Public gets chance to see Rachel Alexandra on Friday

Horseracing Betting Lines

07/22/2010 - Oceanport, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Thoroughbred racing fans should be able to get an up-close look Friday afternoon at 2009 Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra at Monmouth Park. The four-year-old filly will be in the track's paddock in preparation for her Saturday start.

"She'll gallop at 5:45 tomorrow morning," assistant trainer Scott Blasi said Thursday. "We plan to school her in the paddock in the third race."

Rachel Alexandra arrived Tuesday morning at the New Jersey shore track from Saratoga for Saturday's $400,000 Lady's Secret Stakes. She had a final workout for the 1 1/8-mile race on Monday morning at Saratoga and was getting reacquainted with Monmouth Thursday morning.

"Rachel stood in the gate for a while and then had a nice, easy gallop," Blasi said. "She's really doing well. She was full of energy this morning."

Winner of Monmouth's Haskell Invitational in 2009, Rachel will school in the track's paddock during the Friday racing program. The field for the third race will be in the paddock at approximately 2:35 p.m. (et) and the race will go off around 3:05.

The Lady's Secret Stakes will have a field of seven fillies and mares.

Trained by Steve Asmussen, Rachel Alexandra will again be ridden by Calvin Borel and is a prohibitive 1-9 morning-line favorite. The filly began 2010 with two straight second-place finishes, then clobbered her foes by 10 1/2- lengths on June 12 in the Fleur de Lis at Churchill Downs.

Lightly raced Queen Martha is the 8-1 second choice for the Lady's Secret. The four-year-old filly has only six career starts, five of them in England. In her lone race in the U.S., she was second in an allowance race at Monmouth.

"I think we are running for second," said Queen Martha's trainer Patrick Biancone. "But second would be good."

Owned by Robert Trussell, the filly will break from post two with local jockey Joe Bravo riding.

Wwgoto Horseracing Betting News

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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.

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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.

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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.