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01/09/2012 - Hallandale Beach, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner Hansen will make his 2012 debut in the Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream Park on January 29. The three-year-old colt is owned by Dr. Kendall Hansen and trained by Mike Maker.
"This horse has been such a dream," Dr. Hansen said about the Eclipse Award finalist. "Right now, all I can think about is January 29 and the Holy Bull Stakes. I've never been to Gulfstream Park before and we have a group of about 20 or 30 people set to make the trip."
The Holy Bull comes 13 days after the 2011 Eclipse Awards are announced in Beverly Hills.
"In my mind, we've already won," said Dr. Hansen. "We're going to be involved in the six-month discussion leading up to the Kentucky Derby. Because the horse will be getting all of this recognition, I feel we've already won.
"I can understand the conflict voters have with Union Rags (Juvenile runner- up) getting a wide trip, but I think all you can do is settle it on the racetrack. That's what races are run for. We had our share of disadvantages too. If speed and the rail were good that day, we might have won by five lengths."
The other finalist for the Eclipse Award as champion two-year-old male is Creative Cause who was third in the Juvenile. The colt had won the Norfolk Stakes at Santa Anita along with the Best Pal at Del Mar.
Hansen defeated 11-10 favorite Union Rags by a head after setting most of the pace in the 1 1/16-mile race. Creative Cause was another length back as the 5-1 second choice.
Last year Dialed In won the Holy Bull on his way to capturing the Florida Derby. The colt would go off as the 5-1 favorite in the 2011 Kentucky Derby, but finish eighth.
<< South Carolina CB Gilmore to enter NFL Draft
Columbia, SC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - South Carolina cornerback Stephon Gilmore has
decided to forgo his senior season to enter the NFL Draft.
Gilmore started all 40 games for the Gamecocks over the past three seasons,
earning first-team All-S
<< Messi named 2011 Ballon d'Or winner
Zurich, Switzerland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Barcelona forward Lionel Messi was
named the 2011 FIFA Ballon d'Or winner on Monday, claiming the honor for the
third successive year.
Messi beat out Barcelona teammate Xavi Hernandez and Cristia
<< Chargers won't opt out of lease this year
San Diego, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Chargers are staying in San Diego, at
least for another year.
In a joint statement issued Monday, the Chargers and San Diego Mayor Jerry
Sanders say the team will not trigger a termination clau
<< Vikings' Greenway added to Pro Bowl roster
Eden Prairie, MN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Minnesota Vikings linebacker Chad Greenway
has been added to the NFC Pro Bowl team as an injury replacement for Chicago's
Lance Briggs.
Greenway will appear in his first Pro Bowl after recording a personal
Barry Larkin elected to Hall of Fame >>
Cooperstown, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Cincinnati Reds shortstop Barry Larkin
has been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
After falling short in his previous two tries and coming within 75 votes of
election in 2011, Larkin was name
Pietrus close to making Celtics debut >>
Waltham, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Celtics forward Mickael Pietrus says he is
close to making his season debut after missing the first two weeks while
rehabbing from arthroscopic right knee surgery.
The Celtics signed Pietrus on Decem
SE Louisiana to get former Superdome turf >>
Hammond, LA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Southeastern Louisiana will upgrade the turf at
Strawberry Stadium in a $525,000 project, the Southland Conference university
announced Monday.
The stadium's first turf upgrade since the return of football to S
Weekend of surprises indicates overall balance >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Florida, boosting the nation's most
efficient offense, didn't break 30 in either half during a defeat Saturday to
Tennessee.
Georgetown didn't have an answer for Kevin Jones in a loss to middle-of-the-
ro
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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Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).
Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.
Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).
Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.
Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.
The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.
What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.
Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.
But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.
In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.
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