Quality Road headlines Met Mile

Horseracing Betting Lines

05/28/2010 - Elmont, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Horse of the Year candidate Quality Road heads a field of eight older horses for Monday's $500,000 Metropolitan Handicap (Met Mile) at Belmont Park. The Met Mile has a scheduled post-time of 5:50 p.m. (et).

Quality Road, second in the current NTRA Thoroughbred Poll, has drawn post seven with John Velazquez again in the saddle. The four-year-old colt is owned by Edward Evans and trained by Todd Pletcher.

Perfect in two starts this year, Quality Road has not run since winning the Donn Handicap in February at Gulfstream Park. In January, he captured the Hal's Hope Stakes at the south Florida track.

"You want to make sure they are ready to run," Pletcher said. "This is a tough spot, but we think we know him well enough and know that he's run well fresh enough times that we have an idea of what he needs to be ready."

In 2009 as a three-year-old, Quality Road was on his way to the Kentucky Derby until an injury put him off the trail. He won the Fountain of Youth Stakes and Florida Derby at Gulfstream.

He returned with a victory in the Amsterdam Stakes at Saratoga and was third to Summer Bird in the Travers. The colt ended 2009 with a second-place finish behind Summer Bird in the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park. In his career Quality Road has won six of nine starts for more than $1.3 million.

Westchester Handicap winner Le Grand Cru will start from the outside post next to Quality Road with Cornelio Velasquez riding. The five-year-old is trained by Allen Jerkens for Judson Streicher.

Le Grand Cru has just the one win this year in five starts and finished sixth to Quality Road in the Hal's Hope. In his career the five-year-old has earned $433,578 with five wins in 18 starts.

"It looks like it's going to be a really tough race," noted assistant trainer Fernando Abreu, "but our horse is doing well."

Trainer Derek Ryan will send Musket Man over from Monmouth Park for the Met Mile. The four-year-old colt, owned by Eric Fein, will be ridden by Ramon Dominguez from post three.

Musket Man is coming off a third-place finish in the Churchill Downs on Kentucky Derby Day. He won the Super Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs in February and was second to Warrior's Reward in the Carter Hadicap at Aqueduct in April.

With wins in the Illinois and Tampa Bay Derbies last year, Musket Man has earnings of just over $1 million with six wins in 11 career starts.

Here is the complete field for the Met Mile in post position order: Convocation, Kent Desormeaux; Tizway, Rajiv Maragh; Musket Man, Ramon Dominguez; Warrior's Reward, Calvin Borel; Kensei, Edgar Prado; You and I Forever, Javier Castellano; Quality Road, John Velazquez and Le Grand Cru, Cornelio Velasquez.

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Is there such a thing as a trap game in the NFL?

I once asked that question to Pete Korner, who at the time was office manager and a senior linesmaker for Las Vegas Sports Consultants.

Korner almost ripped my head off. There is no such thing as a trap game, he loudly berated me. It’s a myth. The numbers are made using power ratings, he said.

There are trap games, though. They just might not be what you think. The perception is of a good team, say Philadelphia, laying a small number against New Orleans.

Using the highly-respected power ranking from The Gold Sheet, you’d find the Eagles with a power rating of 4 and the Saints at 8. When you factor the game being played in New Orleans, you could see why the line opened so short at less than a field goal.

For some, this makes it enticing to take the Eagles. That’s not a real trap game, though.

A real trap game, says professional gambler Dave Malinsky, is thinking you’re getting value betting a bad team, which brings us to the Oakland Raiders-Denver Broncos matchup.

The Raiders are +15 in this long-standing division rivalry. Denver is on a short week having dispatched Baltimore Monday. However, the Raiders haven’t covered the spread their last 10 games.

Many bettors don’t trust the Raiders to give a full effort. Few think much of Art Shell and his Oakland’s coaching staff.

So oddsmakers have to do something to make Oakland attractive if they hope to get equal action.

Now Malinsky is a value shopper. But he won’t touch the Raiders even getting more than two touchdowns.

“I try to eliminate the undisciplined, unfocused teams because they’re the ones most likely to suffer the bad beats,” he said.

Near the top of Malinsky’s list of stay-away teams is the Miami Dolphins, who have yet to cover a spread this season.

“Whatever you think of Nick Saban, you have to look at the penalties and turnovers,” Malinsky said.

It’s easy to point out the Dolphins failed to get the money this past week against New England because Olindo Mare missed a field goal and had another field goal blocked. But even though the Dolphins outgained the Patriots, 283-213, they committed eight penalties.

Bad teams not only cost themselves victories, but pointspread covers as well. The Arizona Cardinals and Green Bay Packers are two more examples.

The Cardinals couldn’t have been in a better position this past Sunday, up 14-0 at home against a mediocre Kansas City Chiefs squad. But they couldn’t hold it. The Packers got a push against St. Louis, but also could have won losing by three when Brett Favre fumbled at the St. Louis 11-yard line with 44 seconds left.

“The Packers were in a position to beat Philadelphia, too,” Malinsky said. “But they couldn’t even cover double digits.

“These teams just make mistakes and it costs you … they always will look good from a value standpoint. They really will. But that’s the trap.”

Houston and Tennessee rank among the six-worst teams. Malinsky wouldn’t be afraid to take either of these teams, however, if the price were high enough.

The Texans are bad, Malinsky said, but they have some discipline. The Titans showed they could not only come up with an outstanding game plan, but execute it as well, losing by one to the Colts on the road as an 18 ?-point underdog this past Sunday.

“Jeff Fisher is a worker,” Malinsky said of the Titans coach. “I’m not sure how hard Art Shell wants to work when he gets out of bed.”

Fisher, though, could be out as Tennessee coach after this season. Is he still worth backing in the right spot, with the right price, as a lame duck coach?

“It’s in his nature to keep working hard and not worry about any possible lame duck status,” Malinsky said. “He’s coaching for his resume.”

Note: Monday night game will be picked Monday. Lines used are from football betting lines.