Snow Chief dies from heart attack

Horseracing Betting Lines

05/18/2010 - Paso Robles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former champion thoroughbred Snow Chief has died at the age of 27 from an apparent heart attack. The 1986 Preakness Stakes winner died on Saturday at Eagle Oak Ranch.

Snow Chief was bred and co-owned by Carl Grinstead and trained by Mel Stute. The colt was voted 1986 champion three-year-old male following victories in the El Camino Real Derby, Florida Derby, Santa Anita Derby, Preakness and Jersey Derby.

Ridden by Alex Solis, Snow Chief was the 2-1 favorite for the 1986 Kentucky Derby. After racing near the leaders he finished a tiring 11th to Ferdinand and jockey Bill Shoemaker. He was held out of the Belmont Stakes.

As a four-year-old in 1987 Snow Chief won the Strub Stakes at Santa Anita and the Oaklawn Handicap at Oaklawn Park. He finished his career with 13 wins in 24 starts and $3.3 million.

Sndbox Horseracing Betting News

<< Razzano moves on in Strasbourg
Strasbourg, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Third-seeded French crowd favorite Virginie Razzano highlighted Tuesday's opening-round winners at the $220,000 Strasbourg International, a final French Open tune-up. Razzano held off Taipei's Ka

<< Blue Jays homer four times in rout of Twins
Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Aaron Hill smacked a three-run home run as the Toronto Blue Jays dominated the Minnesota Twins, 11-2, to split a two-game set. Lyle Overbay went 2-for-4 with a two-run home run and three RBI, Vernon

<< Li wins; Bartoli falls in Warsaw
Warsaw, Poland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Third-seeded Li Na posted a win, while former Wimbledon runner-up Marion Bartoli came up a first-round loser Tuesday at the $600,000 Warsaw Open, a final French Open tune-up. The Chinese Li got past

<< Barca signs Milito to one-year extension
Barcelona, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Barcelona defender Gabriel Milito has agreed to a one-year contract extension. The 29-year-old Argentina international has overcome an injury-plagued start to life at the Camp Nou to become a first-

<< World Cup 2010 Preview: Capello leads rejuvenated England
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A disappointing exit in the quarterfinals of the 2006 World Cup was followed by a failure to qualify for Euro 2008, leaving English soccer fans to wonder how bad things could get. England's lone Wo

U.S. splits singles matches with Spain >>
Dusseldorf, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The United States and Spain split a pair of singles matches Tuesday at the ATP World Team Championship, a final clay-court French Open tune-up. Robby Ginepri was called on by the U.S. to

Quentin, White Sox take down Tigers >>
Detroit, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Carlos Quentin went 3-for-4 with two RBI and a run scored as the Chicago White Sox took a 6-2 win over the Detroit Tigers in an abbreviated two-game series. Juan Pierre had two RBI and two runs scored wh

AL West: Angels hoping to make up ground >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - As we near the quarter-post of the Major League Baseball season, it's usually a good tipping point to separate the contenders from the pretenders. Although some may start slow, the true contenders won't be held down for l

Cudicini signs one-year deal with Tottenham >>
Portsmouth, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former Chelsea goalie Carlo Cudicini has signed a new one-year contract with Tottenham. The Italian has been sidelined for the last six months after being involved in a motorbike accident which resu

Onyewu to play one year at AC Milan for free >>
Milan, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - AC Milan has handed United States defender Oguchi Onyewu a one-year contract extension after he agreed to play for them for free. The 29-year-old made just one appearance for the Rossoneri this season b

FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million

Football Betting

In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.

And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.

Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.

So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.

Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)

The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.

As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.

The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.

In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.

Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.

And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.

So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.

There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.

So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.

And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.

There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)

Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.

Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.

Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.

So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.

NFL Betting Lines

To visit this sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your college football betting needs.

SPORTS BETTING: NFL Football Sportsbook Betting

NFL owners, already life's biggest winners, want to try their luck with the lottery.


