Big Red Mike captures 151st Queen's Plate
Horseracing Betting Lines
07/04/2010 -
Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Big Red Mike, ridden by Eurico Rosa da Silva,
went wire-to-wire to claim victory in Sunday's $1 million Queen's Plate at
Woodbine Race Course. The 1 1/4-mile race is the beginning of the Canadian
Triple Crown.
Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain was in attendance for the 151st Queen's
Plate.
A field of 13 Canadian-bred three-year-olds left the starting gate for the top
thoroughbred race in the Great White North. Plate Trial runner-up Mobilizer
and Woodbine Oaks champ Roan Inish were the 7-2 co-favorites.
Big Red Mike and Hotep were both 5-1 when the gate opened and that's how they
ran as the race developed. Big Red Mike set the pace along the inside with
Hotep racing second to the outside.
The pair remained in their positions up the backstretch and into the far turn.
Making a slight move around the final turn was Mobthewarrior and Roan Irish.
Trained by Nicholas Gonzalez, Big Red Mike still had the lead coming off the
turn for home and into the stretch. The chestnut gelding could not be
overtaken down the stretch and went on to post a 1 1/4-length win over Hotep
with Roan Irish third and Giant's Tomb rallying to finish fourth.
Rounding out the order of finish was Mobthewarrior, Dark Cloud Dancer, Smart
Sky, Moment of Majesty, Who We Gunna Call, Mobilizer, Ghost Fleet, Vicar
Street and D's Wando.
The time for the Queen's Plate was 2:04.89 on Woodbine's synthetic surface.
The victory was worth $600,000 for owner Terra Racing Stable and gave da Silva
his second straight win in the Queen's Plate. Last year he won aboard Eye of
the Leopard.
Big Red Mike was coming off a win in the Plate Trial on June 13. In that
contest he also set the pace and was able to re-rally for the victory. The
gelding has now won three of six career starts for $761,101, all at Woodbine.
"The thing that impressed me the most was when he got engaged, carrying 126
pounds and first time going that far. I was very proud of him that he dug in
the way he did. He beat some good horses," said Gonzalez about the Plate Trial
win. "The horse is a fighter. He's won on the inside before. He's fought some
tough hard races on the outside. He's just that kind of horse where the
competition is good for him."
This was the first Queen's Plate win for both the owner and trainer.
Big Red Mike returned $12.00, $6.30 and $4.40. Hotep, the 3-1 morning-line
favorite, paid $6.90 and $4.70, and Roan Inish paid $4.30 to show.
The Triple Crown will continue with the Prince of Wales Stakes on Sunday, July
25 at Fort Erie Racetrack and the Breeders' Stakes on Sunday, August 15 back
at Woodbine.
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Who Makes the Sportsbook Betting Lines?
Las Vegas Sports Consultants (LVSC) is the world’s premier oddsmaking company and the most respected authority on making the lines. Mike Seba is a Senior Oddsmaker at LVSC and has been making lines for the last six years. In our extended interview, Seba explained that there are 4-5 oddsmakers assigned to make lines for each of the major sports (pro & college football and basketball; MLB, NHL, boxing, golf). Each of these oddsmakers bring unique opinions, strengths and weaknesses to the process. Oddsmakers at LVSC are professional sports junkies who love what they do and would probably do it for nothing if you asked them, but they do get paid for it. By necessity their approach is very research-oriented and concise, since with millions of dollars at risk there is little margin for error.
“You either have a passion for it or you don’t,” Seba said.
“The #1 thing for us is to make a line for each game that creates good two-way action. We do this by drawing from past experiences and applying them to current situations. People think it’s much more complicated, but it’s not. “
What are the Football Betting Lines Trying to Accomplish?
There is a common misconception that point spreads represent the oddsmakers’ prediction of how many points the favorite will win by. That is not the case at all – their intent is NOT to evenly split the ATS result between the teams; rather, their goal is to attract equal betting action on both sides. Stated another way, they want to create a line that half the people find appealing to bet one way while the other half find it appealing to bet the other way (known as ‘dividing the action’).
Divided action means the sportsbook is guaranteed a profit on the game because of the fee charged to the bettor (called juice or vig – typically $11 bet to win $10).
How the Opening Line Is Made
The opening line is the first line created by the oddsmakers, which is then sent out to sportsbooks. Of course there is an entire method to the madness on how the opening line is created. Seba explained that it all starts with each oddsmaker creating a line on each game based upon their own personal approach. This usually includes having up-to-date power ratings on each team.
Power ratings are the oddsmaker’s value of each team and are used as a guide to calculate a "preliminary" pointspread on an upcoming game. The power ratings are adjusted after each game a team plays. Examples of non-game factors that would require an adjustment to a team's power rating are key player injuries and player trades.
Once a game’s power rating based pointspread is determined, the oddsmaker will make adjustments to that line after considering each team's most recent games played and previous games played against that opponent. Also, adjustments are made after reading each team’s local newspapers to get a sense of what the coaches & players are thinking going into the game.
Since the oddsmaker’s ultimate goal is equally dividing the sports betting action, public perception and sportsbook betting patterns must be taken into account. For example, the public might have heavy betting interest week after week on a popular college football betting team such as USC. If an oddsmaker comes up with a preliminary line of USC -7, then an adjustment up to -7.5 or -8 would be made in response to the public’s expected USC bias.
The last step in the line-making process for each oddsmaker is taking one final look to determine whether or not the line "feels right." This is where common sense and past experience with how games are bet enters into the picture.
A round-table discussion among the 4-5 oddsmakers involved in making the line for each sport is then conducted and a consensus line is decided upon by the Odds Director before it is released to the sportsbooks. Of the 4-5 oddsmakers, generally the 2 most respected opinions are weighed more heavily by the Odds Director before he decides on the final line.
Once the opening line is released by LVSC, the individual sportsbooks decide if they want to make any adjustments before offering it to the public. Reasons for such adjustments include:
Experts working for the individual books having a strong opinion on the game
Individual books having players who consistently bet with certain tendencies (such as an extreme bias toward favorites or toward a certain popular team like USC)
The purpose of these adjustments, like all line adjustments, is to more equally divide the betting action.
Once betting begins, sportsbooks can adjust the line at any time. In doing so they attempt to make more attractive the team that is getting less action. By moving the line, sportsbooks can influence how the public bets on a particular game.
For example, if the pointspread on a game is 7 and most of the money is coming in on the underdog (taking the +7), sportsbooks will then move the number down to 6 ½ to try and attract money on the favorite.
Moving the line is the oddsmaker's effort to balance betting action, and often times such moves can have a major impact on a bettor’s decision. Oddsmakers can also change the line depending on various event-related factors such as player injuries or weather. Obviously, if the line comes out a week ahead of the event (which is the case in football), there is much that could happen during the week leading up to the event that could affect the line. Oddsmakers have to determine if any changes are necessary and send out an "adjusted line."
“The main objective is that our clients get equal action on both sides,” Seba said. “We’re not trying to pick the team that covers the spread, we’re trying to make it a coin flip, a tough decision (for the bettor). If we’ve done that, we’ve done our job.”
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