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Many horse wagering fans have everything ready to enjoy the exciting day of the 133^rd Preakness Stakes, that will take place at Pimlico (as usual) on May 17^th. But if you were so absorbed on NBA games that you didn’t even notice when the 2008 Kentucky Derby race happened, this is your chance to catch up and enjoy some racetrack action. It won’t be a quiet day at all! Even PETA guys are going to be there in protest for Eight Belle’s “euthanasia” after breaking her ankles during the Derby.

The winner of the Kentucky Derby was Big Brown, and there’s no doubt he’s running to try to get the Triple Crown win. The chances look very good since Big Brown broke an impressive record, being the first horse since 1915 to win the Derby with just 3 career starts. Maybe it will seem easier to win this one, since Preakness Stakes has a lower number of starters. However, some horse wagering players get concerned about the fact that Preakness betting odds are usually lower too, compared to Kentucky Derby.

This year’s Preakness is not as strong as it has been on other years, and that makes Big Brown a crushing betting favorite for this horse race, and even maybe one of the heaviest favorites in all history of Preakness. Still, for those who don’t want to go for the obvious favorite, another interesting option and possible surprise for the 2008 Preakness Stakes is Kentucky Bear, which had some good results: in 3 career starts, he already has one win and one third-place finish.

Will this finally be the year when a horse makes the Triple Crown again? We haven’t seen that since Affirmed in 1978. For now, here’s the list of the horses and jockeys that will be on the 2008 Run for the Black-eyed Susans. Make your picks!

Post 1 - Macho Again (J. Leparoux)
Post 2 - Tres Borrachos (T. Baze)
Post 3 - Icabad Crane (J. Rose)
Post 4 - Yankee Bravo (A. Solis)

Post 5 - Behindatthebar (D. Flores)
Post 6 - Racecar Rhapsody (R. Albarado)
Post 7 - Big Brown (K. Desormeaux)
Post 8 - Kentucky Bear (J. Theriot)

Post 9 - Stevil (J. Velazquez)
Post 10 - Riley tucker (E. Prado)
Post 11 - Giant Moon (R. Dominguez)
Post 12 - Gayego (M. Smith)
Post 13 - Hey Byrn (C.C. Lopez)

Source: Preakness.com

Game 5 gave Detroit a home win that will take the Pistons directly to the 2008 NBA Eastern Conference Finals. The final result 91-86 kicked Orlando Magic out of the way.

This time Richard Hamilton took the lead for the Pistons, scoring 31 points. It seems the fact that they were missing Chauncey Billups wasn’t so tragic after all. Even though Orlando had the chance to reach them, during the final minute Tayshaun Prince blocked the dunk that could change the results. Even Orlando’s leader for the night, Hedo Turkoglu, couldn’t keep up, just scoring 19 points.

The result is great for all basketball betting fans that were waiting to finally have some decisive teams to consider when making their NBA betting strategy. The Pistons come with a great opportunity to win and a lot of strength.

Now their next challenge will be the expected Eastern Conference Finals. My obvious forecast is that they will end up facing the Boston Celtics very soon. But nothing’s final until four games are won and the Cleveland Cavaliers are still an option. We will soon find out who will be the fierce contender that will have to face Detroit on the last -but most important- games.

Source: NBA.com

With a very abrupt decision, Top seed Justine Henin says good-bye to tennis, putting an end to a very short but successful career.

On Wednesday, Henin gave her official announcement. We all know her game was a little bit sloppy lately and had a rough patch at every tournament since a couple of months ago, but that still doesn’t look like a good reason to quit playing tennis for good. These bad times have no comparison to all her victories, starting with the 7 Grand Slam Titles she owns.

The announcement has shocked everyone, since nobody could expect something like this just 2 weeks before the French Open. It seems the Belgian player didn’t want to take the risk, given the awful losing streak she’s been going through. But seriously, who retires at 25?!

Most tennis betting fans are probably not going to be so affected by the news, because everyone that has been watching Justin Henin lately knows the betting odds on her for the next tennis tournament were not going to be that good anyway. However, this makes me feel upset as a devoted tennis fan who admires real athletes. What kind of pro tennis player chickens out like that and prefers to hide forever instead of working hard and re-gaining that performance that put her at the top in the first place? They say it’s better to leave professional sports when you’re enjoying your peak of glory, but this is ridiculous. She had at least 10 years left of good play to come, it’s far too soon to give up. And I’m pretty sure she will regret the decision eventually.

But oh, well. This is how the sports world moves, and new talented female tennis players will rise to fill that empty spot the current #1 tennis player of the world is about to abandon.

