10/16/2008 - Arcadia, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Reigning Horse of the Year Curlin tops a list of 180 horses who have been pre-entered for next week's 25th annual Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships at Santa Anita Park. The two-day event is scheduled for Friday, October 24 and Saturday, October 25.
Curlin, owned by Stonestreet Stables, can join Tiznow as the only thoroughbreds to capture consecutive runnings of the $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic. Trained by Steve Asmussen, Curlin is joined by 15 others who have been pre-entered for the Classic.
"Everything is go," majority owner Jess Jackson said Tuesday on a conference call. "When a top athlete is ready, they want to play. Curlin tells us he's fit. It's not about the money, it's about him and his legacy, which I think stamps him as one of the greatest horses of the century. He has the genes, durability and stamina that few horses match, particularly in talent, heart and determination. The showcasing of Curlin really is a passion for the sport and I'm trying to revive and reform the sport of Thoroughbred racing. He's a hero to thousands of fans, but especially to me."
The four-year-old colt comes into the 1 1/4 mile race with better than $10.2 million in career earnings. As a three-year-old in 2007 Curlin won the Arkansas Derby, Preakness Stakes, Jockey Club Gold Cup, along with the Classic and was voted Horse of the Year and champion male three-year-old.
This year Curlin won the Dubai World Cup, Stephen Foster and Woodward Handicaps and a second Jockey Club Gold Cup.
Unfortunately, Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Big Brown was recently retired and will not participate in the Breeders' Cup Classic.
A total of seven former Breeders' Cup champions have been pre-entered into the $25.5 million World Thoroughbred Championships. Along with Curlin, winners from last year are Sprint champ Midnight Lute, Kip Deville in the Mile, Juvenile Fillies winner Indian Blessing, who will run in the Ladies Classic and Ginger Punch, who will defend in the renamed Ladies Classic.
The first day of the Breeders' Cup will be devoted to the five races restricted to females. ABC and ESPN will provide nine hours of coverage over the two days.
Final entries for the 14 races will be drawn on Tuesday, October 21.
<< Devils aim to get back on winning track versus Thrashers
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New Jersey Devils will try to rebound from their first
loss of the 2008-09 campaign when they visit the Atlanta Thrashers this
evening at Philips Arena.
The Devils opened up the season with three straight contests agai
<< Islanders, Lightning both try to turn the page in Tampa
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Tampa Bay Lightning will try once again for their first
victory of the season when they host the New York Islanders tonight at St.
Pete Times Forum. Meanwhile, the Islanders will try to turn the page after
Monday's blowou
<< Star in the making: Brunnstrom leads Dallas into St. Louis
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - In his NHL debut, Fabian Brunnstrom lived up to the hype.
The highly-touted Swede will lead his new team into St. Louis, where the
Dallas Stars square off with the Blues tonight at Scottrade Center.
The 23-year-ol
<< Winless Flyers, Avalanche face off in Denver
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Few teams are off to a worst start this season than the
Philadelphia Flyers. The Colorado Avalanche are one of them.
The Flyers and Avs -- both still winless on the season -- square off tonight
at Colorado's Pepsi Ce
Injuries mount for Gunners >>
London, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Arsene Wenger revealed Thursday that three
players will definitely miss Arsenal's next two games and that three more are
doubtful for Saturday's Premier League game against Everton.
The Frenchman has
Atletico's stadium ban lifted for Liverpool match >>
Madrid, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Liverpool's Champions League meeting with
Atletico Madrid next week will take place at its Vicente Calderon home after
UEFA temporarily lifted a stadium ban imposed on the Spanish club Thursday.
The
Celtic striker Hesselink to miss key games >>
Glasgow, Scotland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Celtic striker Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink
will miss forthcoming key games after failing to shake off a groin injury, the
team announced Thursday.
The Netherlands striker has been ruled out of Satur
Liverpool's Torres out with hamstring injury >>
Liverpool, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez has hit
out the international schedule after losing star striker Fernando Torres for up
to 10 days due to a hamstring strain.
