No superstars just good horses in Pacific Classic

Horseracing Betting Lines

08/25/2010 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The $1 million Pacific Classic guarantees the victor a spot in this year's Breeders' Cup Classic at Churchill Downs. It's unlikely that the horse will the favorite for the end-of-year race, but he will certainly get consideration.

Saturday's 20th Pacific Classic at Del Mar does not have any glamour names among the 10 entered. However, it's an excellent betting race that could produce big numbers.

Four-year-old gelding The Usual Q.T. is the 3-1 morning-line favorite. He will break from the far outside spot with Victor Espinoza again riding. Trained by Jim Cassidy, The Usual Q.T. is coming off a win in the Eddie Read Stakes at Del Mar on the turf. He races primarily on the grass, having won last year's Oak Tree and Hollywood Derbies on the infield.

"He's trained really well," Cassidy recently said. "Nothing riles him, nothing gets him upset. He's very happy. I've never - in early days maybe he was a little bit elusive. But right now, he's pretty quiet. He's laid back and he's quite happy with himself. He doesn't do anything silly. He gets himself a little worked up before a race. That's about it."

The Usual Q.T. has eight wins from 15 starts and a bankroll of just under $1 million. All of his victories have come on the turf and Saturday's event is on Del Mar's synthetic main track. The gelding was ninth in this year's Summer Millions Classic on Santa Anita's synthetic surface.

"He's learned to relax; it's made all the difference for him," Espinoza after the Eddie Read.

Defending Classic champ Richard's Kid is the 7-2 second choice. Last year he won the race as a 24-1 longshot over Einstein and Rail Trip. The five-year-old is trained by Bob Baffert and will start from post six with Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith back trying to duplicate last year's Pacific Classic victory tandem.

Richard's Kid is also on the verge of becoming a millionaire, he has won seven of 25 starts for $966,370. Along with a pair of seconds in his career, the veteran thoroughbred has finished third a total of seven times, including his last two starts in the Hollywood Gold Cup and Cougar II Handicap.

The 9-2 third pick is another veteran runner Awesome Gem. The richest horse in the race with more than $2.2 million in the bank, the seven-year-old gelding is trained by Craig Dollase for West Point Thoroughbreds.

This will be Awesome Gem's fourth time in the Classic, having been second to Student Council in 2007 and seventh the last two years. He captured the Hollywood Gold Cup on July 10, his seventh career win in 36 starts. Awesome Gem will start next to the favorite in the nine hole.

The rest of the field looks this way: Battle of Hastings, Brice Blanc, 10-1; Isle Of Giant's, Patrick Valenzuela, 30-1; Dakota Phone, Joel Rosario, 6-1; Temple City, Rafael Bejarano, 5-1; Unusual Suspect, Alonso Quinonez, 20-1; Hold Me Back, Garrett Gomez, 8-1 and Crowded House, Corey Nakatani, 20-1.

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NCAA Football Betting : USC's reward: Top spot in Top 25

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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