Arkansas Derby goes to longshot Line of David

Horseracing Betting Lines

04/10/2010 - Hot Springs, AR (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Lightly-raced Line of David went wire-to- wire in capturing Saturday's $1 million Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park. The 1 1/8-miles was run in 1:49.37 over a fast track.

Sent off as a 17-1 longshot in the nine horse field, Line of David quickly took the lead coming out of the gate. He led the field around the clubhouse turn with 4-1 third choice Super Saver in second.

Running in third was 5-2 second pick Dublin with longshot Berberis fourth. Noble's Promise, the 9-5 favorite, was racing off the pace after being bumped at the start.

The top four runners kept their positions as the field went up the backstretch. Ridden by Jon Court, Line of David had the lead into the far turn and as the field entered the stretch.

Noble's Promise joined the leaders around the turn for home. Line of David, Super Saver and Dublin were three across the track at the top of the stretch. Super Saver and Dublin appeared to be ready to pass the pacesetter, but were unable to go by him.

As the top, three horses approached the wire. Line of David dug in to keep the lead. At the wire it was Line of David by a neck over Super Saver with Dublin another neck back in third.

"I tell you that we put him on the front end and rolled into that first turn and he was rolling along pretty good but he came back to me," Court said. "I was a little concerned because we were clipping along pretty good but we weren't losing any ground either. I was just right there in the one path tight against the fence around that first turn so I knew it went pretty quick. When I called on him he was full of run through the bridle and he fought very valiantly for the photo."

Uh Oh Bango made a late rally to finish fourth followed by Noble's Promise, New Madrid, Berberis, Pulsion and Northern Giant.

Line of David picked up $600,000 for owners Ike and Dawn Thrash. The purse is the first for the chestnut colt from any stakes race and should be enough to start the Kentucky Derby.

"I was telling Jon in the infield this one was kind of late to the party," noted Ike Thrash. "But he ran really well in his last couple races and even though we got around to it late we knew he could run and he showed up today."

Trained by John Sadler, Line of David was making his start outside of California and on a real dirt track. After breaking his maiden on the fourth attempt, the colt has now won three straight. He has career earnings of $662,000.

Sadler also trains Santa Anita Derby champ Sidney's Candy.

"We're really happy, the horse ran great," Sadler said. "We're setting up camp on Monday and Tuesday at Churchill, We have Sidney's Candy and Crisp and a few others, so we'll add this one to the list."

Line Of David paid $36.60, $14.80 and $6.80. Super Saver returned $6.20 and $4.00, and Dublin paid $3.60 to show.

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Sportsbook Betting Lines

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.

Why Sports Betting Lines Change

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.”

To visit this internet sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your sports betting needs and World Series odds.

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