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01/13/2012 - New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - For the third straight year, the running of the Breeders' Cup Classic has been voted the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) Moment of the Year.
This was the 13th year that horse racing fans have been able to cast votes for the top event in thoroughbred racing.
Of the 12 nominated events from 2011, Drosselmeyer's longshot victory in the $5 million Classic garnered the most votes cast. The four-year-old's win over pacesetter Game On Dude, with Mike Smith riding, received 46 percent of the online ballots.
The winning selection will be honored at the Eclipse Award ceremony Monday, January 16 with the "NTRA Moment of the Year" award.
The previous two winning "Moments" were the thrilling Breeders' Cup Classics involving Zenyatta. She won in 2009 and barely lost to Blame the following year.
Here are the remaining nominated moments with percentages:
- Game on Dude and Chantal Sutherland survive 10 furlongs and a 12-minute stewards' inquiry in capturing the Santa Anita Handicap. (three percent)
- Rosie Napravnik guides Pants on Fire to victory in the Louisiana Derby en route to becoming the first woman to win a Fair Grounds riding title. (one percent)
- Uncle Mo suffers his first defeat, running third behind Toby's Corner in Aqueduct's Wood Memorial. (one percent)
- Animal Kingdom runs down his foes in the Kentucky Derby. (five percent)
- Shackleford overcomes pre-race nervousness to hold off Animal Kingdom in the Preakness. (two percent)
- Blind Luck prevails by a nose over Havre de Grace following a stretch-long duel in the Delaware Handicap. (14 percent)
- Caleb's Posse catches a stubborn Uncle Mo in the King's Bishop Stakes at Saratoga. (two percent)
- Havre de Grace beats the boys in Saratoga's Woodward Stakes. (nine percent)
- Joseph O'Brien, 18, becomes the youngest jockey to win a Breeders' Cup race, piloting St. Nicholas Abbey to victory in the Breeders' Cup Turf for his father, Aidan O'Brien. (six percent)
- Court Vision spoils Goldikova's attempt at a fourth consecutive Breeders' Cup Mile win, upsetting the field at 64-1. (two percent)
- Rapid Redux breaks a North American record by winning his 20th consecutive race. (nine percent)
<< Wolves and Hornets battle in Big Easy
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A pair of last-place teams get together tonight in the Big
Easy, as the New Orleans Hornets take on the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The Hornets have lost seven of eight games since opening the season with
consecutive wins and
<< Kings continue trek in Houston
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Coming off of their first road win of the season, the
Sacramento Kings look to make it two in a row when they resume a five-game
swing tonight against the Houston Rockets at the Toyota Center.
The Kings had dropped their f
<< Banged-up Bulls invade Beantown
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Chicago Bulls managed to stay in the win column their
last time out even though they had the second-lowest point total of the season
and reigning MVP Derrick Rose did not play because of a toe injury.
The Bulls have wo
<< Reeling Bobcats host struggling Pistons
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Charlotte Bobcats try to put the brakes on a five-game
losing streak this evening, as they welcome the Detroit Pistons to Time Warner
Cable Arena.
Charlotte started off a back-to-back-to-back stretch in disappointing f
Caps try to continue surge against struggling Bolts >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Five wins in seven games has the Washington Capitals back
in the playoff picture.
A season high-tying losing streak, and according to head coach Guy Boucher
Tampa Bay's worst loss of the year, has the Lightning fading in t
Coyotes shoot for two points against lowly Blue Jackets >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Phoenix Coyotes have been playing solid hockey as of
late for 65 minutes. It's the few minutes after that where the club has been
struggling.
The Coyotes, losers of two straight shootouts, try to get back on track
ton
Leafs seek to extend surge with home-and-home sweep of Sabres >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Toronto Maple Leafs will try to sweep a home-and-home
series with the Sabres and also extend their longest win streak of the season
when they visit Buffalo's First Niagara Center for tonight's Northeast
Division clash.
Ducks try to return to win column vs. Oilers >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Anaheim Ducks will try to get back in the win column
tonight when they visit the Edmonton Oilers for tonight's clash at Rexall
Place.
The Ducks had won three straight before dropping a 1-0 overtime decision
Thursday i
My fellow Americans, as tempting as it may be to don the coat and HD-ready tie in order to deliver this State of the Game address before the cameras, I know better. As Brad Paisley sings on his latest album, "I'm so much cooler online."
The ideas for this annual essay to kick off the MySportsbook.com college football betting preview flowed like frat-house beer, which is to say they were cheap and spilled all over the floor. The 2007 season will be better than 2007, if only because there will be more of it. A year ago, the NCAA Football Rules Committee made two rule changes in the interest of speeding up the game. These changes went over like Kobe burgers at a vegan banquet.
To its credit, the rules committee rectified its mistakes. This season the clock once again will start when a kickoff is received, rather than when it is kicked, and the clock will not start so quickly on a change of possession.
