Commentator odds-on favorite for 66th MassCap

Horseracing Betting Lines

09/17/2008 - East Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Whitney Handicap winner Commentator goes after his second straight Breeders' Cup Challenge victory in Saturday's $500,000 Massachusetts Handicap (MassCap) at Suffolk Downs. The MassCap champ will gain automatic entry into the Breeders' Cup Classic as part of the "Win and You're In" program.

The 1 1/8 mile race has attracted seven older thoroughbreds.

A gelding, Commentator is trained by Hall of Famer Nick Zito for Tracy Farmer and is the 3-5 morning-line favorite. The seven-year-old will start from post two with John Velazquez returning to ride.

Commentator recorded his second career Whitney victory, in his last start, to go along with his 2005 win. Also this year he was second to Divine Park in the Metropolitan Mile Handicap at Belmont Park on Memorial Day.

"He gets in that league with Kelso and Forego," Zito noted after the Whitney victory, "which I wanted him to be in so they couldn't take him out. He's in that special league. He's an amazing horse."

A winner of 12 races in 19 career starts, Commentator has lifetime earnings of more than $1.54 million.

The 7-2 second choice is Dr. Pleasure, third in last year's MassCap behind Brass Hat for trainer John Ward, Jr. Owned by John Oxley, Dr. Pleasure will be ridden by Cornelio Velasquez from post six.

A winner of just two of 15 lifetime starts, the five-year-old snapped a 13- race losing streak this year after undergoing throat surgery by winning an allowance race at Saratoga. Dr. Pleasure has career winnings of $308,098 Two years ago he was third in the Travers and fourth in the Jim Dandy Stakes.

Shipping in from Monmouth Park is Cuba, the 6-1 third pick in the program. The seven-year-old will break from post four with regular rider Pedro Cotto, Jr. aboard.

Trained by Bobby Dibona for Leo-Sag Stable, Cuba is coming off a fifth-place finish in the Iselin Handicap at Monmouth. He has won six of his last nine starts.

"This horse has done so many great things this year that I thought he deserved a chance," said Dibona. "I'm confident he can get a piece of that pot. I never had a horse for the MassCap before. Cuba is the first one I've had that I thought deserved the chance. With a little racing luck, he can do really well in the MassCap."

In his career Cuba has won 11 of 37 races for $443,594.

Here is the complete field for the MassCap in post position order: Beck and Call, Tammi Piermarini 20-1; Commentator, John Velazquez 3-5; Won Awesome Dude, Dalton Nedrick 8-1; Cuba, Pedro Cotto, Jr. 6-1; Volcanic Force, Clifford Dooley, 20-1; Dr. Pleasure, Cornelio Velasquez 7-2 and Riversrunrylee, Pedro Gonzalez 15-1.

The 66th MassCap has a scheduled post-time of 5:45 p.m. (et).

Wwwdonbest Horseracing Betting News

<< Around FCS: Shifting Sands for Ivy League
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Ivy League has made a cottage industry of avoiding change when the subject is football. But like the forces of time itself, there are elements of transition that even the most tradition-minded of schoo

<< Frerotte to start at QB for Vikings
Eden Prairie, MN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Minnesota Vikings head coach Brad Childress has decided to make a switch at quarterback, replacing an ineffective Tarvaris Jackson with veteran journeyman Gus Frerotte for at least this Su

<< Line of Scrimmage: Week 3 - A Word About Officiating
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - I already knew Norv Turner was one of the worst head coaches to don a pair of Riddell coaching shorts, but I never knew he was this much of a whiner. Turner had a legitimate beef with Ed Hochuli and his cr

<< Roque Junior returns home to join Palmeiras
Sao Paulo, Brazil (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Brazilian defender Roque Junior will be returning home after Palmeiras confirmed that the club has signed the Brazil international from Qatari side Al-Rayyan until the end of the season. The 32-year-

<< Calgary's Burris highlights CFL weekly awards
Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Calgary quarterback Henry Burris was among the top players for the CFL in Week 12. Burris nabbed offensive honors as he helped the Stampeders to a 41-30 victory over the Montreal Alouettes. Burris complete

Baseball releases schedule for 2009 >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Major League Baseball has released its 2009 schedule for all 30 teams. The season will start on Sunday, April 5 with a stand-alone game between a pair of undetermined teams, while most clubs will open t

Bucs activate Stevens; release Troupe >>
Tampa, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have activated tight end Jerramy Stevens from the suspended list and released tight end Ben Troupe. Stevens was suspended for the first two games of the season for violating the league's

Warner, Horton, Jones earn NFC weekly honors >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Arizona quarterback Kurt Warner, Washington safety Chris Horton and Cowboys kick returner Felix Jones were named the NFC's top players for Week 2. Warner posted a perfect 158.3 passer rating to help Arizona

Marshall, Polamalu, Bulluck take AFC weekly honors >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Denver Broncos wide receiver Brandon Marshall, Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu and Tennessee Titans linebacker Keith Bulluck took the AFC's top honors for Week 2 of the NFL season.

