Three races, three horses claim victories

Horseracing Betting Lines

06/07/2010 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 2010 Triple Crown series provided little intrigue over the five weeks. No 'super horse' stepped forward for the races after the elimination of the injured Eskendereya.

Lookin At Lucky, 2009 champion two-year-old colt, was the 3-1 morning-line Kentucky Derby favorite, but drew the rail post which basically eliminated him from winning. Santa Anita Derby winner Sidney's Candy went out too fast and faltered.

Kentucky Derby champ Super Saver was the 5-2 program favorite for the Preakness after winning the Run for the Roses at 8-1. He failed to hit the board as Lookin At Lucky got the win.

Neither winner from the first two legs of the Triple Crown came to the Belmont Stakes. Kentucky Derby runner-up Ice Box was the tentative morning-line favorite at 3-1 with Preakness runner-up First Dude the 7-2 second choice.

Ice Box was never a factor in the race and First Dude finished third after being passed right before the wire by Fly Down. Belmont Stakes winner Drosselmeyer got an excellent ride by Mike Smith who was aboard the colt for the first time.

Not a single horse started in all three Triple Crown races. After last year's excitement over 50-1 longshot Mine That Bird winning the Run for the Roses and filly Rachel Alexandra outlasting the gelding to capture the Preakness, only 45,243 people decided to come out to the Belmont Stakes.

"I think with the three different horses. Super Saver, Looking at Lucky, and Drosselmeyer today," WinStar Farm manager Elliott Walden said Saturday, "I think you can group all three of them together. It's hard to really differentiate between them until we get into the Haskell and the Travers and the Breeder's Cup Classic.

"I think the rest of the year will decide who the best is. As we sit here today, I've got to believe that we have two of the top three in Drosselmeyer and Super Saver and watching Super Saver train all week, being up here, he's doing great. I'm excited to see him get the opportunity to get back and redeem himself. We'll see. I can't really differentiate between any of the three. Bob Baffert's horse, Looking at Lucky is a very good horse as well. It's going to be an exciting second half of the year."

An oddity occurred during the running of the Belmont Stakes. Uptowncharlybrown finished fifth, but was disqualified to 12th. The chestnut colt, ridden by Rajiv Maragh, lost the eight-pound lead weight pad during the race to force the disqualification.

"It was a very strange situation," said trainer Kiaran McLaughlin. "I've never had that happen to me, but I'm sure it has happened before."

Jockey Alex Solis went from being in a Long Island hospital on Saturday to making history on Sunday.

The veteran rider was briefly hospitalized for high blood pressure Saturday at Belmont Park where Solis was to ride Tanda in the Acorn Stakes. Tanda would finish third with Mike Smith riding.

"He went to the hospital and got a clean bill of health," said the jockey's agent Brian Beach. "He was OK when he got there, but right before the race after he had been on an Equicizer for a half-hour another doctor came in and Alex's blood pressure was up."

Solis was well enough to ride at Monmouth Park on Sunday. He guided Mandurah to a new world record for a one-mile turf race at the Jersey Shore track.

Mandurah went 1:31.23 over the firm course in a $55,500 starter handicap race. The old record of 1:31.41 was held by Mister Light, who set the mark on January 3, 2005 at Gulfstream Park as a six-year-old.

"He's a very talented horse," noted Mandurah's trainer Grant Forster "We thought he'd like the firm turf at Monmouth, which he did very well. We purchased him privately as a four-year-old and gelded him. He always trained well in the morning, but didn't show up in the afternoon. But over this winter we got him in some races and gained his confidence back."

Owned by Greene Colvin, the six-year-old gelding will continue on in the Malouf Auto Group Starter Series with a 1 1/16-mile race on Saturday, June 26.

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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.

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