However, kickoffs have been moved back five yards, to the 30, which will force more returns. (Thus forcing the clock to run. Clever, huh?) Special teams might decide a lot of games, because coaching strategy will come straight out of another new Paisley lyric (almost), I'd like to check you for kicks.
Paisley sings with a twang, which is why he's appropriate for this college football season. The sun coming up over the 2007 college football betting lines season rises from the south. It's a Southern football world. As the Southeastern Conference begins its 75th year, the power shift is noticeable.
Eight-figure budgets, glamorous settings -- and that's just for the head coaches. The SEC has four coaches who have won national championships -- the greatest aggregation of coaching know-how since Eddie Robinson dined alone.
Steve Spurrier, Phil Fulmer, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer have given lie to the idea that a conference championship game is too daunting a hurdle on the road to No. 1. In six of the past 10 seasons, the national champions played and won a conference championship game -- three of the six (Tennessee, 1998; LSU, 2003; Florida, 2007) from the SEC.
There will be more of the same this season, if the preseason prognostications are correct. Six SEC teams are in the preseason coaches' poll, more than from any other conference. Only one conference has talent so deep that a team with 15 returning starters, including the best quarterback in the league, from an eight-win season is considered an afterthought. That may speak more to Kentucky's losing legacy than to the wisdom of the predictions, but there you have it. And seriously, keep an eye on Wildcats QB Andre' Woodson.
The reach of the South extends all the way to No. 1. Take a look at the team that is a consensus pick to win the national championship. The quarterback is from Shreveport. The best wide receiver is from Nashville. The top recruit is from New Orleans.
So what's the campus doing in Los Angeles? Hey, it is the University of Southern California.
USC lost two Pacific-10 Conference games a year ago, the first time that had happened in five seasons, and university officials withstood the urge to form blue-ribbon panels to unearth the cause of such a disaster. Instead, the Trojans gathered themselves and routed Michigan, 32-18, in the Rose Bowl.
USC's losses at Oregon State and at UCLA last year should have given pause to those who question the Pac-10's football prowess (such as, without naming names, L.M. from Baton Rouge). The league only got deeper this season; Dennis Erickson is taking over an Arizona State team that never quite got out of its own way under his predecessor, Dirk Koetter.
Erickson will resume his quest to become the first coach to win a national championship at two schools. Both he and Spurrier, now in his third season at South Carolina, returned to college football at schools with lower profiles than where they won their titles.
That isn't the case for the third coach looking for the national championship double. You may have missed this, but NASA reported the astronauts on the space shuttle last spring made contact with what can only be described as beings from another galaxy.
The leader of the aliens said, "We come in peace," followed by, "So how do you think Nick Saban will do at Alabama?"
The public is reacting to the new Crimson Tide coach as if he is the Barry Bonds of college football -- beloved at home for what his fans believe he is going to do, hated on the road for his intimidating attitude and for what his detractors believe he did (bend NCAA recruiting rules). I made this comparison from the dais at a charity dinner in Mobile, Ala., last month, and the chill that washed over me didn't come from the air conditioning.
Saban will attempt to prove that he can remake in Tuscaloosa what he built in Baton Rouge, much like another member of the national championship fraternity. Bobby Bowden is attempting to remake at Florida State what he built at, um, Florida State. Bowden rebuilt his offensive staff, bringing in four new coaches led by Saban's former offensive coordinator, Jimbo Fisher, to jump-start an offense that has been dead for a couple of years.
The Atlantic Coast Conference is expected to show new signs of life, too. That is said with no disrespect toward last season's champion, Wake Forest, which provided one of the best story lines of 2007. The Demon Deacons begin this season in their customary position, overshadowed by the Virginia Techs, Miamis and Florida States.
It's not that Wake will find it difficult to duplicate its success in 2007 as much as the feeling that success engendered. Surprising success is the narcotic of sport. It never feels quite so euphoric the next time. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has figured this out. He refers to 2007, when a league looked down upon by fans and foes alike took three undefeated teams into November, as "Cinderella."
The fairy tale may be over, but the Big East has four genuine Heisman Trophy candidates in Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm, West Virginia tailback Steve Slaton and quarterback Pat White, and Rutgers tailback Ray Rice. Rutgers, as did Wake Forest and, of course, Boise State, proved last season that the have-nots in college football occasionally have quite a lot.
The Broncos' rousing 43-42 overtime victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl has raised the profile of all schools in conferences that don't get automatic BCS bids. This season, TCU and Hawaii are the preseason favorites to burst through the BCS doors and earn an at-large bid. The Warriors return 14 starters from an 11-3 team, including quarterback Colt Brennan.
Brennan not only broke the single-season record with 58 touchdown passes in 2007, but he also led Division I-A in passing efficiency (186.0). The senior is expected to contend for the Heisman Trophy, and neither his success nor the rise of his team should come as any surprise in the 2007 season.
After all, Hawaii is the southernmost team in the country.
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