Around FCS: Hysteria Builds for App State/JMU >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A week ago, FBS had USC-Ohio State. The game was one people couldn't stop talking about in advance of the kickoff at the Los Angeles Coliseum. In the FCS world, one regular-season game has been on the mind


COLLEGE FOOTBALL BETTING

NCAA Football Betting : USC's reward: Top spot in Top 25

NEW YORK (AP) -By staying away from the cupcakes, Southern California earned itself a slim new ranking.

No. 1 always seems to fit USC.

Southern California jumped two spots to No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 on Tuesday, rewarded by voters for opening the season with a dominant performance on the road against a BCS conference opponent.

Georgia and Ohio State, the preseason Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, started their seasons with glorified scrimmages at home against FCS (formerly I-AA) teams. USC, however, traveled across country to face Virginia and could not have been more impressive in a 52-7 victory.

Georgia fell to No. 2 and Ohio State to No 3.

"We realize that rankings so early in a season are certainly fluid. But rankings do help establish a pecking order for things later in the season," USC coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. "As for moving into the No. 1 spot, it's nice to know that people think highly of our team."

Since reaching No. 1 on Dec. 7, 2003, the final-regular season AP poll of that season, USC has been No. 1 in 39 polls, by far the most of any team during that time.

"Some have said the voters are taking our schedule into consideration," Carroll said. "Our philosophy has always been to schedule outstanding opponents. We need to play challenging games like we just did, traveling across the country to open the season at Virginia. Games like that bring out our best and make us stronger as a team."

The latest voting was close. USC received 21 first-place votes and 1,539 points from the 65-member media panel. Georgia had 20 first-place votes and 1,506 points. Ohio State got 15 first-place votes and 1,497 points.

"I'd say we've evolved as pollsters," said Stewart Mandel of SI.com, who moved USC up to No. 1. "In the past, voters just kind of automatically moved teams up and kept teams where they were if they won."

Georgia beat Georgia Southern 45-21 on Saturday and Ohio State opened with a 43-0 win over Youngstown State.

"There's a bit of a growing backlash for the amount of teams that open with I-AA cupcakes," said Mandel, whose book "Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls" chronicles college football's controversies. "To see a team [USC] go on the road and play a New Year's Day bowl team from last season, and not only play them but destroy them, how could you not reward that team?"

USC also jumped past Georgia to No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' poll, which has the same top five as the AP poll.

"It's definitely a privilege to be No. 1. But it's not heartbreaking to me if we drop," Georgia offensive lineman Josh Davis said. "It doesn't matter right now what we're ranked. What matters is our next game and right now, that's Central Michigan. The only time the polls matter is in December. That's when the polls matter."

While the Bulldogs opened easy, their schedule ultimately should be as difficult as any team's. Georgia's big nonconference test is at No. 15 Arizona State on Sept. 20. The Bulldogs also face six Southeastern Conference rivals that've been ranked in the first two polls.

As for Ohio State, the Buckeyes play at USC on Sept. 13 before getting into the Big Ten schedule.

But of the teams in this week's top 10, USC and Texas are the only ones that don't play an FCS opponent, and the Trojans are the only team that doesn't play a team from a non-BCS conference.

Get the latest 2009 BCS Championship odds at MySportsbook.com.

The last team to drop from No. 1 after a victory was USC last season. LSU jumped from No. 2 to No. 1 when it beat Tulane 34-9, the same week the Trojans edged Washington 27-24 on the road.

The last preseason No. 1 team to lose the top spot after winning its opening game was Florida in 2001. The Gators beat Marshall 49-14, but preseason No. 2 Miami opened with a 33-7 victory over Penn State and the Hurricanes jumped to No. 1 with Florida slipping to second.

The next four teams in the new Top 25 stayed the same: No. 4 Oklahoma (two first-place votes), No. 5 Florida (five first-place votes), No. 6 Missouri (one first-place vote), No. 7 LSU (one first-place vote) and No. 8 West Virginia.

No. 9 Auburn and No. 10 Texas each moved up a spot, taking advantage of Clemson's big drop. Clemson, ninth in the preseason, fell out after losing 34-10 to Alabama on Saturday.

Also falling out after losses were Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and Tennessee.

Moving into the rankings were No. 21 Fresno State, No. 22 Utah, No. 23 UCLA and No. 24 South Carolina.

Alabama moved up 11 spots after its big victory over Clemson.

The second 10 started with No. 11 Wisconsin, followed by Texas Tech, Alabama and Kansas. BYU and Arizona State were tied for 15th. Rivals BYU and Utah are both ranked for the first time since 1996.

South Florida was No. 17, ahead of Oregon, Penn State and Wake Forest at No. 20.

The final five were all the teams to move into the ranking, except for Illinois, which dropped four spots and tied South Carolina for No. 24.

Get free Sports Betting lines RSS feeds from top rated online sportsbook MySportsbook.com








Big 12 Conference betting odds

Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State

Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.

Work left to do:

Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.

Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.

Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.