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Horseracing Betting Lines

New Orleans, LA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mr. Bowling, ridden by Robby Albarado, held off Z Dager Saturday to capture the $175,000 Lecomte Stakes at Fair Grounds Race Course. It was the three-year-old's first start in almost three months. The mile and 70 yard event is the first of three stakes at the New Orleans track for Kentucky Derby probables. The $300,000 Risen Star Stakes follows on Saturday, February 25 and the $1 million Louisiana Derby concludes this section of the Derby Trail on Sunday, April 1.

 

Setting the pace was Alexander Thegreat with Hero of Order to his outside. Running third was Hammers Terror along with Z Dager. Mr. Bowling quickly settled into fifth on the outside.

 

Mr. Bowling was able to find room between horses as Z Dager and jockey Shave Sellers made a late surge. Albarado was able to get his horse to the wire first, posting a head victory over Z Dager with Shared Property another half- length back in third.

 

"He has been training very well since he got here," said Jones recently. "We're very happy with him. Obviously, Mr. Bowling likes this track a lot, but we also want to think he's just getting better. He seems to be maturing more and more every day. He's a son of the young Gone West sire Istan whose horses are just getting to the races. I have several Istans in my barn, and they all look like they can run."

 

Mr. Bowling returned $9.20, $4.80 and $4.00. Z Dager paid $4.80 and $3.60, and Shared Property paid $3.80 to show.

 

Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - For the longest time, thoroughbreds raced four, five, even six times in their three-year-old season prior to the Kentucky Derby. The norm these days is just two or three with the races spaced out a month at a time. In fact, the last five Derby winners hit the track just twice in their three- year-old campaign before the first Saturday in May. In 2007, Street Sense opened up his season with a nose victory over Any Given Saturday in the Mar. 17 Tampa Bay Derby and then finished second in the Blue Grass four weeks later. The next year, Big Brown picked up back-to-back victories at Gulfstream Park in March before taking home the roses.

 

As one can see, it doesn't really matter if the horses win or not prior to the Kentucky Derby. The key is to have enough graded earnings before the beginning of May to guarantee a spot in the Run for the Roses.

 

Super Saver (second by a neck in 2010), Street Sense (second by a nose in 2007), and Funny Cide (second by one half-length in 2003) all just missed winning at 1 1/8-miles prior to the Derby. The only two years since 2000 this trend has not held true were 2005 and 2009 when Giacomo and Mine That Bird, respectively, crossed the wire first at 50-1.

 

The most noticeable trend is the two-year-old jinx as Apollo in 1882 was the last horse to win the Kentucky Derby without a start at two. That means Todd Pletcher's Spring Hill Farm, who burst on the scene with a dazzling 6 1/4- length score in a seven-furlong maiden race at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 14, will have a tough time catching up to his contemporaries in the coming months.

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