Thursday morning jogs for Preakness favorites

Horseracing Betting Lines

05/13/2010 - Baltimore, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Thursday morning was a time for several of the Preakness starters, including the three favorites, to get acquainted with Pimlico Race Course. The only one of the 12 not at Pimlico is Schoolyard Dreams, who will arrive Friday.

Both of trainer Todd Pletcher's Preakness horses, Super Saver and Aikenite, visited the track Thursday morning. Both colts took a mile jog around Pimlico.

The colts shipped to Pimlico from Churchill Downs on Wednesday and Pletcher said they have settled into their new surroundings.

"We took him (Super Saver) out and gave him an easy jog once around the track," Pletcher said. "The track was sloppy and we weren't looking to do much, but I thought he handled everything really well. He had a good night; rested well and cleaned up his grain. His energy level is very good. It seems like he's shipped in as well as we could have hoped."

Pletcher said that his colts would go back to the track to gallop Friday morning: Aikenite at 6 a.m. (et) and Super Saver a half-hour later.

Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert sent out Lookin At Lucky for an easy 1 3/8- mile jog under exercise rider Dana Barnes Thursday morning. It was the first visit to the track at Pimlico for the beaten Kentucky Derby favorite.

"He went nice. He just sort of got a feel for it," Baffert said. "On a muddy track you can't really get a good grip of it, but he looked good. That's not the surface we're going to be running on. He got a good look at the track around there. When there [aren't] any horses training on it, it's sort of weird for him, but he took in all the sights pretty good. He went easy around there. We don't do much once we get here with him. He's doing well."

Paddy O'Prado, who finished third in the Kentucky Derby, showed good energy during his jog around the Pimlico track Thursday morning.

"He bounced out of the Derby as though he never ran," said trainer Dale Romans. "That's why we're here. We normally wouldn't wheel one back in two weeks."

The updated weather forecast for the Preakness calls for sunny skies and a post-time temperature near 75.

Post-time Saturday is 6:12 p.m. (et).

Wwwgalaxyworldcasino Horseracing Betting News

<< Valencia agrees to deal for Topal
Valencia, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Valencia has agreed to a deal for Turkey international Mehmet Topal with Galatasaray. The 24-year-old midfielder will join the La Liga club for a fee in the region of $6 million, should he pass a summ

<< Bresciano set for Palermo exit
Palermo, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Palermo midfielder Marco Bresciano is set to leave the Serie A outfit and team up with Saudi Arabia side Al Nassr. The Australian, who is expected to represent his country at this summer's World Cup f

<< Chelsea's Drogba would welcome Torres move
London, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Didier Drogba has given his blessing for Chelsea to launch a potential summer swoop on Liverpool for Fernando Torres. Torres has been linked with a $59 million move to Stamford Bridge following the en

<< NL West: D'Backs getting no action from Jackson
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Diamondbacks invested a lot of hope and plenty of dough on Edwin Jackson this offseason, but all he's been able to do is lead his new ballclub to just one win in eight starts. Arizona (14-21) acquired Jackson along wi

<< Neuer starts in Germany's win over Malta
Aachen, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Manuel Neuer started at goalie for Germany in Thursday's friendly against Malta, but the other goalies on the provisional World Cup roster were not available. Loew lost No. 1 goalie Rene Adler to a broken

Three NASCAR teams penalized for Darlington infractions >>
Daytona Beach, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - NASCAR issued penalties to two Sprint Cup Series teams and one Nationwide team on Thursday for rules violations that occurred this past weekend at Darlington Raceway. Samuel Stanley, the crew chief

Birmingham missed out on Cacau >>
Birmingham, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Birmingham City manager Alex McLeish has confirmed his club missed out on the signing of Stuttgart's Brazilian-born German striker Cacau. The 29-year-old seemed certain to leave the Bundesliga c

Hearts to show four the door >>
Edinburgh, Scotland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Hearts has confirmed Michael Stewart, Jose Goncalves, Laryea Kingston and Christian Nade are all free to leave Tynecastle this summer. The quartet are all out of contract next month and will n

Scott's slam helps Orioles rally past Mariners >>
Baltimore, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Luke Scott hit his second career grand slam in the eighth inning to help the Baltimore Orioles take a 6-5 win over the Seattle Mariners in the finale of a three-game set at Camden Yards. Corey Patterso

Jankovic reaches Madrid quarters >>
Madrid, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic highlighted Thursday's third-round winners at the $4.5 million Madrid Open, a clay-court French Open tune-up. The seventh-seeded Jankovic drilled Spain's own

Dallas Cowboys Super Bowl Odds

Will he or won't he?  Now that the Dallas Cowboys have a new head coach in Wade Phillips, the big question will be: Does Terrell Owens stay with the team.

Jerry Jones continues to suggest that Terrell Owens will remain with the team.

"I've said that he's back, he's here, he's under contract," Jones said. "In the interviews I've just been through (to hire a new coach), it was very clear to me how highly he's thought of and how much of an impact he had on our offensive success."

Just to be sure though, Terrell Owens cleared out his locker and removed his name plate.

Terrell Owens was among the Cowboys most productive players this past season, catching 85 passes for 1,180 yards and a league-best 13 touchdowns.

But T.O. is due a $3 million roster bonus in June, then a $5 million salary this season. Cutting him before then would save a lot of money and headaches.

Aside from the questions surrounding Terrell Owens, the oddsmakers at MySportsbook.com have concerns over starting quarterback Tony Romo's state of mind and whether he will remain a starting quarterback.  It is also not known how players will adjust to new head coach, Wade Phillips.

