Fever knocks Recapturetheglory out of Preakness

Horseracing Betting Lines

05/11/2008 - Baltimore, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Recapturetheglory, fifth in the Kentucky Derby, has been declared out of the Preakness Stakes after showing a fever Friday night.

"We took his temperature last night (Friday)," assistant trainer Lara Van Deren said Saturday morning from Louisville. "He just wasn't acting right. He was backing up against the gate in the stall and he never does that. This morning his temperature was over 102."

Co-owner Ronnie Lamarque made the official announcement Saturday that the Illinois Derby winner will not run in the second leg of racing's Triple Crown.

"The racehorse comes first," said Lamarque, who teamed up with co-owner and trainer Louie Roussel to win the Preakness 20 years ago with Risen Star. "He had a slight temperature plus a slight pulse in his right front toe. For betterment of racing we are electing to give this horse some time and let him regroup. We are sorry we will not be coming to Baltimore but I know it is going to be a great race. We are really going to miss the Preakness experience. We felt we had a live chance to turn the tables on Big Brown."

Van Deren said Sunday that Recapturetheglory was doing much better a day after running a 102-degree temperature.

"Yesterday was real tough," Van Deren said. "He will probably leave tomorrow for Chicago and miss three or four days of training."

The defection of Recapturetheglory means that for the first time in 60 years no other horses from the Kentucky Derby will challenge Big Brown.

Trainer Dallas Stewart has informed Pimlico that Derby Trial champ Macho Again will start in the Preakness.

"We have been looking at the field," Stewart said. "We know Big Brown is there but we feel we can compete with those other horses. Looking at the race I think we have an excellent shot of beating a lot of horses in the race. It is a good field but we feel we fit."

Macho Again will be ridden by Julien Leparoux, who was aboard for the Derby Trial victory.

"The horse has been doing well since the race," added Stewart. "You got a marquee race. Everybody wants to run in these three Triple Crown races. One horse is not going to scare everybody. If Big Brown does not perform, you have a chance to win the Preakness."

Owned by West Point Thoroughbreds, Macho Again walked the shedrow Sunday morning at Churchill Downs' Barn 35 after working a half-mile in :50.80 the day before.

Also on Sunday morning at Churchill Downs, Kentucky Derby winner Big Brown jogged one mile with Michelle Nevin up accompanied by a pony.

Tres Borrachos. the third-place finisher in the Arkansas Derby, galloped 1 miles under Andy Durnin and was outfitted in blinkers for the first time.

"In his races, horses would come up to him and he'd back up a little and then come again," trainer and co-owner Beau Greely said about the use of blinkers. "I want to see what Andy thinks about them, but it looks like he was relaxed galloping today. He may have them on when he works Tuesday and then we'll make a decision."

Stevil galloped 1 miles under Dylan Armstrong in Louisville for trainer Nick Zito and also walking the shedrow was Racecar Rhapsody. The Ken McPeek-trainee had worked five furlongs in 1:01 on Saturday.

With the Preakness post position draw slated for Wednesday, there are now 12 confirmed starters. Harlem Rocker is listed as possible.

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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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