Eagle Poise captures Valedictory Stakes

Horseracing Betting Lines

12/04/2011 - Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Eagle Poise, ridden by Patrick Husbands, edged past Harrods Creek right before the wire to win Sunday's $150,000 Valedictory Stakes on closing day at Woodbine Race Course. The five-year-old gelding covered the 1 3/4-miles in 2:57.62 on the synthetic surface.

Breeders' Cup Marathon winner Afleet Again and last year's Valedictory runner- up Eye of the Leopard went off as the 2-1 co-favorites in the six-horse field. Eagle Poise, second in the 2009 Valedictory, was 3-1 and Bill Mott's Harrods Creek was 7-2.

Longshot Getta Rhythm set the pace followed by Harrods Creek, Eye of the Leopard, Alpha Bettor, Eagle Poise and Afleet Again. With a mile to run Getta Rhythm, 36-1 on the board, still had the lead with Harrods Creek running second followed by Eye of the Leopard, Eagle Poise, 11-1 longshot Alpha Bettor and Afleet Again. The BC Marathon champ, ridden by Cornelio Velasquez, began to get going with six-furlongs to go.

Midway up the backstretch the top two runners had separated themselves from the rest of the field as Afleet Again continued to advance. On the final turn Harrods Creek, with Chantal Sutherland riding, moved to the lead with Eagle Poise going past Eye of the Leopard into second and Afleet Again moving into fourth.

Down the stretch Eagle Poise and Harrods Creek hooked up for the drive. The two battled through the stretch until Eagle Poise was able get his head on the wire ahead of Harrods Creek.

Eye of the Leopard, 2009 Queen's Plate winner, finished third followed by Afleet Again, Alpha Bettor and Getta Rhythm

Owned by Riverdee Stable, Eagle Poise is trained by Graham Motion conditioner of this year's Kentucky Derby champ Animal Kingdom. Eagle Poise notched his sixth victory, worth $90,000, in 20 career starts for total earnings of $423,604.

The gelding was coming off a win over Eye of the Leopard at Woodbine on November 11 in an allowance race.

"I was very happy with the effort and the result," said Motion about the neck win three weeks ago. "I was impressed. Patrick (jockey Husbands) showed great confidence in the way he rode him. He probably knows him a little better than I do."

Motion, based at Fair Hill, MD, assumed the training of Eagle Poise over the summer.

Eagle Poise returned $8.80, $4.80 and $3.20. Harrods Creek paid $4.70 and $3.30, and Eye Of The Leopard paid $2.50 to show.

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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.

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