That was the news out of their meetings last week, where team bosses voted unanimously to allow stamping state and local lottery tickets with franchise logos, if, ahem, any governments wanted to do a deal.

A shocker: Within days the Pats announced they'd be sponsoring the Massachusetts state lottery, the Skins said they'd slap their sticker on Virginia scratch-offs and the Ravens admitted they were talking to Maryland lottery bosses. In all likelihood, it won't be long before every team is a presenting sponsor of scratch-offs or just plain old pick fives. "The change in policy was approved 32-0," said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. "So you can expect to see more deals soon."

It's a branding opportunity too big for the owners to ignore, and one a couple of dozen baseball franchises have enjoyed for years. The fact the NFL has been slower to act than those slack-brained Seligites is indicative of its complicated relationship with all forms of gambling. Consider this: Last Thursday, as the Pats and the Redskins finalized their new lottery deals, a lawyer representing the NFL argued before Delaware's Supreme Court that the state's newly signed sports betting law should be repealed.

The NFL betting is the face of opposition to sports gambling . And as much as it would like to share that responsibility with other leagues, that's not going to happen as long as more than 40% of all money legally wagered on games is bet on football. That's why the Brewers can do a multi-million dollar deal with a local casino, or the Celtics can make their own pact with the Mass lottery, and the response is, "Sweet, let's play." But when the NFL does it the stakes are higher, and everyone from NPR's Frank Deford to the Associated Press to the guys blogging at Deadspin will line up to play gotcha.

So I asked Aiello, who surely knew there'd be piling on, how the league can rail against being bait for sports bettors, then allow its franchises to be just that for lotteries, the most insidious and addictive form of gambling around. He emailed me this response: "We are not moral crusaders. NFL personnel are permitted to engage in legal forms of gambling, except for betting on NFL games. We are making a distinction here between the spread of gambling on the outcome of our games and supporting state lottery scratch-off games, that have nothing to do with the outcome of our games."

Here's where I should rip him. But, the thing is, he's right. Not to get Obama on you, but this is a complicated, nuanced issue. As much as lotteries are considered a tax on the poor, the NFL isn't a socially obligated government program -- it's just a business. Scratch-off's help the bottom line, sports betting doesn't. Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors … But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal.

Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors. And it's okay to mutter something obscene when the league pretends gambling doesn't help drive TV ratings and fan interest and put money in owners' pockets. But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal. The Bears should put an orange "C" on every deck of cards dealt at Harrah's in Joliet; the Eagles should slap their logo on roulette wheels at the Borgata in Atlantic City; the Dolphins should hold training camp at the El San Juan in Puerto Rico.

Seriously.

The NFL's problem, when it comes to the gambling world, isn't hypocrisy, it's worse: The bosses lack vision. That's why the league is picking unwinnable fights in Delaware and taking pot shots from critics after making smart sponsorship deals. Roger Goodell and his gang are acting and thinking locally rather than globally, which is rare for them, especially compared to their professional (and amateur) counterparts.

The NBA held its All Star game in Las Vegas and David Stern's kingdom didn't crumble (although the town did bring plenty of players to their knees.) I'd say it's 6 to 5 and pick 'em that Lebron will make a road swing through Sin City before his career is over.

Even the NCAA College Football Betting is more progressive on this issue than the NFL. Several years ago Rachel Newman Baker, college sports' gambling czar, opened a dialogue with Vegas bookmakers to learn about how they do business. She's visited Nevada sports books, studied their operations and listened to how they regulate action. Now she knows she can expect a call from bookmakers, who lose money when sports are fixed, if they think something sketchy is going on in NCAA games. She's not in favor of sports betting, but, as she once told me, "I know it's not going away, either."

The NFL can't seem to accept that. And until it can find peace with the idea, it'll get flack, even when it's right.

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your Sportsbook accepts MasterCard needs.