Champion colt returns in Holy Bull Stakes

Horseracing Betting Lines

01/27/2012 - Hallandale Beach, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Two weeks after being announced as the 2011 Eclipse Award winning two-year-old colt, Hansen makes his 2012 debut in Sunday's $400,000 Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream Park. The Holy Bull is part of the track's stakes series for Kentucky Derby hopefuls.

Trained by Mike Maker, Hansen has been made the 6-5 morning-line favorite in the six-horse field. The three-year-old, owned by Dr. Kendall Hansen and Sky Chai Racing, will have the services again of jockey Ramon Dominguez and start from post four.

In winning the Breeders' Cup Juvenile last November, Hansen defeated 11-10 favorite Union Rags by a head while setting the entire pace in the 1 1/16- mile race.

Undefeated in three career starts, Hansen has gone wire-to-wire in all three races. The colt's trainer has an interesting view on that style of running.

"It's no different than a closer. You're dependant on the pace," Maker noted. "You just hope no one makes him go quicker earlier than he has to."

Hansen began his career at Turfway Park with a 12 1/4-length win and followed with a 13 1/4-length triumph at Turfway in the Kentucky Cup Juvenile. His earnings stand a $1,153,305

Another undefeated colt is the 5-2 second choice. Starlight Stable's Algorithms makes his stakes and season debut on Sunday. Regular rider Javier Castellano has the mount and the pair will break from the outside post for trainer Todd Pletcher.

"He's trained very well," Pletcher said. "His first two races have been excellent, he's bred to stretch out and we're optimistic he's a top-level colt."

Algorithms first raced last June at Belmont Park and posted a five-length win as the 7-10 favorite. His only other start was last month at Gulfstream when he registered a length victory over Holy Bull rival Consortium.

In the December race Consortium was the 4-5 favorite and had the lead down the stretch before giving way to Algorithms. Consortium has drawn post two for Sunday's rematch and will be ridden by John Velazquez.

Consortium is owned by Godolphin Racing and trained by Kiaran McLaughlin. Three weeks ago at Aqueduct, owner and trainer sent out Alpha to win the Count Fleet Stakes.

Here is the full field for the Holy Bull in post position order: Silver Max, Julien Leparoux; Consortium, John Velazquez; My Adonis, Elvis Trujillo; Hansen, Ramon Dominguez; Fort Loudon, Rajiv Maragh and Algorithms, Javier Castellano.

Post-time for the Holy Bull is 4:45 p.m. (et).

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Academy Award Betting Odds for Best Picture Offer Great Value

If there is any category that is not an obvious win for any one nominee in this year's Academy Awards, it would be for Best Picture.  Sure the Departed is a 5/7 favorite, but that's hardly anything when we look at Helen Mirren and her "out-of-reach" 1 to 40 odds (which means you would win a whopping $1 for every $40 bet).

For value, take a look at MySportsbook.com Oscars betting odds on my personal favorite, The Queen - a remarkable 12 to 1 long shot.  The film hasn't won any pre-awards for Best Picture (compared to The Departed and Little Miss Sunshine), but there is a tremendous following and it is a strong enough film to warrant a surprise win.

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Who is to say independently produced Little Miss Sunshine won't be this year's Crash.  Last year, Crash won for Best Motion Picture, shocking those who bet on gay cowboy flick, Brokeback Mountain, as the favorite to win. 

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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.

Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"

A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."

Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.

In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.

"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."

Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.

But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"

Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.

This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.

Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.

In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.

No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.

And that's all any bettor can ask for.

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