Lava Man odds-on to win Oak Tree Mile

Horseracing Betting Lines

10/06/2007 - Arcadia, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Lava Man, the winner of six career turf races, is the 4-5 morning-line favorite for Sunday's $250,000 Oak Tree Mile at Santa Anita Park. The winner of the one mile grass race will gain automatic entry into the Breeders' Cup Mile through the "Win and You're In" program.

Owned by STD Racing and Jason Wood, Lava Man will start from post two the six horse field. Corey Nakatani again will be in the saddle as the six- year-old tries to get back to the winner's circle.

Lava Man, trained by Doug O'Neill, was held out of last week's Goodwood Stakes which was won by Tiago. The gelding is coming off a sixth place finish the Pacific Classic at Del Mar, an event which he won 2006.

"I think we're going to need to see a real strong performance for us to think about going to New Jersey, and, you know, it's pretty obvious his record outside California's been pretty dismal," said O'Neill. "So for us even to think about putting him on a plane and heading towards New Jersey we're going to have to see a really solid performance, the way he's training and, you know, he's telling us that he's going to give us a solid performance. So we'll kind of wait and see."

Lava Man has won 17 of 41 career starts for better than $5.2 million, which makes him the richest active thoroughbred North America. This year he won the Sunshine Millions Turf along with the Santa Anita Handicap and Hollywood Gold Cup. Last year the Breeders' Cup Classic at Churchill Downs he was a disappointing seventh.

Here is the complete field for the Oak Tree Mile post position order: Surf Cat, Alex Solis 9-5; Lava Man, Corey Nakatani 4-5; Out of Control, Michael Baze 6-1; Zann Aaron Gryder 15-1; Get Funky, Jose Valdivia, Jr. 10-1 and Courtnall, David Flores 15-1.

This year's Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships will be conducted on Friday and Saturday, October 26 and 27 at Monmouth Park.

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Big 12 Conference betting odds

Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State

Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.

Work left to do:

Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.

Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.

Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.