Frostad has three for 151st Queen's Plate

Horseracing Betting Lines

07/01/2010 - Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Trainer Mark Frostad and Sam-Son Farm go after a second straight victory in Sunday's $1 million Queen's Plate at Woodbine Race Course. The 1 1/4-mile race is the beginning a the Canadian Triple Crown.

Queen Elizabeth II will be in attendance for the 151st Queen's Plate.

Following last year's Queen's Plate win with Eye of the Leopard, trainer and owner have entered three in Canada's premier thoroughbred event. A total of 13 Canadian-bred three-year-olds have been entered.

The three horses that Frostad will saddle are 3-1 favorite Hotep, Dark Cloud Dancer and Giant's Tomb. Trainer and owner won the Plate in 2000 and 2001 with Scatter the Gold and Dancethruthedawn, respectively, as well as last year.

Hotep will be ridden by Patrick Husbands from post 11. Husbands won the Plate aboard Wando in 2003.

"He should be spot on for the race," noted Frostad. "He has a good stalking style and a good kick."

The colt is coming off a second-place finish to Exhi in the Marine Stakes on May 29. Hotep had won the Wando at Woodbine on May 8 in his first local start of the year.

"He gets pretty revved up. He just gets on his toes and uses a lot of energy in his races," said Frostad. "We wanted to give him five weeks into the Plate. We wanted him in good order for the big race."

Earlier this year Hotep raced at the Fair Grounds in New Orleans. He was 10th in the Risen Star Stakes and 11th in the Louisiana Derby. The colt has career earnings of $187,740 with three wins in eight starts.

Dark Cloud Dancer is 15-1 in the morning-line and will be ridden by Javier Castellano from post four. Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith has the mount on Giant's Tomb. The chestnut colt is 12-1 in the program and will leave from post eight. Smith rode Awesome Again to victory in the 1997 Plate.

Other Plate winners for Sam-Son Farm are Regal Intention (1988) and Dance Smartly (1991). Frostad also saddled Victor Cooley to win the race in 1996.

Here is the complete field for the Queen's Plate in position order: Vicar Street, Tyler Pizarro, 30-1; Who We Gunna Call, Gerry Olguin, 30-1: D's Wando, Emma-Jayne Wilson, 20-1; Dark Cloud Dancer, Javier Castellano, 15-1; Big Red Mike, Eurico Rosa da Silva, 6-1; Smart Sky, Chantal Sutherland, 30-1; Ghost Fleet, Richard Dos Ramos, 20-1; Giant's Tomb, Mike Smith, 12-1; Mobilizer, Jono Jones, 7-2; Roan Inish, Davy Moran, 9-2; Hotep, Patrick Husbands, 3-1; Mobthewarrior, Emile Ramsammy, 10-1 and Moment of Majesty, Robert Landry, 12-1.

The two fillies, Roan Inish and Moment of Majesty, will each carry 121 pounds while the 11 males will tote 126 pounds each. The winner will earn $600,000.

Post-time for the Queen's Plate is slated for 5:40 p.m. (et).

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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SPORTS BETTING: NFL Football Sportsbook Betting

NFL owners, already life's biggest winners, want to try their luck with the lottery.


That was the news out of their meetings last week, where team bosses voted unanimously to allow stamping state and local lottery tickets with franchise logos, if, ahem, any governments wanted to do a deal.

A shocker: Within days the Pats announced they'd be sponsoring the Massachusetts state lottery, the Skins said they'd slap their sticker on Virginia scratch-offs and the Ravens admitted they were talking to Maryland lottery bosses. In all likelihood, it won't be long before every team is a presenting sponsor of scratch-offs or just plain old pick fives. "The change in policy was approved 32-0," said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. "So you can expect to see more deals soon."

It's a branding opportunity too big for the owners to ignore, and one a couple of dozen baseball franchises have enjoyed for years. The fact the NFL has been slower to act than those slack-brained Seligites is indicative of its complicated relationship with all forms of gambling. Consider this: Last Thursday, as the Pats and the Redskins finalized their new lottery deals, a lawyer representing the NFL argued before Delaware's Supreme Court that the state's newly signed sports betting law should be repealed.

The NFL betting is the face of opposition to sports gambling . And as much as it would like to share that responsibility with other leagues, that's not going to happen as long as more than 40% of all money legally wagered on games is bet on football. That's why the Brewers can do a multi-million dollar deal with a local casino, or the Celtics can make their own pact with the Mass lottery, and the response is, "Sweet, let's play." But when the NFL does it the stakes are higher, and everyone from NPR's Frank Deford to the Associated Press to the guys blogging at Deadspin will line up to play gotcha.

So I asked Aiello, who surely knew there'd be piling on, how the league can rail against being bait for sports bettors, then allow its franchises to be just that for lotteries, the most insidious and addictive form of gambling around. He emailed me this response: "We are not moral crusaders. NFL personnel are permitted to engage in legal forms of gambling, except for betting on NFL games. We are making a distinction here between the spread of gambling on the outcome of our games and supporting state lottery scratch-off games, that have nothing to do with the outcome of our games."

Here's where I should rip him. But, the thing is, he's right. Not to get Obama on you, but this is a complicated, nuanced issue. As much as lotteries are considered a tax on the poor, the NFL isn't a socially obligated government program -- it's just a business. Scratch-off's help the bottom line, sports betting doesn't. Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors … But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal.

Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors. And it's okay to mutter something obscene when the league pretends gambling doesn't help drive TV ratings and fan interest and put money in owners' pockets. But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal. The Bears should put an orange "C" on every deck of cards dealt at Harrah's in Joliet; the Eagles should slap their logo on roulette wheels at the Borgata in Atlantic City; the Dolphins should hold training camp at the El San Juan in Puerto Rico.

Seriously.

The NFL's problem, when it comes to the gambling world, isn't hypocrisy, it's worse: The bosses lack vision. That's why the league is picking unwinnable fights in Delaware and taking pot shots from critics after making smart sponsorship deals. Roger Goodell and his gang are acting and thinking locally rather than globally, which is rare for them, especially compared to their professional (and amateur) counterparts.

The NBA held its All Star game in Las Vegas and David Stern's kingdom didn't crumble (although the town did bring plenty of players to their knees.) I'd say it's 6 to 5 and pick 'em that Lebron will make a road swing through Sin City before his career is over.

Even the NCAA College Football Betting is more progressive on this issue than the NFL. Several years ago Rachel Newman Baker, college sports' gambling czar, opened a dialogue with Vegas bookmakers to learn about how they do business. She's visited Nevada sports books, studied their operations and listened to how they regulate action. Now she knows she can expect a call from bookmakers, who lose money when sports are fixed, if they think something sketchy is going on in NCAA games. She's not in favor of sports betting, but, as she once told me, "I know it's not going away, either."

The NFL can't seem to accept that. And until it can find peace with the idea, it'll get flack, even when it's right.

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