Hymn Book captures Donn Handicap

Horseracing Betting Lines

02/11/2012 - Hallandale Beach, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Hymn Book, making his 2012 debut, outfought Mission Impazible down the stretch to win Saturday's $500,000 Donn Handicap at Gulfstream Park. The six-year-old gelding covered the 1 1/8- miles in 1:49.16 on a track listed as good.

Trained by Shug McGaughey, Hymn Book was 6-1 at post-time and settled comfortably into fifth less than four-lengths off the lead. Trickmeister set the pace up the backstretch with 2011 Preakness Stakes winner Shackleford in second.

Shackleford, the 3-1 favorite in the 11-horse field, pressed the leader while last year's Belmont Stakes champ Ruler On Ice was running in eighth. Hymn Book, ridden by John Velazquez, was forced to race wide around the far turn but was able to gain ground at the top of the stretch.

Mission Impazible and jockey Javier Castellano had the lead at the top of the stretch and had a length lead heading to the wire. Hymn Book was bumped in the stretch but still found something more to rally.

Hymn Book and Mission Impazible battled through the final 100 yards with Velazquez getting his mount up at the wire. Hymn Book registered a nose victory over Mission Impazible with Redeemed finishing third.

Where's Sterling, who bumped Hymn Book, finished fourth followed by Flat Out, Trickmeister, Shackleford, Ruler On Ice, Sangaree, Al Khali and Soaring Empire.

Hymn Book, who broke from an outside post, is owned by Stuart Janney III and picked up $300,000 for the win. The gelding now has seven career wins in 14 starts with better than $600,000 in earnings.

The six-year-old was second in the Cigar Mile in November after winning a minor stakes the previous month at Belmont Park. Earlier last year Hymn Book was second to Flat Out in the Suburban Handicap and sixth in the Bernard Baruch.

Hymn Book paid $15.00, $7.80 and $5.60. Mission Impazible returned $9.20 and $5.80, and Redeemed paid $4.60 to show.

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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.

Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"

A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."

Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.

In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.

"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."

Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.

But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"

Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.

This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.

Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.

In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.

No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.

And that's all any bettor can ask for.

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