Sportswriter headlines Meadowlands Pace

Horseracing Betting Lines

07/14/2010 - East Rutherford, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Sportswriter, winner of the North America Cup, will take on nine rivals in Saturday's $1 million Meadowlands Pace at The Meadowlands. The field of 10 three-year-old pacers will leave the starting gate at 10 p.m. (et).

The 2009 champion two-year-old male pacer barely got into the race after finishing fourth in his elimination race. The first three across the wire in the three elimination heats automatically gained entry into the Pace. Sportswriter, driven by Mark MacDonald, was the fastest of the three fourth- place finishers.

The three elimination race winners were Rock N Roll Heaven, Rockin Image and Ok Commander. Each heat was valued at $50,000.

Sportswriter, trained by Casie Coleman, has eight career wins in 13 starts for $1,562,460. In 2010 the colt has just one win, The North America Cup, in five starts for $746,780.

Sportswriter, owned by Steve Calhoun, West Wins Stable and Southwind Farm, will start from the far outside post.

"He's a warrior," MacDonald said about his drive. "It seems like we've always got something to overcome with this horse. He's just such a game horse. One of these days, everything is going to come together for this horse. It's been one thing after another, but he seems to show up for the big dances. That's the main thing."

A win will make Sportswriter the ninth horse to win both the North America Cup and Meadowlands Pace. Last year Well Said turned the double joining Rocknroll Hanover (2005), Gallo Blue Chip (2000), The Panderosa (1999), David's Pass (1995), Cam's Card Shark (1994), Presidential Ball (1993) and Precious Bunny (1991).

Here is the full field for the Meadowlands Pace in post position order: Kyle Major, Jody Jamieson, 15-1; Rockin Image, Yannick Gingras, 3-1; Rock N Roll Heaven, John Campbell, 5-2; Valentino, George Brennan, 15-1; I'm Gorgeous, Andy Miller, 12-1; Delmarvalous, Brian Sears, 12-1; Nova Artist, Brian Sears, 15-1; One More Laugh, Tim Tetrick, 9-2; Fred And Ginger, Dave Palone, 10-1 and Sportswriter, Mark MacDonald, 6-1.

Delmarvalous, fourth in his elimination, replaced OK Commander who was scratched due to lameness. OK Commander developed an abscess in his right front leg after winning his Meadowlands Pace elimination.

Delmarvalous is trained by George Teague, Jr. who also trains I'm Gorgeous.

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FOOTBALL TRASH TALK

NFL Football Trash Talk

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.