Rachel Alexandra debuts in New Orleans Ladies

Horseracing Betting Lines

03/08/2010 - New Orleans, LA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Rachel Alexandra, 2009 Horse of the Year, is set make her 2010 debut this Saturday at the Fair Grounds in the $200,000 New Orleans Ladies. The 1 1/16-mile test has attracted four females to take on the four-year-old filly.

Owned by Jess Jackson and Hal McCormick, Rachel Alexandra has drawn post two with Calvin Borel once again in the saddle. The filly is trained by Eclipse Award winning trainer Steve Asmussen.

"It was just an easy half," Asmussen said about Monday's final workout before Saturday. "It's hard to compare her to anybody else so we just gave her an easy half and let him get along with her and it looked like she went beautiful. She's a beautiful mover. That's how she runs and that's what makes her special. She went over the racetrack very well, it was in great shape this morning. That's all we could hope for. She got the breeze in, did very well, looked good."

Rachel went undefeated in 2009 in eight starts with earnings of better than $2.7 million. Following wins in the Martha Washington, Fair Grounds Oaks and Fantasy Stakes, she won the Kentucky Oaks by more than 20-lengths.

The filly then went on to victories in the Preakness, Mother Goose, Haskell Invitational and Woodward.

Rachel Alexandra will follow her start Saturday with an ultimate showdown versus Zenyatta. The two female thoroughbreds are to finally meet at Oaklawn Park in the $5 million Apple Blossom Invitational on Friday, April 9.

Zenyatta is based at Hollywood Park where she has been working out. Owned by Jerry and Ann Moss, Zenyatta will start in the $250,000 Santa Margarita Invitational on Saturday.

Zenyatta's trainer John Shirreffs will bring Bayakoa Handicap winner Zardana to the Fair Grounds for the race from California. The six-year-old mare will be ridden by David Flores from post three.

Zardana is the winner of seven of 18 lifetime starts for owner Arnold Zetcher. For her career she has earnings of $308,421 and is coming off a fourth-place finish to St Trinians in the Santa Maria Handicap.

Here is the complete field for the New Orleans Ladies in post position order: Fighter Wing, Corey Lanerie, 117; Rachel Alexandra, Calvin Borel, 123; Zardana, David Flores, 121; Unforgotten, Miguel Mena, 117 and Clear Sailing, Shane Sellers, 117.

The New Orleans Ladies has an approximate post-time of 6:15 p.m. (et).

Worldcupwagering Horseracing Betting News

<< PGA Tour set to ban clubs after Ping waives rights
Ponte Vedra Beach, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The grandfathered wedges and irons used by Phil Mickelson and others this season will no longer be allowed on the PGA Tour after the company that makes them agreed to waive its rights from a decades

<< Report: FCD signs former Wizards 'keeper Hartman
Frisco, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - According to a report on the soccer blog 3rd Degree, FC Dallas has agreed to terms with former Kansas City Wizards goalkeeper Kevin Hartman. Hartman, a 13-year Major League Soccer veteran, was un

<< Pitt, Texas, Maryland and Illinois to play in Coaches vs. Cancer
Princeton, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Pittsburgh, Texas, Maryland and Illinois will open the 2010-11 basketball season by participating in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic. Those teams will serve as the four regional round hosts for the event.

<< Spurs' Parker won't need surgery for broken hand
San Antonio, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - San Antonio Spurs guard Tony Parker won't need surgery for the broken bone in his right hand. Parker was examined Monday by Dr. David Green and the initial diagnosis of a non-displaced stable fracture o

<< Kansas returns to top spot in hoops poll
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kansas is back atop the men's basketball world, taking the top spot in the Associated Press poll for the third time this season. The Jayhawks (29-2) were the preseason No. 1 and spent the first eig

Steelers sign WR Battle, S Allen >>
Pittsburgh, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday signed wide receiver Arnaz Battle and safety Will Allen to three-year contracts. Battle spent seven seasons with San Francisco, which selected the Notre Dame product

Union sign Colombian midfielder Torres >>
Chester, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Philadelphia Union signed Colombian midfielder Roger Torres on loan from America de Cali of the Columbian First Division, the Major League Soccer club announced on Monday. "We're very excited t

Rams add DT Robbins >>
St. Louis, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The St. Louis Rams on Monday bolstered their defense with the signing of tackle Fred Robbins. Per club policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed. Robbins, 32, spent the last six years of his career with

Lions re-sign TE Heller >>
Allen Park, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Detroit Lions on Monday re-signed tight end Will Heller to a three-year contract. Heller played in all 16 games (nine starts) last season, his first with the Lions after spending the three previous y

Texans retain WR Walter, P Turk >>
Houston, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Houston Texans made it official on Monday by re-signing wide receiver Kevin Walter and punter Matt Turk after both become unrestricted free agents on Friday. Terms of the contracts were not disclos

SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.

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.