Torres was injured during Spain's 2-1 Worl
Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their “supplements” to worry about what their opponents are doing).
Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this won’t be an intelligent discussion.
Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).
Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.
Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a “truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit.” And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. “The plug-necked yahoos on your team,” you can say, “will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.”
The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesn’t focus only on your opponent’s team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.
What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Where’s your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, “I’ll try to type slower for you next time.” Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.
Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, don’t just conclude by saying your opponent is a “twerp who drafts like my grandmother.” Say that your opponent is a “sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars.” By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.
But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You won’t be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, I’m sure, to reply.
In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.
Many fans thought it was the best side in the nation by the end of last season. This year, the polls have built on Georgia's momentum and granted it the No. 1 preseason ranking, followed by Ohio State and USC. (The Associated Press has the Buckeyes at No. 2; USA Today took the Trojans.)
"To have people believing we have one of the best teams in the nation going into this thing, it's exciting for us," Bulldogs coach Mark Richt told the AP. "I don't think anything is guaranteed, but we certainly have put ourselves in position where at least the college football world thinks we're pretty good."
Georgia Bulldogs - 9.5 wins
There's no question they're good, but the Bulldogs have one of the toughest 12-game schedules in the nation, mostly because they play in the powerhouse Southeastern Conference. Away games at No. 15 Arizona State, No. 7 LSU and No. 10 Auburn loom large, with contests between the hedges versus No. 24 Alabama and No. 18 Tennessee as well as the World's Largest Cocktail Party in Jacksonville versus No.5 Florida.
Ohio State Buckeyes - 10 wins
Like the Bulldogs, the Buckeyes also have a number of tough road contests in 2008. After two scrimmages dressed up as real games versus Youngstown State and Ohio, it's off to face USC. Other tough away games include No.13 Wisconsin in October and No. 20 Illinois in November. Granted, it should be pretty easy sledding at the Horseshoe. In fact, the only ranked team that travels to Columbus is No. 22 Penn State, in October.
USC Trojans - 10.5 wins
A similarly light schedule awaits the Trojans of Southern California, which is why the oddsmakers' total is one win more and the over is currently commanding -150 odds. Pete Carroll's troops only play three ranked teams in 2008, and all of those games are at home. After what should be an easy trip to Virginia to start things off on Aug. 30, the Trojans get two weeks to prepare for Ohio State in Los Angeles. Their two other ranked opponents, No. 21 Oregon and No. 15 Arizona State, visit in consecutive weeks to start the month of October. After that, the competition eases up. Of course, this is the same highly-touted school that lost to Stanford in 2007 and Oregon State in 2006. And don't discount the fact that USC plays its biggest rivals, Notre Dame and UCLA, back-to-back to close out the regular season. On paper, the Trojans are far superior, but motivation will be high for the Irish and Bruins, especially if their historic foes are in national-title contention.
Odds to Win the Heisman Trophy
Tim Tebow, Florida - 7/2
He won it last year, so it's no surprise he's the favorite to do it again, making him just the second player to go back-to-back. Ohio State's Archie Griffin turned the trick in 1974 and 1975, and Tebow's coach, Urban Meyer, is pretty sure his star quarterback can match the Buckeyes legend.
"There has never been anyone quite like him," Meyer told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "I am very lucky to be his coach."
Chris Wells, Ohio State - 5/1
The man they call "Beanie" was a star recruit out of high school, so it's not like nobody knew who the star tailback was before he rushed for 576 yards as a freshman in 2006 and 1,609 as a sophomore. But perhaps his finest moment came last year versus Michigan when he rumbled for 222 yards and two touchdowns in the Buckeyes' 14-3 victory over the hated Wolverines.
Knowshon Moreno, Georgia - 8/1
If the Bulldogs are to live up to expectations, they'll need a huge effort from their sophomore running back. This might be the last year of college ball for Moreno, who rushed for 1,334 yards and for 14 touchdowns as a freshman, while adding 253 receiving yards on 20 receptions, so expect big things for the man from Belford, N.J.
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