Blind Luck tops Kentucky Oaks, Rachel Alexandra in La Troienne

Horseracing Betting Lines

04/27/2010 - Louisville, KY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Fantasy Stakes winner Blind Luck has been made the 6-5 morning-line favorite for Friday's $500,000 Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs. The race for three-year-old fillies has attracted a full field of 14.

The 1 1/8-mile Kentucky Oaks will share the program with the $400,000 La Troienne which features 2009 Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra. Rachel won last year's Oaks by better than 20-lengths.

Blind Luck, winner of six of nine career starts, will break from post five with Rafael Bejarano returning in the saddle. Co-owned by trainer Jerry Hollendorfer, the chestnut filly is the lone entrant listed at odds of less than 8-1.

She won the Fantasy at Oaklawn Park last month as the 1-2 favorite and has been favored in each of her last three starts. In February Blind Luck won the Las Virgenes at Santa Anita as the 1-5 favorite, but failed at 1-2 to Crisp in the Santa Anita Oaks in March when she finished third.

Blind Luck has earned more than $1 million in her career, having won last year's Oak Leaf and Hollywood Starlet. She was third to She Be Wild in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies and was runner-up to She Be Wild in the Eclipse Award voting for 2009 champion two-year-old filly.

Crisp, along with Tidal Pool and Amen Hallelujah, is 8-1 in the program. Trained by John Sadler, the filly will be ridden by Joel Rosario from post seven.

Crisp won the Santa Anita Oaks after beginning 2010 with a win in the Santa Ysabel and a fourth in the Las Virgenes. The Oaks will be her first start outside of California for owner Michael Talla.

In her five career starts Crisp has three wins for $252,120.

Here is the complete field for the 136th Kentucky Oaks in post position order: It's Tea Time, Alan Garcia, 15-1; Jody Slew, Miguel Mena, 30-1; Quiet Temper, Robby Albarado, 10-1; Age of Humor, Rajiv Maragh, 30-1; Blind Luck, Rafael Bejarano, 6-5; Beautician, Alex Solis, 15-1; Crisp, Joel Rosario, 8-1; Tidal Pool, Calvin Borel, 8-1; Bella Diamante, Mike Smith, 30-1; Champagne d'Oro, Martin Garcia, 30-1; Evening Jewel, Kent Desormeaux, 10-1; Ailalea, John Velazquez, 15-1; Amen Hallelujah, Julien Leparoux, 8-1 and Joanie's Catch, Paco Lopez, 30-1.

Rachel Alexandra makes her second start of the year in the $400,000 La Troienne. The four-year-old filly was second at the Fair Grounds to Zardana in the New Orleans Ladies.

The two ladies meet again on Friday with four other thoroughbreds also entered in the 1 1/16-mile race.

Owned by Stonestreet Stable and Hal McCormick, Rachel Alexandra will break from post four with regular rider Calvin Borel in the saddle.

"She's happy at Churchill," co-owner Jess Jackson said. "Lexington is her home, but Churchill is her favorite track and she's surely giving us every sign of being ready to run. She's going to need another race before she really defines herself the way she did early last year, but I think she's 85 percent to 90, maybe 95, right now."

Rachel Alexandra, trained by Steve Asmussen, has won 11 of 15 career starts with earnings of $2,988,354. She was undefeated in eight starts in 2009, including wins in the Preakness, Mother Goose, Haskell and Woodward.

A stablemate of champion mare Zenyatta, Zardana will be ridden by David Flores from post three. Trained by John Shirreffs, who also has Zenyatta, Zardana is owned by Arnold Zetcher.

The six-year-old mare has won eight of 19 career starts for $428,421. Last year she won Bayakoa Handicap at Hollywood Park. Friday will be her first ever race at Churchill Downs.

Also entered in the La Troienne are Be Fair, Morena, Unrivaled Belle and Distinctive Dixie.

The Kentucky Oaks has a post-time of 5:45 p.m. (et) and the La Troienne is scheduled for 1:26 p.m. (et).