Source: AP

The 2008 NBA Playoffs continue to be on fire. Just ask LeBron James’ mom! Gloria James had to take a part of the rough action on Monday when she stood up in defense of his son … and he didn’t appreciate it very much.

The Cavs showed the Celtics this battle is far from over by setting the global score on 2-2, after Boston seemed to have a clear advantage from the beginning. That’s why things are getting a little nasty on the court… and when King James got fouled by Paul Pierce, even mamma James couldn’t control herself. She started to yell at Pierce and Kevin Garnett to defend her son, and LeBron actually had to tell her to sit her butt down and shut up.

I see this as some kind of funny incident (the last thing you would expect during a Cavaliers Playoffs game is LeBron’s mommy all angry fighting the Boston beasts that are messing with her baby), but some felt really shocked by the harsh way James snapped at his mother. Still, he was right. That kind of behavior cannot be tolerated during NBA Playoffs matches! She could be banned from the rest of the games. And LeBron said his mother is something he can’t afford to miss during these last games. See? He’s probably not such a bad son after all. She just needed a reminder of what her place really is during these events. Even though she’s his mother, she’s still a fan and those NBA people don’t have much patience with angry crazy fans.

Back to the sports stuff, we saw the Celtics showing they’re weak when they play outside of their own court, and the last 88-77 result might slap them to start working for real. Tomorrow night they will have the home advantage again. Will they do something good with it?

Source: Citizen Haines, NBA.com

This is the last post of my 2008 NBA Conference Semifinals series. We have analyzed the Western Conference teams, and yesterday we talked about Boston and Cleveland. Are Orlando and Detroit just as exciting to watch?

Orlando Magic vs. Detroit Pistons

They have 3 games played already. It seems to be a hard battle, where the Magic won’t just let Detroit crush them. During the first 2 games, the Pistons took a clear advantage and both victories. Orlando, on the other hand, had lost 9 straight playoff games to the Pistons.

During game 3, things changed. Orlando stood up and had a good game, taking an absolute lead during the last minutes.  Now they are 2-1 and next game will say if the Magic are doing some real progress to turn the scores upside down or it was just a lucky play to make things more interesting.

Let’s just wait and see who goes home and who gets to stay.

Source: NBA.com

The games are on and all the NBA teams are doing their best to get to the 2008 NBA Finals. On these days we have talked about the Western Conference teams that are facing each other, and their possibilities to be the winners. Now’s the time to start with the Eastern Conference teams. What are the odds for these teams when it comes to picking the winner?

Boston Celtics vs. Cleveland Cavaliers

These 2 are giving probably one of the most expected NBA Playoffs shows. The Celtics started the 2007-2008 NBA Season with the right foot, no doubt about that. Since the very beginning Boston has been one of the big favorites, and with outstanding performance they slipped right into this Postseason. They also have some big players to put all their weight on, starting for Kevin Garnett. The Defensive Player of the Year is definitely a key figure that can’t be left out when making your picks on the Basketball Money Lines.

Garnett is one of the few current NBA players that can actually handle a face-to-face with Cavs’ King James. On game 1, Kevin Garnett managed to score 28 points, besides blocking LeBron so hard that the King was able to score only 12 points, and had 10 turnovers. The game ended in Boston’s favor, 76-72. Not bad at all! Other players like Paul Pierce add some spice to the team, but he has dropped a little bit on quality of performance.

The Cavs have had a decent NBA Season, and of course LeBron James has been their biggest weapon. However, it seems they’re not so unstoppable when they’re facing the Celtics. The Washington Wizards probably were an easier contender, since it was the third time in a row that they get eliminated by Cleveland. Maybe that has given the Cavaliers a confidence that made it all look easier. But they have a real challenge ahead, and only one of them will be left for the Eastern Conference Finals. Will King James be able to crush Garnett?

Source: NBA.com

Still analyzing the Western Conference teams that are fighting to reach the Conference Finals, today is the turn for the San Antonio Spurs and New Orleans Hornets, teams that are currently about to play their 3^rd game.

Are the defending champions just as strong as they were last year? Will the Hornets be this year’s surprise?

San Antonio Spurs vs. New Orleans Hornets

The Spurs have brought their usual Playoffs winning streak that leads them to the major events all the time. Even though their regular NBA Season wasn’t so amazing, they have proved they can do wonders when their asses are at risk. With the great help of Tony Parker and Tim Duncan they move fast and score a lot.

