Upcoming schedule for Saturday's winners in flux
Horseracing Betting Lines
02/06/2012 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - This past Saturday had a trio of major stakes races for three-year-olds on the Kentucky Derby trail. Where the winners of the races will start next is not firmly decided.
Odds-favorite Alpha vanquished his rivals in the Withers Stakes at Aqueduct. Ridden by Ramon Dominguez, the colt stalked the pace and went on to post a 3 1/4-length win over longshot Speightscity.
Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said Sunday morning that the colt's next start will be decided after talking to Godolphin Racing's Simon Crisford.
"We'll look at the Gotham/Wood, talk to (racing manager) Simon Crisford and see if we want to run him two more times, or one more time," noted the trainer. "We like having him here in New York."
The Gotham Stakes is slated for March 3 and the Wood Memorial will go off on April 7. McLaughlin indicated he might ship Alpha to Florida to train for the Wood.
Withers runner-up Speightscity, trained by Gary Contessa, is probable for the Gotham. The three-year-old went off for the Withers at 44-1.
"He had a very bad trip (when fifth in the Count Fleet)," Contessa's assistant Marcelo Arenas said Sunday. "But he's a nice horse, and we really think he's the best horse we have in the barn. We believed in him, and he showed us yesterday he can do it. He ran a big race."
At Santa Anita 43-1 longshot I'll Have Another upset the field in the Robert B. Lewis Stakes. Trainer Doug O'Neill really likes the chestnut colt owned by J. Paul Reddam.
"He's an incredibly talented colt," O'Neill said after the win, "and we decided to take a chance in here. We thought he could hit the board and we'd move forward, but he ran unbelievable. Mario (jockey Mario Gutierrez) gave him a great ride. He's always trained fantastic, but we never saw this coming to be honest with you. This is incredible. We'll look at the Santa Anita Derby."
The $750,000 Santa Anita Derby will go off on April 7 at 1 1/8-miles on Santa Anita's dirt track.
Liaison, the 3-2 favorite in the Lewis, was interfered with down the stretch by Groovin' Solo and lost his jockey Rafael Bejarano.
"I had my hole when I saw two horses that split out," Bejarano observed. "I had plenty of room in between horses. When I asked my horse to go, he was coming little by little, but the horse on the outside (Groovin' Solo) was lugging in a little bit. I started screaming to let him know I was there and he (Victor Espinoza) tried to correct his horse, but at the same time when he corrected his horse, he was just coming in too much.
"The horse on the inside (Isn't He Clever) didnt even give me a chance to check his horse because he was coming out too. At least the outside horse tried to correct himself but the other horse from the inside didn't do that. He just kept going and was coming out little by little, but he didn't even try to check his horse. That's why it felt so tight and I clipped heels. I ended up clipping heels with Victor's horse because Corey Nakatani's horse (Isn't He Clever) was coming out and it was enough to push me out."
Groovin' Solo was disqualified to last after crossing the finish line in third.
Unlike I'll Have Another who went from 12-1 in the morning-line to 43-1, Battle Hardened went off at 9-2 from 12-1 in the program. Trained by Eddie Kenneally, Battle Hardened broke his maiden with the win in the Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs.
"We'll definitely take a real good look at the Tampa Bay Derby (March 10) and it's very likely," Kenneally said following Saturday's win. "We knew when his races started to go longer he was going to be a better horse. Two-turn races are what he wants to do and he is very good at it."
Coming up this Saturday is the seven-furlong Hutcheson Stakes at Gulfstream Park.
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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.