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05/01/2008 - Louisville, KY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - This year marks the 30th anniversary of the last Triple Crown winner in thoroughbred history. Affirmed out fought Alydar in the three races to become the third Triple Crown winner in the 1970's.
There have been plenty of near misses since Affirmed ran off the three victories, but still no Triple crown winner. This year 20 three-year-olds are set to finally break the drought, but with no "Super Horse" in the Run for the Roses don't expect a sweep in 2008.
The morning-line only has three horses listed at less than 10-1, Big Brown is the favorite at 3-1, Colonel John is 4-1 and Pyro is the third choice at 6-1. Had Pyro put in a winning effort in the Blue Grass Stakes he would be the favorite by a sizable margin.
"He doesn't seem to get bothered or rattled by anything," said Eoin Harty, trainer of Colonel John. "He's certainly traveling very well and he seems to get stronger the further he gallops. These are all positive signs and you've got to hang your hat on every positive sign like that."
The trouble with Big Brown is he has only three career starts and the Florida Derby was his first stakes race. Of course, these days lack of experience is quickly becoming a non-factor.
"It's a horse race, and I have the best horse in the race. It's that simple," said Big Brown's trainer Rick Dutrow. "We're going to Kentucky to win, anything less than that is not going to be okay with us. There's such good karma going around the stable now that I don't see how he can get beat."
After Pyro, four are 15-1 in the program with another nine horses grouped at 20-1. Three have been slotted at 30-1 with Big Truck the outsider at 50-1.
We even have a filly, Eight Belles, in the field. However, at morning-line odds of 15-1 she is not considered a special horse.
"We came so close last year with Hard Spun," said Eight Belles owner Rick Porter. "We do think she belongs and we have a chance to make history. If you don't run, you can't win. Right now, you don't know how good Big Brown is, and no one is sure how good Eight Belles is either."
The difference in surfaces looks to have been a factor in determining the morning-line. Monba won the Blue Grass Stakes on an all-weather surface and is 15-1. Blue Grass runner-up Cowboy Cal is 20-1 as is Bob Black Jack who was second to Colonel John in the Santa Anita Derby.
Gayego won the Arkansas Derby on dirt, his only start not on an all-weather surface, and is 15-1 in the morning-line. Pyro hated the artifical track in the Blue Grass after success on dirt surfaces.
"He's as good as he can be for this and he's coming up to it as well as we could have wanted," noted Gayego's trainer Paulo Lobo. "On Saturday I won't give (jockey) Mike Smith any instructions. That's the nice part of having a rider like him. He knows the horse and he knows what to do."
We don't know if the rest of the field is a lot of junk or champions waiting to emerge.
Smooth Air has had success on sloppy tracks and since rain on Friday and Saturday is possible he gets a look see.
Z Fortune has just one bad race in six career starts. With Steve Asmussen training and Robby Albarado riding, Z Fortune gets strong consideration.
Adriano, 30-1, won the the Lane's End Stakes after a ninth in the Fountain of Youth Stakes. However, two of his wins came on all-weather surfaces and the other victory was on the turf.
"I don't know how he's going to behave in front of 160,000 people, but I'm really impressed how well he's done," said Adriano's trainer Graham Motion about the colt's improved behavior since arriving at Churchill Downs.
There are simply too many questions marks in this year's Kentucky Derby.
Now that Big Brown will break from the 20th hole on the far outside, he cannot be considered the horse to beat anymore. Either he will be used up to get to the lead or he will run a completely different type of race than he has ever run before.
"Actually, we're kind of glad," trainer Rick Dutrow said about the outside post. "I'd rather have this post than a lot of other ones. It might be too far out there, but we were willing to accept that challenge."
With so much speed in this year's Kentucky Derby, Pyro of the Louisiana Derby should have things his way. Colonel John, if he likes the dirt, is in the mix and Smooth Air based on his prior success in the slop will be the longshot to boost the exotics.
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NEW 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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