Eight in Alabama, no 'Rachel'
Horseracing Betting Lines
08/19/2009 - Saratoga Springs, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Even though the three-year-old filly division has already been decided, eight sophomore females have been entered in Saturday's $600,000 Alabama Stakes at Saratoga Race Course. Division leader Rachel Alexandra is not one those slated to start and her next race is still unknown.
Coming down from Canada for the 1 1/4 mile Alabama is Milwaukee Appeal, winner of the Woodbine Oaks in Toronto. The daughter of two-time Santa Anita Handicap winner Milwaukee Brew will start from the outside post with John Velazquez getting the mount.
The filly is owned by C.E.C. Farms and trained by Scott Fairlie. Since beating fillies in the Oaks in June, Milwaukee Appeal has taken on the boys in the first two legs of the Canadian Triple Crown.
She was third to Eye of the Leopard in the Queen's Plate, beaten by just a neck. In the Prince of Wales at Fort Erie, Milwaukee Appeal was nosed out for the win by Gallant.
"She ran a great race," jockey Stewart Elliott said after the Queen's Plate. "She gave everything she had out there."
Milwaukee Appeal has won five of 11 career starts for $747,371. This year she has earned $568,276 with two wins in five starts.
Funny Moon, winner of the Coaching Club American Oaks, has drawn post three with Alan Garcia again in the saddle. The chestnut filly and Garcia have won four of six starts for $265,900, all this year.
Trained by Christophe Clement for Mrs. C. Wilson McNeely III, Funny Moon was a disappointing eighth in the Acorn Stakes in early June.
"It's still a bit of a puzzle why she ran the way she did in the Acorn," Clement noted following the American Oaks victory.
Delaware Oaks champ Careless Jewel will put her three race win streak on the line in the Alabama. The gray filly will be ridden by Robert Landry from post five.
Careless Jewel won the Delaware Oaks wire-to-wire as a 10-1 longshot. Owned by Donver Stable, the filly has won three of four starts for $222,846.
"Josie (trainer Josie Carroll) has a done tremendous job with this filly," Landry said about the three-year-old's conditioner.
Here is the complete field for the Alabama in post position order: Sweet and Flawless, Ramon Dominguez; Wynning Ride, Kent Desormeaux; Funny Moon, Alan Garcia; Don't Forget Gil, Rajiv Maragh; Careless Jewel, Robert Landry; Be Fair, Julien Leparoux; Casanova Move, Jose Lezcano and Milwaukee Appeal, John Velazquez.
The Alabama has a scheduled post-time of 5:47 P.M. (et).
Proud Spell, eventual three-year-old filly champion, won the 2008 Alabama Stakes.
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NCAA Football Betting : USC's reward: Top spot in Top 25NEW YORK (AP) -By staying away from the cupcakes, Southern California earned itself a slim new ranking.
No. 1 always seems to fit USC.
Southern California jumped two spots to No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 on Tuesday, rewarded by voters for opening the season with a dominant performance on the road against a BCS conference opponent.
Georgia and Ohio State, the preseason Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, started their seasons with glorified scrimmages at home against FCS (formerly I-AA) teams. USC, however, traveled across country to face Virginia and could not have been more impressive in a 52-7 victory.
Georgia fell to No. 2 and Ohio State to No 3.
"We realize that rankings so early in a season are certainly fluid. But rankings do help establish a pecking order for things later in the season," USC coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. "As for moving into the No. 1 spot, it's nice to know that people think highly of our team."
Since reaching No. 1 on Dec. 7, 2003, the final-regular season AP poll of that season, USC has been No. 1 in 39 polls, by far the most of any team during that time.
"Some have said the voters are taking our schedule into consideration," Carroll said. "Our philosophy has always been to schedule outstanding opponents. We need to play challenging games like we just did, traveling across the country to open the season at Virginia. Games like that bring out our best and make us stronger as a team."
The latest voting was close. USC received 21 first-place votes and 1,539 points from the 65-member media panel. Georgia had 20 first-place votes and 1,506 points. Ohio State got 15 first-place votes and 1,497 points.
"I'd say we've evolved as pollsters," said Stewart Mandel of SI.com, who moved USC up to No. 1. "In the past, voters just kind of automatically moved teams up and kept teams where they were if they won."
Georgia beat Georgia Southern 45-21 on Saturday and Ohio State opened with a 43-0 win over Youngstown State.
"There's a bit of a growing backlash for the amount of teams that open with I-AA cupcakes," said Mandel, whose book "Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls" chronicles college football's controversies. "To see a team [USC] go on the road and play a New Year's Day bowl team from last season, and not only play them but destroy them, how could you not reward that team?"
USC also jumped past Georgia to No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' poll, which has the same top five as the AP poll.
"It's definitely a privilege to be No. 1. But it's not heartbreaking to me if we drop," Georgia offensive lineman Josh Davis said. "It doesn't matter right now what we're ranked. What matters is our next game and right now, that's Central Michigan. The only time the polls matter is in December. That's when the polls matter."
While the Bulldogs opened easy, their schedule ultimately should be as difficult as any team's. Georgia's big nonconference test is at No. 15 Arizona State on Sept. 20. The Bulldogs also face six Southeastern Conference rivals that've been ranked in the first two polls.
As for Ohio State, the Buckeyes play at USC on Sept. 13 before getting into the Big Ten schedule.
But of the teams in this week's top 10, USC and Texas are the only ones that don't play an FCS opponent, and the Trojans are the only team that doesn't play a team from a non-BCS conference.
Get the latest 2009 BCS Championship odds at MySportsbook.com.
The last team to drop from No. 1 after a victory was USC last season. LSU jumped from No. 2 to No. 1 when it beat Tulane 34-9, the same week the Trojans edged Washington 27-24 on the road.
The last preseason No. 1 team to lose the top spot after winning its opening game was Florida in 2001. The Gators beat Marshall 49-14, but preseason No. 2 Miami opened with a 33-7 victory over Penn State and the Hurricanes jumped to No. 1 with Florida slipping to second.
The next four teams in the new Top 25 stayed the same: No. 4 Oklahoma (two first-place votes), No. 5 Florida (five first-place votes), No. 6 Missouri (one first-place vote), No. 7 LSU (one first-place vote) and No. 8 West Virginia.
No. 9 Auburn and No. 10 Texas each moved up a spot, taking advantage of Clemson's big drop. Clemson, ninth in the preseason, fell out after losing 34-10 to Alabama on Saturday.
Also falling out after losses were Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and Tennessee.
Moving into the rankings were No. 21 Fresno State, No. 22 Utah, No. 23 UCLA and No. 24 South Carolina.
Alabama moved up 11 spots after its big victory over Clemson.
The second 10 started with No. 11 Wisconsin, followed by Texas Tech, Alabama and Kansas. BYU and Arizona State were tied for 15th. Rivals BYU and Utah are both ranked for the first time since 1996.
South Florida was No. 17, ahead of Oregon, Penn State and Wake Forest at No. 20.
The final five were all the teams to move into the ranking, except for Illinois, which dropped four spots and tied South Carolina for No. 24.
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