Blind Luck tops Kentucky Oaks, Rachel Alexandra in La Troienne

Horseracing Betting Lines

04/27/2010 - Louisville, KY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Fantasy Stakes winner Blind Luck has been made the 6-5 morning-line favorite for Friday's $500,000 Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs. The race for three-year-old fillies has attracted a full field of 14.

The 1 1/8-mile Kentucky Oaks will share the program with the $400,000 La Troienne which features 2009 Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra. Rachel won last year's Oaks by better than 20-lengths.

Blind Luck, winner of six of nine career starts, will break from post five with Rafael Bejarano returning in the saddle. Co-owned by trainer Jerry Hollendorfer, the chestnut filly is the lone entrant listed at odds of less than 8-1.

She won the Fantasy at Oaklawn Park last month as the 1-2 favorite and has been favored in each of her last three starts. In February Blind Luck won the Las Virgenes at Santa Anita as the 1-5 favorite, but failed at 1-2 to Crisp in the Santa Anita Oaks in March when she finished third.

Blind Luck has earned more than $1 million in her career, having won last year's Oak Leaf and Hollywood Starlet. She was third to She Be Wild in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies and was runner-up to She Be Wild in the Eclipse Award voting for 2009 champion two-year-old filly.

Crisp, along with Tidal Pool and Amen Hallelujah, is 8-1 in the program. Trained by John Sadler, the filly will be ridden by Joel Rosario from post seven.

Crisp won the Santa Anita Oaks after beginning 2010 with a win in the Santa Ysabel and a fourth in the Las Virgenes. The Oaks will be her first start outside of California for owner Michael Talla.

In her five career starts Crisp has three wins for $252,120.

Here is the complete field for the 136th Kentucky Oaks in post position order: It's Tea Time, Alan Garcia, 15-1; Jody Slew, Miguel Mena, 30-1; Quiet Temper, Robby Albarado, 10-1; Age of Humor, Rajiv Maragh, 30-1; Blind Luck, Rafael Bejarano, 6-5; Beautician, Alex Solis, 15-1; Crisp, Joel Rosario, 8-1; Tidal Pool, Calvin Borel, 8-1; Bella Diamante, Mike Smith, 30-1; Champagne d'Oro, Martin Garcia, 30-1; Evening Jewel, Kent Desormeaux, 10-1; Ailalea, John Velazquez, 15-1; Amen Hallelujah, Julien Leparoux, 8-1 and Joanie's Catch, Paco Lopez, 30-1.

Rachel Alexandra makes her second start of the year in the $400,000 La Troienne. The four-year-old filly was second at the Fair Grounds to Zardana in the New Orleans Ladies.

The two ladies meet again on Friday with four other thoroughbreds also entered in the 1 1/16-mile race.

Owned by Stonestreet Stable and Hal McCormick, Rachel Alexandra will break from post four with regular rider Calvin Borel in the saddle.

"She's happy at Churchill," co-owner Jess Jackson said. "Lexington is her home, but Churchill is her favorite track and she's surely giving us every sign of being ready to run. She's going to need another race before she really defines herself the way she did early last year, but I think she's 85 percent to 90, maybe 95, right now."

Rachel Alexandra, trained by Steve Asmussen, has won 11 of 15 career starts with earnings of $2,988,354. She was undefeated in eight starts in 2009, including wins in the Preakness, Mother Goose, Haskell and Woodward.

A stablemate of champion mare Zenyatta, Zardana will be ridden by David Flores from post three. Trained by John Shirreffs, who also has Zenyatta, Zardana is owned by Arnold Zetcher.

The six-year-old mare has won eight of 19 career starts for $428,421. Last year she won Bayakoa Handicap at Hollywood Park. Friday will be her first ever race at Churchill Downs.

Also entered in the La Troienne are Be Fair, Morena, Unrivaled Belle and Distinctive Dixie.

The Kentucky Oaks has a post-time of 5:45 p.m. (et) and the La Troienne is scheduled for 1:26 p.m. (et).

The forecast for Friday calls for partly cloudy skies with a 20 percent chance of rain and a post-time temperature near 80. There is a 40 percent chance of thunderstorms Saturday with temperatures around 75.

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Elite 8 NCAA Tournament Betting at online sportsbook MySportsbook.com

In what should be an outstanding Saturday of March Madness betting action, the top four teams in the South and West Regions square off in what should be extremely close match-ups. Three of the four teams are coming off extremely close games on Thursday evening, only UCLA won semi comfortably over Pitt 64-55.

Ohio State is coming off their second game in a row where in all reality they should have lost. Of course that doesn’t matter now since the name of the game is “survive and advance” but as the tournament continues, they can’t afford to keep getting down to their opponents early. Kansas also avoided a scare by holding off a scrappy Southern Illinois squad. In the third thrilling game of the evening Memphis pulled off the minor upset (+3.5) despite being the higher seed to Texas A&M.

Although the spreads are fairly small for Saturday’s games, MySportsbook.com continue to bet against the underdogs. Despite OSU’s two scares, 86% of the “betting public” feels the Buckeyes (-1.5) have what it takes to make the Final Four. In fact, so much of the early money is on OSU that the line has already moved from -1 to -1.5. In the second game of the doubleheader, Kansas and their high-powered offense are 2 point favorites as they take on UCLA and their effective defense. About 63% of the early money thus far is once again backing the favorites. If those percentages stay that high, don’t be surprised if this line moves as well. If you like Kansas (-2) you might want to jump on it early.

Memphis vs. Ohio State

Both squads were involved in thrillers on Thursday evening and should come out fired up. OSU can ill afford to get behind early like they did versus their previous two opponents (Xavier, Tennessee). Greg Oden needs to stay out of foul trouble; the Buckeyes are a completely different team when he is on the court. Memphis definitely has the athleticism and length to match-up with OSU. Of Memphis’ five leading minute earners, the shortest of the bunch is 6’5”. Each team has a very effective defense; Memphis surrenders 62.3 PPG whereas the Buckeyes give up only 61 PPG. With those type of numbers, it isn’t surprising that Memphis covered the UNDER almost 69% of the time this season. As a favorite, OSU has covered the UNDER almost 66% of the time over the last three seasons. The major concern for Memphis which is magnifies this time of the year is their brutal foul shooting (62%). This season, OSU is 17-11 ATS versus teams with a winning record and 7-2 ATS in all tournament games. Memphis has been an extremely reliable cover in tournament play in recent years with a 23-8 ATS record over the last three seasons.

UCLA vs. Kansas

In the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader, UCLA will play in a role which they are very unfamiliar with that of the underdog. Only twice this season have they been getting points from the handicappers and both times they covered. Over the last three seasons UCLA is a reliable 23-7 ATS in this unfamiliar role. UCLA has not fared well against Big 12 opponents recently going 1-7 ATS since 1997. Giving up only 59.6 PPG, UCLA will definitely look to do what they do best: keep this game as low scoring as possible. Their defense has been especially tough during the tournament. UCLA opponents have been able to muster up only 48.7 PPG while shooting a combined 34.5% from the field. UCLA definitely has a challenge at hand with a Kansas team that is capable of putting points on the board in bunches. As a team, they average 79 PPG and shoot an impressive 49.6% from the field and 39.4% from beyond the arc. During the tournament Kansas has been “lights out” from the field having shot 56.2%.

With Friday -105 juice on Basketball betting, MySportsbook.com is the place to bet on all of the “March Madness” action.  Don’t forget to monitor who the public is backing at MySportsbook.com’s “Betting Trends”.  By doing so, you have the best chance of predicting a possible line change, thus getting the best value for your wager.

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