Algorithms finds winning formula for Holy Bull Stakes

Horseracing Betting Lines

01/29/2012 - Hallandale Beach, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Algorithms, ridden by Javier Castellano, overtook a tiring Hansen down the stretch to capture Sunday's $400,000 Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream Park. The 5-2 second choice covered the mile in 1:36.17 over a sloppy track.

Hansen, the 2011 champion two-year-old colt, stumbled at the start under jockey Ramon Dominguez but was rushed up to quickly take the lead. Algorithms was dueling with 12-1 longshot Silver Max for second followed by Fort Loudon, 3-1 third pick Consortium and My Adonis.

Hansen had the lead into the far turn with Silver Max second and Algorithms three wide in third. Entering the stretch the 9-10 favorite began to weaken as Algorithms cut into the lead.

Trained by Todd Pletcher, Algorithms easily went past Hansen and registered a five-length win over the 2011 Breeders' Cup Juvenile champ. My Adonis, a 22-1 longshot, rallied to finish third followed by Fort Loudon, Silver Max and Consortium.

Owned by Starlight Stable, Algorithms used the Holy Bull as both his season and stakes debut. The victory was worth $240,000 to bring the three-year-old colt's earnings to $301,500. It was his third win in as many starts.

"This race was going to tell us where we were with him, running against the two-year-old champion," said Pletcher. "Now he's done everything we've asked him to.

"He's by Bernardini and I don't think he'll have distance limitations. So we just have to sort things out from here."

Algorithms first raced last June at Belmont Park and posted a five-length win as the 7-10 favorite. His only other start was last month at Gulfstream when he registered a length victory over Holy Bull rival Consortium.

"I don't think two turns will be a problem for him," noted the winning jockey. "I rode his father Bernardini to win the Preakness and other big races and hopefully this horse can be like that. He's certainly in the right hands with Todd Pletcher."

Algorithms returned $7.00, $2.80 and $2.40. Hansen paid $2.40 and $2.10, and My Adonis paid $4.00 to show.

The favorite's trainer and rider were not completely displeased with the effort by the three-year-old.

"Ramon said pretty much after he stumbled he popped up and jumped right into the bit and was a little headstrong and fresh, but other than that it was a good effort and he galloped out strong," said Hansen's trainer Michael Maker. "We're pleased."

"He has a lot of speed and he might have been a little bit fresh today too which is why we went a little faster than I was looking for," Dominguez said. "He stumbled coming out of the gate and he picked himself up pretty quickly, but sometimes that scares a horse a little bit and they go a little fast. The stumble probably didn't help but it's not an excuse. I'm not happy that he didn't win but I'm not totally disappointed. When he got passed, he really dug in and he galloped out really well."

Mysportsblog Horseracing Betting News

<< Malaga holds off Sevilla to snap skid
Malaga, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Malaga held off Sevilla on Sunday to snap its six-game winless skid, even though Isco was sent off 11 minutes from time in a 2-1 win at the Estadio La Rosaleda in Spain's La Liga. Weligton and Sebastian Fer

<< Ajaccio leaves it late to escape relegation zone
Valenciennes, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Christian Kinkela scored 3 minutes into stoppage time as 10-man Ajaccio edged Valenciennes, 2-1, on Sunday at the Stade du Hainaut to climb out of the relegation zone in France's Ligue 1. Ajaccio w

<< No. 6 Kentucky downs Alabama
Lexington, KY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Keyla Snowden had 14 points to lift No. 6 Kentucky to an 82-68 win over Alabama in an SEC battle. A'dia Mathies scored 13 points and Bria Goss added 11 for the Wildcats (20-2, 9-0), who have won n

<< Inter's winning run halted by Lecce
Lecce, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Inter Milan saw its seven-match winning streak in Serie A come to an end on Sunday at Lecce as Guillermo Giacomazzi's 40th- minute goal was enough to give the hosts a 1-0 win. The goal arrived from a Mas

<< Banham leads Minnesota to upset of No. 9 Ohio State
Minneapolis, MN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Rachel Banham had 20 points as Minnesota took down No. 9 Ohio State, 76-65, in Big Ten action. Kiara Buford donated 15 points and seven assists for the Golden Gophers (12-11, 4-5 Big Ten), who sna

Mavericks' Kidd out at least a week >>
Dallas, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Dallas Mavericks guard Jason Kidd will miss at least one week of action due to a strained right calf. Kidd suffered the injury early in Friday's game against Utah. Head coach Rick Carlisle said before Su

Gaborik's hat trick gives Team Chara the win at NHL All Star Game >>
Ottawa, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Marian Gaborik notched a hat trick and an assist as Team Chara exploded in the third period to take a 12-9 victory in the 2012 All Star Game from Scotiabank Place. Jarome Iginla, Marian Hossa and Phil Kessel al

Heat hold off Bulls >>
Miami, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - LeBron James ended with 35 points and 11 rebounds, and the Miami Heat held off the Chicago Bulls, 97-93, in a rematch of last season's Eastern Conference Finals. Miami was up by eight with 2 1/2 minute

Allmendinger, Michael Shank Racing win Rolex 24 at Daytona >>
Daytona Beach, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Michael Shank Racing pulled off a stunning win in Sunday's Rolex 24 at Daytona, with NASCAR driver A.J. Allmendinger behind the wheel of the team's No.60 Ford-Riley during the final stint.

Tennessee uses big second half to beat Georgia >>
Athens, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Shekinna Stricklen had 24 points, seven rebounds and two steals, as the seventh-ranked Tennessee Lady Vols used a big second half to beat the 17th-ranked Georgia Lady Bulldogs, 67-50. Ariel Massengale added

Terrell Owens could return for Cowboys next game
A bye week will allow Terrell Owens broken hand to recover just in time for the next game the Dallas Cowboys are slated to play, according to reports. MySportsbook.com, an football sportsbook, has posted football betting lines on TO playing.

