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02/15/2012 - Hallandale Beach, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Champion colt Animal Kingdom will begin his four-year-old campaign on Saturday at Gulfstream Park. The Team Valor thoroughbred had been expected to start in a stakes race next week.
Trainer Graham Motion, who has been working the 2011 Kentucky Derby winner at Palm Meadows, has the horse in a 1 1/16-mile allowance race on the turf.
"I'm very excited to get him back, and now that we've entered him I'm extremely anxious," Motion said. "I have been pleasantly surprised how quickly he's come around. I think he got a good base in him at Fair Hill before he came down here. Once he got down here we've gotten some serious works on the grass."
The colt was originally set to start in the Tampa Bay Stakes on the turf at Tampa Bay Downs on February 25.
Saturday's allowance race will be Animal Kingdom's first start since suffering a hairline fracture during the running of the Belmont Stakes. Prior to that he was second in the Preakness Stakes in addition to taking the Run for the Roses.
The four-year-old will break from the outside post in the six-horse field with his regular jockey John Velazquez in the saddle. Following this start Animal Kingdom will next race in the $10 million Dubai World Cup on March 31.
The race is carded as the fifth race on Saturday with a post-time of 2:30 p.m. (et).
<< Federer, Berdych, del Potro advance in Rotterdam
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backs Ryan Phillips and Dante Marsh on Wednesday.
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Ferrero exits Sao Paulo >>
Sao Paulo, Brazil (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former world No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero
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Juve held to scoreless draw in Parma >>
Parma, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Juventus missed out on a chance to return to
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Hollendorfer has two for El Camino Real Derby >>
Berkeley, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - California Derby winner Russian Greek heads a
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Florida A&M will take on the Sooners >>
Tallahassee, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Florida A&M will visit the University of
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In any football or basketball game (the main sports that use point spreads) there are two teams playing against each other.
Those teams, though, are rarely exactly evenly matched – meaning that typically one team has a better chance than the other to win the game. If bettors were allowed to bet on who was simply going to win the game, smart ones would obviously bet on the better team (likely winning more than 50% of the time in the process).
If winning were that easy the Las Vegas and online sportsbooks would stop taking any bets! This is where the point spread comes in: the basic function of the point spread is to balance the likelihood of each team “winning” by adjusting the final score by the point spread. After this adjustment is made you get the Against The Spread result (ATS result for short).
Let’s look at Super Bowl XXXIX, New England Patriots vs. Philadelphia Eagles. Most people believed the defending champ Patriots to be the better team – so if betting were simply based upon which team would win the game, an uneven majority of people would have wagered on New England. But, by using the point spread, the bookmakers adjusted the terms of the bet, evening the proposition so about half the people believed the Pats to be the smart bet, while the other half considered Philly to be the smart bet.
New England Patriots -7 vs. Philadelphia Eagles
The better team, called the Favorite, is expected to win the game and must “give” or “lay” points to the weaker team. The favorite is listed with a minus sign and the number of points they are favored by (e.g., New England -7)
In the case of our example, New England must not only win the game, but they must win by more than 7 points for Pats bettors to have a winning ATS result. An Eagles bettor wins his bet either if:
There was also the possibility that the final score could land exactly on the spread number (for example, the Pats winning 28-21 when -7), which is called a “push” or “no action” and a refund is then issued to bettors of both teams.
The same game with the same point spread can be considered from the weaker team’s perspective: The Underdog (Philly in the case of our example) is not expected to win the game and online football betting thus receives or “gets” points given by the stronger team. When a game is stated from the underdog’s perspective the team is listed with a plus sign and the number of points they are underdogs by:
Philadelphia Eagles +7 vs. New England Patriots
Keep in mind that Philadelphia +7 and New England -7 is the same point spread on the same game, simply stated differently. The first is from the underdog’s perspective; the later is from the favorite’s.
Not a must, but for some a mathematical approach is insightful. You can determine the ATS winner by either:
Let’s look at the actual result of Super Bowl XXXIX: New England 24 Philadelphia 21
The favorite, New England, won the game but not by more than the point spread they were favored by (7), so the ATS result was a LOSS for Pats bettors.
Looking at it from the underdog’s perspective, Philly did not win the game, but they lost by less than the point spread (7), so the ATS result was a WIN for Eagle bettors.
Mathematically considered, 24 for the favorite Pats minus 7 equals 17, which is less than the 20 the Eagles scored, so the underdog Eagles win the ATS result (or you could figure 20 plus 7 equals 27 for the Eagles, which is more than 24 for the Pats).
Emily’s boyfriend understood the point spread and wagered $100 on the Eagles at +7. The Eagles may not have gotten a Super Bowl ring, but since they won the ATS result Emily’s boyfriend cashed his bet – giving him money to take her out to a nice dinner.
And now hopefully you understand how to read point spreads, putting you one step closer to joining the fun of sports betting.
To visit this internet sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting and World Series odds.
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