miami.

What's interesting is that MySportsbook.com opened the pointspread with Miami at +6 1/2. By game time, the spread had lowered to +5.

That goes contrary to the balancing theory. If MySportsbook.com had wanted to balance the action, it would have given Miami more points; instead, it took away 1 1/2. World Series odds are now up as well.

MySportsbook.com exposed itself to even more to risk, and rolled the dice on the underdog Dolphins. Why? I contacted a representative with the book to find out. His answer was simple.

"The line moved early based on 'smart money' from sharp players," said Jeff Gilroy, a spokesperson for the book. "We also knew from early in the week that we would need Miami, therefore (we dropped) the spread to encourage Rams money.

"At the end of the day, we liked the home team."

So the conclusion is this: MySportsbook.com respected the sharp action, and gambled that the sharp bettors had a better take on the game than the recreational bettors, who were hammering the visiting Rams.

In the end, the gamble paid off. Miami, desperate for a win in front of its home fans, pounded the overrated Rams, who are terrible on the road and even worse on grass. Final score: 31-14 Fish.

MySportsbook.com was also heavily exposed on numerous favorites in Week 7, including Philadelphia, Seattle and Denver. All three failed to cover.

The fact that sportsbooks are exposed to risk on certain games is really nothing new. The fact, that Sportsbook.com is willing to show the public where it's exposed is intriguing.

Armed with this type of information, bettors can make more educated wagers. They can get an idea where the sharp money is going and conversely where the public money is headed.

MySportsbook.com is opening up its cashbox, letting bettors look inside and challenging them to take their best shot at grabbing the cash.

To visit this online football betting got to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting odds needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.

Kurt Warner to start, Matt Leinart to watch

Despite the debate that's swirling , Kurt Warner will remain the starting quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals, coach Dennis Green said today. The Arizona Cardinals are the +7 point underdog at online sportsbook MySportsbook.com for this Sunday's game.

Green's comment came in a statement released by the team following an ESPN report that Green decided that rookie Matt Leinart would replace Warner as starter for Sunday's game at Atlanta.

"Generally talking about the starting lineup is not something we do," Green told the AP. "However, given the speculation that was out there we want to make it clear. We're disappointed after last week, but we still expect to be a playoff football team and we fully expect Kurt Warner to be the quarterback that leads us. That has not changed."

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your bet on football needs.