Goodwood Stakes features Lava Man

Horseracing Betting Lines

09/26/2007 - Arcadia, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Defending champ Lava Man returns to face nine rivals in Saturday's $500,000 Goodwood Stakes at Santa Anita Park. The winner of the race will gain automatic entry into the $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic as part of the "Win and You're In" program.

Lava Man, owned by STD Racing and Jason Wood, can become the third horse to repeat as the winner of the Goodwood. Lord At War won in 1984 and 1985, and Pleasantly Perfect posted consecutive victories in 2002 and 2003.

Trained by Doug O'Neill, Lava Man will be ridden by Corey Nakatani from post seven. The six-year-old gelding is coming off a rare loss, he was sixth in the Pacific Classic at Del Mar. This year he repeated as the winner of the Santa Anita Handicap and won his third straight Hollywood Gold Cup.

Lava Man has won 17 of 41 lifetime starts for more than $5.2 million.

Dennis O'Neill, brother and associate of Doug, recently indicated that Lava Man may also be entered in the Oak Tree Mile on turf next weekend. "Beyond that," Dennis said, "the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile definitely is a possibility. That race is worth $1 million, but if he were to run big, we'd have to think of the ($2 million) Breeders' Cup Mile. We've got all kinds of options."

Santa Anita Derby winner Tiago will face older horses for the first time in the 1 1/8 mile race. The three-year-old has drawn post four with Mike Smith set to ride. The pair are coming off a solid victory in the Swaps Stakes at Hollywood Park in July.

Owned by Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Moss, the colt has earned $815,270 in seven career starts with three wins. John Shirreffs trains Tiago who was seventh in the Kentucky Derby and third in the Belmont Stakes.

With Pacific Classic winner Student Council going in the Hawthorne Gold Cup on Saturday, the top finisher from the Del Mar event entered in the Goodwood is runner-up Awesome Gem. The four-year-old will start from post eight with David Flores in the saddle.

Awesome Gem is trained by Craig Dollase for owners West Point Stable and others. The gelding has won four of 13 lifetime starts for $531,360. Prior to the Pacific Classic he was second in the San Diego Handicap to the now deceased Sun Boat.

Here is the complete field for the 26th Goodwood Stakes in post position order: Arson Squad, Victor Espinoza; Hello Sunday, Brice Blanc; Lewis Michael, Eddie Baird; Tiago, Mike Smith; Porfido, Joel Rosario; Big Booster, Michael Baze; Lava Man, Corey Nakatani; Awesome Gem, David Flores; A. P. Xcellent, Jose Valdivia, Jr. and Wanna Runner, Tyler Baze.

The Goodwood has a scheduled post-time of 7:30 p.m. (et).

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Big East Conference odds

Work left to do: Villanova, Syracuse, DePaul, West Virginia, Providence

Notre Dame and Louisville appear to have done enough to make the move, so we'll make them locks. The Cardinals, despite a modest RPI, are trending way up and have clinched at least a tie for third in the Big East, which should be more than enough with their pair of big road wins. Villanova got back to .500 and gets back to more solid footing. Syracuse got a very important road win and crippled a fellow contender in the process. West Virginia's fate could be in its hands Tuesday at Pitt.

Work left to do:

Villanova [18-9 (7-7), RPI: 21, SOS: 5] Pounded Rutgers to get back to .500. If Cats can get their last two (at UConn, vs. Syracuse), that should be enough with strong computer numbers and a host of wins away from The Pavilion. The Cats have beaten Texas and swept the Big 5 (never easy in Philly), but have a couple of losses to bubble teams (Xavier, Drexel), too. I still think they'll be OK, possibly even at 8-8.

Syracuse [20-8 (9-5), RPI: 53, SOS: 62] History says 10 wins will be plenty, but it might be hard for the Orange to get that last one with a final two vs. G'town, which is trying to win the league title, and at Villanova, which will be desperate for a W. The relative lack of nonconference heft and the weak computer numbers are still concerns, but the Orange have won four in a row and got a very, very big win at Providence on Saturday.

DePaul [16-12 (8-7), RPI: 54, SOS: 18] Beat Cincy and should get past South Florida to get to 9-7, but then what? They have beaten Kansas and Cal (right after the DeVon Hardin injury) earlier this season, but also have lost to Bradley and Purdue, among others. They'll likely need a couple of BE tourney wins, too, but we'll see ...

West Virginia [19-7 (8-6), RPI: 58, SOS: 125] The game at Pitt on Tuesday night could decide the Mountaineers' fate (barring a deep tournament run). They can still get to 9-7 in the Big East without it by beating Cincinnati, but the nine wins would be against UConn, Villanova, St. John's, South Florida, DePaul, Rutgers, Seton Hall twice and the Bearcats. Beating bubble foes is fine, but where's the beef? Outside of beating PG-less UCLA in nonconference play (still a top quality win), there's not a lot to fall back on (besides maybe NC State). WVU vs. Syracuse would be an interesting debate, as the teams don't play in the Big East regular season. WVU has the best win, but Cuse has played the much better schedule.

Providence [17-10 (7-7), RPI: 70, SOS: 33] The Friars likely saw their at-large hopes die at home in the four-point loss to Syracuse, barring an unexpected run to the Big East semis or more. The RPI, bad already, won't be helped by playing St. John's and South Florida in the final two league games.

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What Is the Point Spread?

What are Sports Betting Point Spreads?

In any football or basketball game (the main sports that use point spreads) there are two teams playing against each other.

Those teams, though, are rarely exactly evenly matched – meaning that typically one team has a better chance than the other to win the game. If bettors were allowed to bet on who was simply going to win the game, smart ones would obviously bet on the better team (likely winning more than 50% of the time in the process).

If winning were that easy the Las Vegas and online sportsbooks would stop taking any bets! This is where the point spread comes in: the basic function of the point spread is to balance the likelihood of each team “winning” by adjusting the final score by the point spread. After this adjustment is made you get the Against The Spread result (ATS result for short).

Let’s look at Super Bowl XXXIX, New England Patriots vs. Philadelphia Eagles. Most people believed the defending champ Patriots to be the better team – so if betting were simply based upon which team would win the game, an uneven majority of people would have wagered on New England. But, by using the point spread, the bookmakers adjusted the terms of the bet, evening the proposition so about half the people believed the Pats to be the smart bet, while the other half considered Philly to be the smart bet.

How to Read Point Spreads

New England Patriots -7 vs. Philadelphia Eagles

The better team, called the Favorite, is expected to win the game and must “give” or “lay” points to the weaker team. The favorite is listed with a minus sign and the number of points they are favored by (e.g., New England -7)

In the case of our example, New England must not only win the game, but they must win by more than 7 points for Pats bettors to have a winning ATS result. An Eagles bettor wins his bet either if:

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