Betting Suggestions

Julien Leparoux picks up the mount on Union Rags in the Grade 2 event, the major prep race for the Florida Derby a month later.

Champagne Stakes winner Union Rags, runner-up to Hansen in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile after a wide trip, is 10-1 market leader for the Kentucky Derby with British bookmakers.

Castellano was aboard for both races and he also rode Algorithms – only 12-1 for Churchill Downs – when he beat Hansen in the Grade 3 Holy Bull on January 29.

Other factors beyond the ability of both contenders may well have influenced Castellano’s decision as Algorithms is trained by Todd Pletcher, who has an abundance of Triple Crown hopefuls this term.

As well as Algorithms, Castellano has also been riding the Pletcher-trained trio El Padrino, Discreet Dancer and Gemologist, all of whom are also on the Kentucky trail.

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In the lack of good NHL odds, I will play a bit with the NBA Propositions, because other bets in this sport are not my best point. Chris Paul will play tonight the 12th time against his good friend, James LeBron. So far, he lost six games against him, with 16.2 points and 9.5 assists in the eleven meetings. Chris Paul  has averaged 17.0 points and 10.7 assists in 11 games against Miami. Therefore, this time I am against statistics. However, I noticed something very interesting yesterday, Chris Paul had only three assists against Portland, the first time after a game against Philadelphia on Dec. 12, 2010. In the next game, the next day at Miami, he had 5 assists.

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After a dour goalless encounter at St Andrews, Wolves and Birmingham face off again for a place in the FA Cup fourth round with viewers hoping for a slightly more entertaining contest.

Possessing home advantage this time, Mick McCarthy’s troops are Skybet’s 21/20 favourites while Stan James price the Blues at 29/10 to cause a mini-upset at Molineux and it’s 12/5 with Betfred for another draw, leading on this occasion to extra-time.

It’s easy to see why the bookies have quoted the sides in this way, after all, Wolves are a Premiership team, playing on their own patch, against Championship opposition but this is the first of two derby clashes in the space of a few days for McCarthy’s men, who entertain Aston Villa on Saturday and there is no doubt about which game the Wanderers boss will consider more important.

McCarthy could make changes for this one then, which could prove decisive against a City side buoyed by an emphatic 6-0 victory at the weekend and punters can capitalise by backing a Birmingham smash-and-grab. For the b

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The New Orleans Saints are one of the favorites to win the NFC, but they have to take down the Detroit Lions first.

For the latest odds on the NFL playoffs to include the NFC Wild card game can be found at Bet Phoenix. With their Super Bowl title, string of postseason appearances and record-setting offense, it might be easy to forget that the New Orleans Saints were once one of the NFL’s lowliest franchises. When they begin their quest for another championship Saturday night at the Superdome, the Saints will face a Detroit Lions team that’s seeking to take another step in its turnaround. From its inaugural season in 1967 until the end of the 2005 campaign, New Orleans posted the third-lowest winning percentage in the NFL (.403) behind Tampa Bay (.392) and the Houston Texans (.281), who had been in existence for only four years. That changed with the arrivals of coach Sean Payton and quarterback Drew Brees in 2006. The Saints have gone 62-34 since, and that 64.6 winning percentage is tied for the sixth-best over that span. This season, New Orleans matched its 2009 Super Bowl-winning club’s franchise record of 13 wins and did so while Brees helped break a bevy of NFL offensive records. New Orleans (13-3) gained 7,474 yards, 399 more than the 2002 St. Louis Rams, and Brees blew away Dan Marino’s 27-yard-old single-season record with 5,476 passing yards. He also completed a record 468 passes – 46 for touchdowns – and finished with more than 300 yards in each of his last seven games, topping a mark he already held. One of those games was a 31-17 win over Detroit at the Superdome on Dec. 4 in which he threw for 342 yards and three TDs. Two of those scoring passes came in the second quarter as New Orleans built a 24-7 lead by halftime. At the time, Detroit was in the middle of a 2-5 stretch following its first 5-0 start in 55 years. The Lions rebounded with three straight wins to clinch their first playoff berth since 1999 and put their recent woes further behind. Among those was the only 0-16 finish in league history in 2008. Before their four consecutive wins to conclude last season’s 6-10 campaign, the Lions had dropped 47 of 52, including an NFL-record 26 straight on the road. Detroit (10-6) enters this game with one playoff victory since blowing out Cleveland for the 1957 NFL title. Earning another playoff win likely won’t prove easy with New Orleans having gone 8-0 at home for the first time and ending the season on an eight-game win streak. The Saints, seeking their fifth straight playoff win at the Superdome, will try to atone for a 41-36 loss in last season’s playoffs to a Seattle team that was the first to reach the postseason with a losing record. The Lions, 5-3 on the road, bring in their own 5,000-yard passer, former No. 1 overall pick Matthew Stafford. After dealing with injuries in each of his first two seasons, Stafford finished with 5,038 yards and 41 touchdowns, breaking Scott Mitchell’s single-season team records from 1995. Top receiver Calvin Johnson finished five yards shy of matching Herman Moore’s franchise record of 1,686 from that same season but set a team mark with 16 touchdowns among his 96 catches. Detroit is also expected to have safety Louis Delmas, a Pro Bowl alternate, and defensive lineman Ndamukong Suh available this time around. Delmas hasn’t played since spraining his right MCL on Thanksgiving Day and Suh was serving the first of a two-game suspension when the Lions visited the Superdome last month. The Saints have won all three meetings over the last four seasons. Brees threw for a career-high six TDs during a 45-27 home victory Sept. 13, 2009, and two in a 42-7 rout at Ford Field on Dec. 21, 2008. In his three career matchups, Brees has 1,051 yards, 11 TDs and one interception. Stafford has four interceptions and only one TD in his two games against New Orleans, but he threw for 408 yards during last month’s loss. The Lions, who have never faced the Saints in the playoffs, are 3-8 in New Orleans. They will look to change that around with a big win in the first round of the playoffs and advance to the next round.    

The record-breaking gelding is due to run at Laurel on Wednesday but trainer David Wells, speaking to Daily Racing Form, said: “We are a little bit concerned. It is kind of up in the air. 

“We are working as hard as we can to get it healed up for where it isn’t tender. It does bother him to push on it. It is a little spot, the size of a thumbnail.

“I hadthe blacksmith take off his glue-on shoes because we thought that was aggravating but it is all coming from where he grabbed himself.

“I hope we can have this little cut to where it does not bother him,” Wells added.

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