The forecast for Friday calls for partly cloudy skies with a 20 percent chance of rain and a post-time temperature near 80. There is a 40 percent chance of thunderstorms Saturday with temperatures around 75.

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College Football Betting Tips From a Pro

While the NFL is the sport wagered on the heaviest, college football betting lines has become more and more popular as people realize it’s a game that can be beat. The NCAA football season gets longer each year with the addition of numerous bowl games and with that comes more opportunities for more money in your pocket, if handled correctly.

Betting on college football is not the same as with the NFL, so make sure you separate the two. Because of the vast number of teams, the parity between college football programs is slight and thus, you are going to see some high numbers in the NCAA. Teams favored by more than 40 points are not uncommon especially early in the season when teams playing their non-conference schedules.

The best advice when trying to tackle these enormous spreads and is to just stay away. A team that is favored by 40 points is favored by that many for a reason while teams getting 40 points are bad enough that they shouldn’t be touched. Set yourself a spread limit. Getting rid of these games will cut down on the number of contests that you need to handicap while staying away from backdoor or front-door covers.

What is a backdoor and front-door cover you ask? A backdoor cover is a team that is getting beat by more than the spread, but scores late to get within that number thus covering the spread. A front-door cover is just the opposite where the favorite scores late and covers the number they are favored by.

These front-door and backdoor covers are common when second and third string players enter games in college football and it can be the worst nightmare for some bettors. These players can also be your best friend, but ask any bettor and he will give you more instances on losing in this situation than winning. It just seems to work out that way even though everything evens out in the end.

College football betting has some of the softest lines of any sport and it’s being able to find these lines that will make you a successful college football handicapper. The NFL and NBA have the tightest lines around and while those sports can be beat by looking at situations and systems, college football doesn’t quite work that way. It’s much more manual, but when done correctly, it’s much more gratifying as well.

Getting into the nuts and bolts of college football means looking at the many stats in order to beat the number. As opposed to pro football, college football is less dependent on situations and angles and more on certain statistics. Rushing offense and defense, pass efficiency offense and defense and turnover margins are huge. These are vital in the NFL, but even more so when it comes to college football.

Being able to run the ball in college football has always been a key factor in the overall success of a team. The same adage also goes for teams who have the ability to stop the run. Putting these two factors together can produce some positive results in a team’s record both straight up and against the spread. These numbers show huge differences in teams and the spread may not take those into effect, which is where the value comes into play.

Passing yardage numbers both for and against can be a misinterpreted statistic. However, pass efficiency has always been one of the best ways to look at a teams’ passing game ability both offensively and defensively. But is it really a true indication of how they perform? I wouldn’t say so since they are raw passing numbers with nothing else taken into consideration.

I use pass efficiency ratings when doing my handicapping but I adjust my numbers based on a number of factors including power ratings, strength of schedules, personnel and injuries. This gives a much better picture of a team’s ability to pass effectively and also being able to defend the pass. Tweaking pass efficiency stats instead of raw passing yards is the key.

Turnovers are the single most frustrating, and at times the most gratifying, aspect of a college football lines, mostly because they are so unpredictable. They are part of the game and most of the time nothing can be done to control them. However, turnovers are contagious and they can carry over from game to game and season to season.

It’s important to know how to forecast these unforeseen events and how to use them to your advantage. You can find ways to give yourself an edge by looking at past histories of teams and coaches and how they have fared in turnover wars in the past. Instead of turnovers hurting you at the wrong times, find ways to use them to your advantage.

As you can see, college football handicapping is very labor intensive and isn’t just based on where teams are ranked in the AP and coaches polls. Experience, coaching and match-ups are all important since unlike the NFL, college teams turn over much more often with new personnel at most positions every single year. Keeping current on this information is vital.

Betting NCAA football can be lucrative if done correctly, but more importantly, it’s just plain enjoyable because it can be beat. College football is one of the best sports to watch with some of the best rivalries taking place in all of sports. The only downfall is that a championship isn’t decided on the field but on a computer-based system that is the Bowl Championship Series. That will change someday and we will all be better off for it.

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your NCAA college football betting needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.