Florida Derby wide open with 11 starters

Horseracing Betting Lines

03/17/2010 - Hallandale Beach, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A field of 11 three-year-olds has been entered for Saturday's $750,000 Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park. The 1 1/8- mile race is historically a major stepping stone on the road to the Kentucky Derby.

In 2009, Quality Road won Florida Derby and Fountain of Youth Stakes, and last month he came back to win the Donn Handicap.

Eskendereya, winner of this year's Fountain of Youth Stakes, will skip the Florida Derby for the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct on April 3.

Trainer Todd Pletcher will instead start highly regarded Rule in the race. The colt has won his last four starts, including the Sam F. Davis Stakes last month at Tampa Bay Downs.

For the Florida Derby, Rule will start from post seven with John Velazquez again in the saddle. Rule is owned by WinStar Farm and has career earnings of $716,700 in six starts with four wins.

A horse that will bring back a lot of memories is Lentenor, a full-brother to 2006 Florida and Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro. Lentenor is also owned by Roy and Gretchen Jackson and trained by Mike Matz.

Lentenor has drawn post two with Alan Garcia riding. The colt will be making his stakes debut on Saturday. In four career starts, he has one win, two seconds and a third for $42,200.

Pleasant Prince, fourth in the Fountain of Youth, will break from post four with Eclipse Award winner Julien Leparoux back to ride. The chestnut colt is trained by Wesley Ward for owners Ken and Sarah Ramsey.

In the Fountain of Youth, Pleasant Prince came from ninth to hit the board, more than 10-lengths behind the winner. The colt has earned $47,620 with one win in six starts.

Here is the complete field for the 59th Florida Derby in post position order: Soaring Empire, Eddie Castro; Lentenor, Alan Garcia; Pulsion, Corey Nakatani; Pleasant Prince, Julien Leparoux; Game On Dude, Jeremy Rose; First Dude, Ramon Dominguez; Rule, John Velazquez; Ice Box, Jose Lezcano; Miner's Reserve, Kent Desormeaux; Best Actor Javier Castellano and Radiohead, Edgar Prado.

Post-time for the Florida Derby is scheduled for 6:20 p.m. (et).

7decks Horseracing Betting News

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Now that Barry Bonds is signed and in Giants camp, it is on to his pursuit of all of sports most prestigious records: the all-time home run mark. Bonds sits just 21 homers shy of tying Hank Aaron for the career mark at 755. Word out of Giants’ camp is that Bonds is the healthiest he has been in a few years. Bonds is just two seasons removed from his injury riddled 2005 campaign where he played in only 14 games and hit only 5 home runs. He did come back last year and had a solid season hitting .270 with 26 bombs. All eyes will be on Bonds this spring and summer not only because of his home run chase but his highly publicized steroid abuse allegations. If and when Bonds breaks the record, he surely will not get the positive attention one should for breaking a record that was once thought of as “unbreakable”. Despite Bonds decent season last year, he is just 50-1 at MySportsbook.com to lead the MLB in long balls this season.

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Be sure to log onto online sports betting site MySportsbook.com to check out the odds for who will lead the MLB in home runs this season. Below is just a sample of the players listed. With the highest credit card rates in the industry, MySportsbook.com is the place to bet on baseball this summer.

World Series odds

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To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com - this sportsbook accepts credit cards.