No superstars just good horses in Pacific Classic

Horseracing Betting Lines

08/25/2010 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The $1 million Pacific Classic guarantees the victor a spot in this year's Breeders' Cup Classic at Churchill Downs. It's unlikely that the horse will the favorite for the end-of-year race, but he will certainly get consideration.

Saturday's 20th Pacific Classic at Del Mar does not have any glamour names among the 10 entered. However, it's an excellent betting race that could produce big numbers.

Four-year-old gelding The Usual Q.T. is the 3-1 morning-line favorite. He will break from the far outside spot with Victor Espinoza again riding. Trained by Jim Cassidy, The Usual Q.T. is coming off a win in the Eddie Read Stakes at Del Mar on the turf. He races primarily on the grass, having won last year's Oak Tree and Hollywood Derbies on the infield.

"He's trained really well," Cassidy recently said. "Nothing riles him, nothing gets him upset. He's very happy. I've never - in early days maybe he was a little bit elusive. But right now, he's pretty quiet. He's laid back and he's quite happy with himself. He doesn't do anything silly. He gets himself a little worked up before a race. That's about it."

The Usual Q.T. has eight wins from 15 starts and a bankroll of just under $1 million. All of his victories have come on the turf and Saturday's event is on Del Mar's synthetic main track. The gelding was ninth in this year's Summer Millions Classic on Santa Anita's synthetic surface.

"He's learned to relax; it's made all the difference for him," Espinoza after the Eddie Read.

Defending Classic champ Richard's Kid is the 7-2 second choice. Last year he won the race as a 24-1 longshot over Einstein and Rail Trip. The five-year-old is trained by Bob Baffert and will start from post six with Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith back trying to duplicate last year's Pacific Classic victory tandem.

Richard's Kid is also on the verge of becoming a millionaire, he has won seven of 25 starts for $966,370. Along with a pair of seconds in his career, the veteran thoroughbred has finished third a total of seven times, including his last two starts in the Hollywood Gold Cup and Cougar II Handicap.

The 9-2 third pick is another veteran runner Awesome Gem. The richest horse in the race with more than $2.2 million in the bank, the seven-year-old gelding is trained by Craig Dollase for West Point Thoroughbreds.

This will be Awesome Gem's fourth time in the Classic, having been second to Student Council in 2007 and seventh the last two years. He captured the Hollywood Gold Cup on July 10, his seventh career win in 36 starts. Awesome Gem will start next to the favorite in the nine hole.

The rest of the field looks this way: Battle of Hastings, Brice Blanc, 10-1; Isle Of Giant's, Patrick Valenzuela, 30-1; Dakota Phone, Joel Rosario, 6-1; Temple City, Rafael Bejarano, 5-1; Unusual Suspect, Alonso Quinonez, 20-1; Hold Me Back, Garrett Gomez, 8-1 and Crowded House, Corey Nakatani, 20-1.

Gambling-internet-gambling Horseracing Betting News

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Football Betting Sportsbook Accepts Credit Cards

Michael Vick is back, Brett Favre isn't and the NFC East remains the best division in the NFC, maybe in all of football.

As players start to gather for the start of another season, some things change and some stay the same in the world of the NFL.

Bet 2010 Super Bowl Odds

The NFC East has been the dominant division in the National Conference for a while, despite limited playoff success, save for the New York Giants surprise Super Bowl win two seasons ago.

Hell, there's a generation of kids in Texas who have never seen the Cowboys win a playoff game (last win was in 1996).

But collectively, the Giants, Eagles, Cowboys and Redskins (well, maybe not so much the Redskins) are as good as a division gets in an NFC conference that has struggled to stay competitive with the AFC side.

Sports bettors have both acknowledged the NFC East's dominance, as one glance at the NFL future odds menu will show.

Looking over the NFL betting odds at online sports book MySportsbook.com we see the top three teams listed to win the NFC Championship are all from the NFC East:

Dallas Cowboys - 7 - 1

Philadelphia Eagles - 13 - 2

New York Giants - 9 - 2

Slotting in behind these three are two teams from the NFC North: the Minnesota Vikings (15-2) and the Chicago Bears (10-1).

Again, despite the lack of recent playoff success, the Dallas Cowboys are popular with the sports betting community, as they hold 14% of all the money wagered on who will win the NFC Championship.

So far, the New York Giants are the bettors' favorite to represent their conference in the Super Bowl, as they have 24% of the overall NFC Championship betting volume.

And what about the Philadelphia Eagles? For the most part, the Eagles had a very productive offseason, the kind that could bring them back to the top.

They had a good draft adding the likes of WR Jeremy Maclin and RB LeSean McCoy.

Unfortunately, the team received a blow when long-time defensive coordinator Jim Johnson passed away on Tuesday.

But this team will make a real run at the division title this year. Going into the regular season, Philly is listed at +240 to win the division.

Last season the Eagles were 9-6-1 SU and 10-6 ATS.

Teams from the NFC East will play teams from the AFC West in the regular season and the Eagles haven't really been a good bet in the last 20 games against the likes of San Diego, Oakland, K.C. and Denver, only going 8-12 ATS.

Two seasons removed from that Super Bowl title, the New York Giants see themselves listed as the odds-on favorite in NFC East championship futures at +162.

Plaxico Burress is gone and with him all the bad publicity surrounding the gun in the sweatpants incident, but can they replace him in the offense?

Last season the Giants were a very reliable bet going 12-4 ATS.

In the Giants' last 20 games against fellow teams from the NFC East; they are 13-7 ATS.

Dallas is listed at +240 to win the division.

Dallas went 9-7 SU and 7-9 ATS last season and with the amount of talent the Cowboys have, a similar performance won't do.

The Cowboys have been atrocious against divisional rivals, going 6-14 ATS in their last 20.

The Washington Redskins are longshots to win the division at +550.

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