Quality Road headlines Met Mile

Horseracing Betting Lines

05/28/2010 - Elmont, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Horse of the Year candidate Quality Road heads a field of eight older horses for Monday's $500,000 Metropolitan Handicap (Met Mile) at Belmont Park. The Met Mile has a scheduled post-time of 5:50 p.m. (et).

Quality Road, second in the current NTRA Thoroughbred Poll, has drawn post seven with John Velazquez again in the saddle. The four-year-old colt is owned by Edward Evans and trained by Todd Pletcher.

Perfect in two starts this year, Quality Road has not run since winning the Donn Handicap in February at Gulfstream Park. In January, he captured the Hal's Hope Stakes at the south Florida track.

"You want to make sure they are ready to run," Pletcher said. "This is a tough spot, but we think we know him well enough and know that he's run well fresh enough times that we have an idea of what he needs to be ready."

In 2009 as a three-year-old, Quality Road was on his way to the Kentucky Derby until an injury put him off the trail. He won the Fountain of Youth Stakes and Florida Derby at Gulfstream.

He returned with a victory in the Amsterdam Stakes at Saratoga and was third to Summer Bird in the Travers. The colt ended 2009 with a second-place finish behind Summer Bird in the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park. In his career Quality Road has won six of nine starts for more than $1.3 million.

Westchester Handicap winner Le Grand Cru will start from the outside post next to Quality Road with Cornelio Velasquez riding. The five-year-old is trained by Allen Jerkens for Judson Streicher.

Le Grand Cru has just the one win this year in five starts and finished sixth to Quality Road in the Hal's Hope. In his career the five-year-old has earned $433,578 with five wins in 18 starts.

"It looks like it's going to be a really tough race," noted assistant trainer Fernando Abreu, "but our horse is doing well."

Trainer Derek Ryan will send Musket Man over from Monmouth Park for the Met Mile. The four-year-old colt, owned by Eric Fein, will be ridden by Ramon Dominguez from post three.

Musket Man is coming off a third-place finish in the Churchill Downs on Kentucky Derby Day. He won the Super Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs in February and was second to Warrior's Reward in the Carter Hadicap at Aqueduct in April.

With wins in the Illinois and Tampa Bay Derbies last year, Musket Man has earnings of just over $1 million with six wins in 11 career starts.

Here is the complete field for the Met Mile in post position order: Convocation, Kent Desormeaux; Tizway, Rajiv Maragh; Musket Man, Ramon Dominguez; Warrior's Reward, Calvin Borel; Kensei, Edgar Prado; You and I Forever, Javier Castellano; Quality Road, John Velazquez and Le Grand Cru, Cornelio Velasquez.

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Big East Conference odds

Work left to do: Villanova, Syracuse, DePaul, West Virginia, Providence

Notre Dame and Louisville appear to have done enough to make the move, so we'll make them locks. The Cardinals, despite a modest RPI, are trending way up and have clinched at least a tie for third in the Big East, which should be more than enough with their pair of big road wins. Villanova got back to .500 and gets back to more solid footing. Syracuse got a very important road win and crippled a fellow contender in the process. West Virginia's fate could be in its hands Tuesday at Pitt.

Work left to do:

Villanova [18-9 (7-7), RPI: 21, SOS: 5] Pounded Rutgers to get back to .500. If Cats can get their last two (at UConn, vs. Syracuse), that should be enough with strong computer numbers and a host of wins away from The Pavilion. The Cats have beaten Texas and swept the Big 5 (never easy in Philly), but have a couple of losses to bubble teams (Xavier, Drexel), too. I still think they'll be OK, possibly even at 8-8.

Syracuse [20-8 (9-5), RPI: 53, SOS: 62] History says 10 wins will be plenty, but it might be hard for the Orange to get that last one with a final two vs. G'town, which is trying to win the league title, and at Villanova, which will be desperate for a W. The relative lack of nonconference heft and the weak computer numbers are still concerns, but the Orange have won four in a row and got a very, very big win at Providence on Saturday.

DePaul [16-12 (8-7), RPI: 54, SOS: 18] Beat Cincy and should get past South Florida to get to 9-7, but then what? They have beaten Kansas and Cal (right after the DeVon Hardin injury) earlier this season, but also have lost to Bradley and Purdue, among others. They'll likely need a couple of BE tourney wins, too, but we'll see ...

West Virginia [19-7 (8-6), RPI: 58, SOS: 125] The game at Pitt on Tuesday night could decide the Mountaineers' fate (barring a deep tournament run). They can still get to 9-7 in the Big East without it by beating Cincinnati, but the nine wins would be against UConn, Villanova, St. John's, South Florida, DePaul, Rutgers, Seton Hall twice and the Bearcats. Beating bubble foes is fine, but where's the beef? Outside of beating PG-less UCLA in nonconference play (still a top quality win), there's not a lot to fall back on (besides maybe NC State). WVU vs. Syracuse would be an interesting debate, as the teams don't play in the Big East regular season. WVU has the best win, but Cuse has played the much better schedule.

Providence [17-10 (7-7), RPI: 70, SOS: 33] The Friars likely saw their at-large hopes die at home in the four-point loss to Syracuse, barring an unexpected run to the Big East semis or more. The RPI, bad already, won't be helped by playing St. John's and South Florida in the final two league games.

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