However, these 2 first games against New Orleans must have them shocked because it’s not as easy as they thought. Surprisingly, the Hornets are taking the lead, crushing San Antonio on both games 101-82 and 102-84. In game 2, the Spurs were playing so well it seemed they were going to win that one. But on the second half, the Hornets turned everything upside down

Source: NBA.com

The NBA 2008 Playoffs are reaching the most interesting point: Just 8 teams are left to fight for the Championship. Even though there are some favorites, we can’t deny they’ve all done a supreme job and that’s why they are the best on this race to the NBA Finals. But what are the possibilities on each pair of contenders?

Today we’ll focus on one of the Western Conference pairs.

L.A. Lakers vs Utah Jazz

Some thought it would be harder for Utah to crush the Houston Rockets, who’d been having a great NBA Season. But just as it happened last year, the Jazz gave everyone an unexpected level of performance, getting their pass to Conference semifinals. They have solid (but not outstanding) players like Mehmet Okur adding some weight to the team (as we just saw during the first game against Los Angeles, where Okur scored 21 points).

The Lakers have the advantage of winning the first game (109-98), and now the second one will be at home. And whether we want to admit it or not, their arrogant Kobe Bryant is still one of the stars of the team. Just in game 1, he scored 38 points, 24 of them just on the first half. This potential ’08 MVP does a lot for the team and they definitely love him. Could the Jazz face Kobe Bryant’s experience, still being a great player? If they do, it will be really hard.

Right now L.A. has the upper hand. Let’s see how true that may be on the next game.

Source: NBA.com

Things start to heat up at 2007-2008 NBA Playoffs. You can feel the tension and teams want to take it to another level. An act? Could be, but will do just fine for rabid NBA betting fans.

The Washington Wizards thought they would be heading home after Wednesday’s game. Well, they are! But they won’t be sitting and watching the games on TV (at least not yet). In what is rumored to be a bad play almost made on purpose, the Cavaliers let the Wizards win this one to have at least one more game.

Sure, one missed layup doesn’t mean you fixed the game. But you start to feel that way when you read Caron Butler’s declarations to press. He says he’d been messing with LeBron James during the entire game and, just a few moments before the match ended, he told King James to miss the shot and make things “more interesting” with another game.

Could that be possible? Cavs fans would feel offended to know they could be celebrating already their pass to the next phase, when just 4 teams will fight to be in the Eastern Conference Finals. Instead of that, Caron Butler made the layup with almost 4 seconds left and his last basket gave the Wizards some hope with a victory 88-87. It is often said that some teams lose on purpose in many sports to play more games and make more money. Could they be so obvious?

My choice is that King James didn’t actually do it on purpose (Caron is just taking the credit of it with too much arrogance), but he definitely felt pressured and influenced in some way by Butler’s comments. Now the results are 3-2, and even though they will be playing at Washington, I really doubt LeBron will let another one slip like that. Will this extra game really be a surprise? We’ll know very soon.

Source: Chicago Tribune

With so much going on for soccer fans, you probably know already these 2 names are really hot in the news. Manchester United’s Paul Scholes and brazilian soccer legend Ronaldo are giving a lot to talk about… one for good, and the other one, not so much.

Many are following the european Champions League games, which get more exciting as the finals approach. With an unexpected turn of events, the English club Manchester United will be part of the Champions League final for the first time in 9 years. All that thanks to the amazing 25-yard shot by -now for sure- star Paul Scholes, which crossed right into the net and caused a win over Barcelona 1-0. Who would’ve expected that? Barça’s presence in the UEFA Champions League final is usually a must. Manchester was very low in the odds to win this match, considering they didn’t have one of their best players, Wayne Rooney, because of an injury. Thanks to Scholes’ outstanding performance, Old Trafford is celebrating having crushed one of the big favorites, along with the possibility of taking the Cup home on May 21^st. Man U could be facing either Chelsea or Liverpool that day. Of course, Paul Scholes will be there… and he has become a key figure of the game.

On the other hand, it seems scandal is what old players go for when they can’t live out from their fame anymore. And soccer is no stranger to that situation either. Still recovering from knee surgery in Brazil, AC Milan’s Ronaldo got caught in a scandal for picking up 3 prostitutes that turned to be transvestites. After admiting the basic facts, he claims being a victim of extortion from them and also reported having psychological issues related to his surgery. Oh, really?. Well, it’s been so long since we heard good news from Ronaldo as a major piece in any soccer team. His performance has dropped down enough to be news just by the sex scandals. Too bad, we’re talking about a former world class soccer legend here.

The good news is we’ll never run out of good soccer players to trust when picking our favorites out of the betting lines. You’ll see that next time when you watch the Champions League final.

Source: Sportinglife.com, BBC News