Here are the football odds as seen at MySportsbook.com and subject to change after February 10, 2007 if not locked in prior to that date.
Arizona Cardinals 60-1


Atlanta Falcons 50-1


Baltimore Ravens 15-1


Buffalo Bills 50-1


Carolina Panthers 18-1


Chicago Bears 10-1


Cincinnati Bengals 15-1


Cleveland Browns 100-1


Dallas Cowboys 15-1


Denver Broncos 15-1


Detroit Lions 100-1


Green Bay Packers 50-1


Houston Texans 100-1


Indianapolis Colts 6-1


Jacksonville Jaguars 30-1


Kansas City Chiefs 30-1


Miami Dolphins 40-1


Minnesota Vikings 75-1


New England Patriots 10-1


New Orleans Saints 18-1


New York Giants 20-1


New York Jets 30-1


Oakland Raiders 100-1


Philadelphia Eagles 18-1


Pittsburgh Steelers 10-1


Saint Louis Rams 60-1


San Diego Chargers 6-1


San Francisco 49ers 75-1


Seattle Seahawks 20-1


Tampa Bay Buccanneers 75-1


Tennessee Titans 40-1


Washington Redskins 50-1

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your Sportsbook credit cards needs.

Sportsbook Betting Lines

Who Makes the Sportsbook Betting Lines?

Las Vegas Sports Consultants (LVSC) is the world’s premier oddsmaking company and the most respected authority on making the lines. Mike Seba is a Senior Oddsmaker at LVSC and has been making lines for the last six years. In our extended interview, Seba explained that there are 4-5 oddsmakers assigned to make lines for each of the major sports (pro & college football and basketball; MLB, NHL, boxing, golf). Each of these oddsmakers bring unique opinions, strengths and weaknesses to the process. Oddsmakers at LVSC are professional sports junkies who love what they do and would probably do it for nothing if you asked them, but they do get paid for it. By necessity their approach is very research-oriented and concise, since with millions of dollars at risk there is little margin for error.

“You either have a passion for it or you don’t,” Seba said.

“The #1 thing for us is to make a line for each game that creates good two-way action. We do this by drawing from past experiences and applying them to current situations. People think it’s much more complicated, but it’s not. “

What are the Football Betting Lines Trying to Accomplish?

There is a common misconception that point spreads represent the oddsmakers’ prediction of how many points the favorite will win by. That is not the case at all – their intent is NOT to evenly split the ATS result between the teams; rather, their goal is to attract equal betting action on both sides. Stated another way, they want to create a line that half the people find appealing to bet one way while the other half find it appealing to bet the other way (known as ‘dividing the action’).

Divided action means the sportsbook is guaranteed a profit on the game because of the fee charged to the bettor (called juice or vig – typically $11 bet to win $10).

How the Opening Line Is Made

The opening line is the first line created by the oddsmakers, which is then sent out to sportsbooks. Of course there is an entire method to the madness on how the opening line is created. Seba explained that it all starts with each oddsmaker creating a line on each game based upon their own personal approach. This usually includes having up-to-date power ratings on each team.

Power ratings are the oddsmaker’s value of each team and are used as a guide to calculate a "preliminary" pointspread on an upcoming game. The power ratings are adjusted after each game a team plays. Examples of non-game factors that would require an adjustment to a team's power rating are key player injuries and player trades.

Once a game’s power rating based pointspread is determined, the oddsmaker will make adjustments to that line after considering each team's most recent games played and previous games played against that opponent. Also, adjustments are made after reading each team’s local newspapers to get a sense of what the coaches & players are thinking going into the game.

Since the oddsmaker’s ultimate goal is equally dividing the sports betting action, public perception and sportsbook betting patterns must be taken into account. For example, the public might have heavy betting interest week after week on a popular college football betting team such as USC. If an oddsmaker comes up with a preliminary line of USC -7, then an adjustment up to -7.5 or -8 would be made in response to the public’s expected USC bias.

The last step in the line-making process for each oddsmaker is taking one final look to determine whether or not the line "feels right." This is where common sense and past experience with how games are bet enters into the picture.

A round-table discussion among the 4-5 oddsmakers involved in making the line for each sport is then conducted and a consensus line is decided upon by the Odds Director before it is released to the sportsbooks. Of the 4-5 oddsmakers, generally the 2 most respected opinions are weighed more heavily by the Odds Director before he decides on the final line.

Why Sports Betting Lines Change

Once the opening line is released by LVSC, the individual sportsbooks decide if they want to make any adjustments before offering it to the public. Reasons for such adjustments include:

Experts working for the individual books having a strong opinion on the game

Individual books having players who consistently bet with certain tendencies (such as an extreme bias toward favorites or toward a certain popular team like USC)

The purpose of these adjustments, like all line adjustments, is to more equally divide the betting action.

Once betting begins, sportsbooks can adjust the line at any time. In doing so they attempt to make more attractive the team that is getting less action. By moving the line, sportsbooks can influence how the public bets on a particular game.

For example, if the pointspread on a game is 7 and most of the money is coming in on the underdog (taking the +7), sportsbooks will then move the number down to 6 ½ to try and attract money on the favorite.

Moving the line is the oddsmaker's effort to balance betting action, and often times such moves can have a major impact on a bettor’s decision. Oddsmakers can also change the line depending on various event-related factors such as player injuries or weather. Obviously, if the line comes out a week ahead of the event (which is the case in football), there is much that could happen during the week leading up to the event that could affect the line. Oddsmakers have to determine if any changes are necessary and send out an "adjusted line."

“The main objective is that our clients get equal action on both sides,” Seba said. “We’re not trying to pick the team that covers the spread, we’re trying to make it a coin flip, a tough decision (for the bettor). If we’ve done that, we’ve done our job.”

To visit this internet sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your sports betting needs and World Series odds.