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05/10/2010 - Baltimore, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Louisiana Derby runner-up A Little Warm has been taken out of consideration for Saturday's Preakness Stakes. The three- year-old colt suffered bleeding during a workout Monday at Delaware Park.
"He worked fine, but he just didn't scope out good," according to Spring Hill Farm manager Chris Baker from the farm in Virginia. "We're going to have to withdraw him from consideration from the Preakness. We just have to get him well, and hopefully he'll be able to get back to racing in 30 days or so."
Owned by Edward P. Evans, A Little Warm worked five-furlongs in 1:01 2/5 for trainer Anthony Dutrow before being scoped.
A Little Warm has won two of seven career starts for $284,280. In January he won the Spectacular Bid Stakes at Gulfstream Park and followed with a second- place finish to D'Funnybone in the Hutcheson Stakes. He did not have enough graded stakes earnings to start in the Kentucky Derby.
<< Oakland's Braden captures AL weekly honor
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Thanks to his perfect game, Oakland Athletics
pitcher Dallas Braden has been selected as the American League Player of the
Week for the period ending May 9.
The 26-year-old left-hander threw the second pe
<< Phils OF Werth takes NL weekly award
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Jayson Werth
was named the National League Player of the Week for the period ending May 9.
Werth posted National League highs of four home runs and 25 total bases, and
finis
<< This was not the plan
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The shelf life of a scandal really isn't
that long.
That had to be the prevailing theme in Tiger Woods' mind.
Once he got back on the course, and was the Tiger of old, the questions of car
accidents, af
<< Next start for Rachel Alexandra undecided
Louisville, KY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Less than two weeks after suffering a second
straight loss, reigning Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra is back in training
for an as yet unknown race.
"All options are open," trainer Steve Asmussen said on
USA loses again, Canada wins again at Worlds >>
Cologne, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Patrick Galbraith made 30 saves and Stefan
Lassen scored the overtime winner, as Denmark took a 2-1 win over Team USA
to hand the Americans their second straight loss of the tournament.
Coming off a
Suns' 'synergy' carries them to conference finals >>
PHOENIX (AP) -Coach Alvin Gentry calls it ``synergy,'' a word that means, essentially, something greater than the sum of its parts.That's perfect for these upstart Phoenix Suns. They are, in simpler terms, a lot better than just about anyone expecte
Monfils wins Madrid opener >>
Madrid, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Athletic Frenchman Gael Monfils was among
Monday's first-round winners at the $3.6 million Madrid Open, a clay-court
French Open tune-up.
The 12th-seeded Monfils handled fellow Frenchman Stephane Ro
Bengals agree to terms with S Wilson >>
Cincinnati, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Cincinnati Bengals came to terms with
veteran safety Gibril Wilson on Monday. Terms of the contract were not
disclosed.
"We're excited to have Gibril join our secondary group," said B
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.
To visit this sports book go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs.
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