Owens broke the bone leading to his right ring finger Sunday night and had a plate surgically attached to it Monday. Although Owens' hand was swollen and aching Wednesday, Dallas Cowboys coach Bill Parcells said he's optimistic the receiver will be back at work next week and catching passes a week from Sunday against the Tennessee Titans.

MySportsbook.com online sportsbook listed Terrell Owens with odds of 7-2 (or $7 paid out for every $2 bet) to return back for the game against Tennessee.

"I certainly wouldn't rule it out now," Parcells said, referring to Terrell Owens immediate return. "Maybe five days from now I might, but I wouldn't rule it out now. ... I know we're looking to try to get him moving around pretty good in the next day or so. So we'll see where we are."

Owens did not speak with reporters Wednesday, but said Sunday he'd be out two to four weeks. A return against the Titans would be 13 days after the surgery. The Cowboys were listed as an early -7 1/2 favorite vs. the Tennessee Titans for Week 4 at MySportsbook.com

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your Sportsbook accepts Mastercard needs.

Sportsbook Betting Lines

Who Makes the Sportsbook Betting Lines?

Las Vegas Sports Consultants (LVSC) is the world’s premier oddsmaking company and the most respected authority on making the lines. Mike Seba is a Senior Oddsmaker at LVSC and has been making lines for the last six years. In our extended interview, Seba explained that there are 4-5 oddsmakers assigned to make lines for each of the major sports (pro & college football and basketball; MLB, NHL, boxing, golf). Each of these oddsmakers bring unique opinions, strengths and weaknesses to the process. Oddsmakers at LVSC are professional sports junkies who love what they do and would probably do it for nothing if you asked them, but they do get paid for it. By necessity their approach is very research-oriented and concise, since with millions of dollars at risk there is little margin for error.

“You either have a passion for it or you don’t,” Seba said.

“The #1 thing for us is to make a line for each game that creates good two-way action. We do this by drawing from past experiences and applying them to current situations. People think it’s much more complicated, but it’s not. “

What are the Football Betting Lines Trying to Accomplish?

There is a common misconception that point spreads represent the oddsmakers’ prediction of how many points the favorite will win by. That is not the case at all – their intent is NOT to evenly split the ATS result between the teams; rather, their goal is to attract equal betting action on both sides. Stated another way, they want to create a line that half the people find appealing to bet one way while the other half find it appealing to bet the other way (known as ‘dividing the action’).

Divided action means the sportsbook is guaranteed a profit on the game because of the fee charged to the bettor (called juice or vig – typically $11 bet to win $10).

How the Opening Line Is Made

The opening line is the first line created by the oddsmakers, which is then sent out to sportsbooks. Of course there is an entire method to the madness on how the opening line is created. Seba explained that it all starts with each oddsmaker creating a line on each game based upon their own personal approach. This usually includes having up-to-date power ratings on each team.

Power ratings are the oddsmaker’s value of each team and are used as a guide to calculate a "preliminary" pointspread on an upcoming game. The power ratings are adjusted after each game a team plays. Examples of non-game factors that would require an adjustment to a team's power rating are key player injuries and player trades.

Once a game’s power rating based pointspread is determined, the oddsmaker will make adjustments to that line after considering each team's most recent games played and previous games played against that opponent. Also, adjustments are made after reading each team’s local newspapers to get a sense of what the coaches & players are thinking going into the game.

Since the oddsmaker’s ultimate goal is equally dividing the sports betting action, public perception and sportsbook betting patterns must be taken into account. For example, the public might have heavy betting interest week after week on a popular college football betting team such as USC. If an oddsmaker comes up with a preliminary line of USC -7, then an adjustment up to -7.5 or -8 would be made in response to the public’s expected USC bias.

The last step in the line-making process for each oddsmaker is taking one final look to determine whether or not the line "feels right." This is where common sense and past experience with how games are bet enters into the picture.

A round-table discussion among the 4-5 oddsmakers involved in making the line for each sport is then conducted and a consensus line is decided upon by the Odds Director before it is released to the sportsbooks. Of the 4-5 oddsmakers, generally the 2 most respected opinions are weighed more heavily by the Odds Director before he decides on the final line.

Why Sports Betting Lines Change

Once the opening line is released by LVSC, the individual sportsbooks decide if they want to make any adjustments before offering it to the public. Reasons for such adjustments include:

Experts working for the individual books having a strong opinion on the game

Individual books having players who consistently bet with certain tendencies (such as an extreme bias toward favorites or toward a certain popular team like USC)

The purpose of these adjustments, like all line adjustments, is to more equally divide the betting action.

Once betting begins, sportsbooks can adjust the line at any time. In doing so they attempt to make more attractive the team that is getting less action. By moving the line, sportsbooks can influence how the public bets on a particular game.

For example, if the pointspread on a game is 7 and most of the money is coming in on the underdog (taking the +7), sportsbooks will then move the number down to 6 ½ to try and attract money on the favorite.

Moving the line is the oddsmaker's effort to balance betting action, and often times such moves can have a major impact on a bettor’s decision. Oddsmakers can also change the line depending on various event-related factors such as player injuries or weather. Obviously, if the line comes out a week ahead of the event (which is the case in football), there is much that could happen during the week leading up to the event that could affect the line. Oddsmakers have to determine if any changes are necessary and send out an "adjusted line."

“The main objective is that our clients get equal action on both sides,” Seba said. “We’re not trying to pick the team that covers the spread, we’re trying to make it a coin flip, a tough decision (for the bettor). If we’ve done that, we’ve done our job.”

To visit this internet sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your sports betting needs and World Series odds.