Del 'Cap features six top females

Horseracing Betting Lines

07/14/2010 - Stanton, DE (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Saturday's $750,000 Delaware Handicap has attracted six of the leading female thoroughbreds in the nation. The winner of the 1 1/4-mile race gains automatic entry into this year's Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic at Churchill Downs.

Leading the field for the 73rd Del 'Cap is Candy DeBartolo's Life At Ten, winner of her last five starts. Trained by Todd Pletcher, the five-year-old mare will be ridden by John Velazquez from post six.

Perfect in three starts this year, Life At Ten is coming off a victory in the Ogden Phipps Handicap at Belmont Park on June 12. In February she captured the Rare Treat Stakes at Aqueduct and followed with a win of the Sixty Sails at Hawthorne in April.

"This mare never really had the opportunity to run in a Grade I and we just felt like the Phipps was the right spot for her at that time," said Pletcher. "We did strongly consider running in the Obeah as a prep for this race, but the Grade I was just too enticing. We were fortunate enough to win and we were very happy about that. This year, we have had a bit of luck running horses over a track for the first time, and I do not think having a race over the Delaware surface is as important now as it was a few years back."

As a four-year-old Life At Ten closed 2009 with consecutive wins in an allowance race and the Snit Stakes. She has won six of 13 career starts for $459,267.

"A couple of times last year, we ran her a little bit short of her best distances," Pletcher commented. "Once she got into a good steady rhythm and since we have been able to keep her at a nice series of longer races, she has really developed into what we were hoping she could be."

Pletcher has won the Del 'Cap three previous times, Irving's Baby (2001), Fleet Indian (2006) and Unbridled Belle (2007).

"It has always been a very good race for us and we have been forunate enough to have very good luck in the Delaware Handicap," said Pletcher. "We have run nice mares in this race before and we think we are bringing a good one back this time who obviously is in very good form. So we are really looking forward to this race."

Local winner Miss Singhsix comes back to Delaware after last month's win of the Obeah Stakes at the track. The five-year-old mare will start from post two with Jose Valdivia, Jr. again riding.

"The race over the track definitely helps," stated trainer Marty Wolfson," and the mile and a quarter will help her as well. Distance for this mare is really no problem and the further she goes the more effective she will be."

Owned by Team Valor, Miss Singhsix won Delaware Park's $150,000 Obeah Stakes by a neck on June 12. Fleet Indian won both the Obeah and Del 'Cap in 2006.

Miss Singhsix finished third to Life At Ten in the Sixty Sails Handicap after a third in the Rampart Stakes at Gulfstream in March and February's victory at Laurel Park of the Maryland Racing Media Stakes.

She has a career record of five wins in 19 starts with earnings of $317,138.

Here is the complete field for the Del 'Cap in post position order: Funny Moon, Alan Garcia, 7-2; Miss Singhsix, Jose Valdivia, Jr., 5-1; Milwaukee Appeal, Stewart Elliott, 2-1; Million Seller, Jeremy Rose, 15-1; Miss Match, Brian Hernandez, Jr., 12-1 and Life At Ten, John Velazquez, 8-5.

Five of horse racing's finest were honored Wednesday with their induction into the Delaware Park Wall of Fame.

The class of 2010 consists of two-time Del 'Cap winner Obeah, Hall of Fame trainer Frank Whiteley, Jr., Hall of Fame jockey Angel Cordero, Jr., Bohemia Stable of Mrs. Richard C. DuPont and the late Robert G. Dick of the Delaware Thoroughbred Racing Commission.

Jazzsorts Horseracing Betting News

<< Johnson resigns as Vandy football coach
Nashville, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Vanderbilt's athletic department has called a press conference for 2 p.m. (et) at which time head football coach Bobby Johnson is expected to announce his resignation. The Tennessean first reported the decisi

<< Nets name Billy King general manager
East Rutherford, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New Jersey Nets have named Billy King as their next general manager. King takes the reins from Rod Thorn, who is stepping down as team president and general manager after 10 years on the job

<< Braves get Gonzalez from Jays in five-player deal
Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Atlanta Braves acquired shortstop Alex Gonzalez from the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday in a five-player trade. The Braves sent shortstop Yunel Escobar and pitcher Jo-Jo Reyes to Toronto and also acqu

<< Safarova pulls out in Prague
Prague, Czech Republic (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Top-seeded heavy Czech crowd favorite Lucie Safarova pulled out of her scheduled second-round match Wednesday at the $220,000 Prague Open tennis event. Safarova was slated to meet Swe

<< Suns get Childress from Atlanta
Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Phoenix Suns have acquired guard Josh Childress from the Atlanta Hawks in a sign-and-trade deal for a future second- round draft pick. In addition to the draft pick, Atlanta will get a trade exception to us

"Birdman" has second surgery of offseason >>
Denver, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Denver Nuggets announced forward-center Chris Andersen underwent surgery on Wednesday to repair a torn ligament in his left ring finger. A release from the team indicated Andersen broke the fin

Sportswriter headlines Meadowlands Pace >>
East Rutherford, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Sportswriter, winner of the North America Cup, will take on nine rivals in Saturday's $1 million Meadowlands Pace at The Meadowlands. The field of 10 three-year-old pacers will leave the startin

Johnson retires as Vandy football coach >>
Nashville, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Vanderbilt head football coach Bobby Johnson announced his abrupt retirement Wednesday after eight years guiding the program. A press conference was called for Wednesday afternoon at which time

Rockets ready to match Cavs offer sheet to Lowry >>
Houston, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Houston Rockets plan to match the offer sheet extended Wednesday to restricted free-agent guard Kyle Lowry. Houston general Manager Daryl Morey said on his Twitter account Wednesday afte

Melzer into Stuttgart QFs >>
Stuttgart, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - French Open semifinalist Jurgen Melzer was a second-round victor Wednesday at the Mercedes Cup tennis event. The second-seeded Melzer got past Germany's own Mischa Zverev, a wild card this week, 7-

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.