Odysseus one to beat in Blue Grass Stakes

Horseracing Betting Lines

04/07/2010 - Lexington, KY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tampa Bay Derby winner Odysseus heads a field of nine in Saturday's 86th running of the $750,000 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland. The 1 1/8 mile race comes three weeks before the 136th Kentucky Derby.

With Rajiv Maragh again in the saddle, Odysseus will start from the inside post. Maragh has been aboard for all four of the colt's career starts. The colt is 7-2 in the morning-line.

"He is a big, powerful horse and I think that race (Tampa) was a great experience for him," Maragh said. "He proved he can overcome a fight and I think he can move forward off that race."

Odysseus is owned by Padua Stables and trained by Tom Albertrani. The chestnut colt has won his last three starts after finishing second in his career debut. The Tampa Bay win by a nose was worth $180,000 to bring the colt's bankroll to $219,920.

"That's our target, to get this horse to the Derby (Kentucky)," Albertrani said. "We think he's certainly good enough to belong with that group."

Last year General Quarters came out of the Tampa Bay Derby to win the Blue Grass.

Pleasant Prince, Florida Derby runner-up, will break from post six with Julien Leparoux riding. The chestnut colt, 3-1 in the program, is owned by Ken and Sarah Ramsey and trained by Wesley Ward.

Going after just his second win, Pleasant Prince was fourth to Eskendereya in the Fountain of Youth Stakes before losing to Ice Box in the Florida Derby. Eskendereya won last week's Wood Memorial by almost 10-lengths.

Pleasant Prince has earnings of $197,620 in seven career starts.

Dogwood Stable's Aikenite has drawn post eight with award winning jockey Garrett Gomez coming in for the mount. Gomez is the regular jockey for champion colt Lookin At Lucky. The Eclipse Award winning jockey won the 2006 Blue Grass with Sinister Minister.

Aikenite, trained by Todd Pletcher, is coming off a third-place finish to Eskendereya in the Fountain of Youth. He began the year with a disappointing sixth-place result to Winslow Homer in the Holy Bull Stakes.

"We like the fact that he has been on the muscle these past few weeks," said Dogwood President Cot Campbell. "It's a definite change from his attitude over the winter, as far as his morning works go. He has an easy-going way about him and has always saved the best of himself for the afternoons."

The colt was third in last year's Hopeful Stakes followed by a second in the Dixiana Breeders' Futurity at Keeneland.

"We know he runs well over Keeneland's Polytrack, having finished second in the Dixiana Futurity last year," said Pletcher who also trains Eskendereya.

Aikenite concluded 2009 in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita where he was fifth behind champion Vale of York. He has one win in six career starts for $251,000.

Pletcher also trains Interactif for the Wertheimer Brothers. The colt will be ridden by Rafael Bejarano from the far outside post. Pletcher is a two-time winner of the Blue Grass, Bandini (2005) and Monba (2008). Bejarano won the 2007 running with Dominican.

Interactif was second this year in both the Hallandale Beach and San Felipe Stakes. Sidney's Candy won the San Felipe before capturing the Santa Anita Derby last Saturday.

Both Pletcher horses are 4-1 in the morning-line.

Here is the complete field for the Blue Grass in post position order: Odysseus, Rajiv Maragh, 7-2; First Dude, Ramon Dominguez, 8-1; Stately Victor, Alan Garcia, 30-1; Make Music for Me, Mike Smith, 6-1; Codoy, John Velazquez, 30-1; Pleasant Prince, Julien Leparoux, 3-1; Paddy O'Prado, Kent Desormeaux, 10-1; Aikenite, Garrett Gomez, 4-1 and Interactif, Rafael Bejarano, 4-1.

The Blue Grass has a post-time of 5:30 p.m. (et) and will be broadcast on NBC.

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Coaches and bettors alike are desperate to make sense of the new time-keeping rules on the NCAA gridiron. One of the big stories to come out of the Ohio State-Texas clash last weekend was Texas coach Mack Brown's criticism of the NCAA's new clock rules that are intended to shorten the duration of college football games, therefore affecting college football betting.

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*UPDATE* - Sept. 25, 2007

New Clock Rules Boon for online bookmakers

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