Frostad has three for 151st Queen's Plate

Horseracing Betting Lines

07/01/2010 - Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Trainer Mark Frostad and Sam-Son Farm go after a second straight victory in Sunday's $1 million Queen's Plate at Woodbine Race Course. The 1 1/4-mile race is the beginning a the Canadian Triple Crown.

Queen Elizabeth II will be in attendance for the 151st Queen's Plate.

Following last year's Queen's Plate win with Eye of the Leopard, trainer and owner have entered three in Canada's premier thoroughbred event. A total of 13 Canadian-bred three-year-olds have been entered.

The three horses that Frostad will saddle are 3-1 favorite Hotep, Dark Cloud Dancer and Giant's Tomb. Trainer and owner won the Plate in 2000 and 2001 with Scatter the Gold and Dancethruthedawn, respectively, as well as last year.

Hotep will be ridden by Patrick Husbands from post 11. Husbands won the Plate aboard Wando in 2003.

"He should be spot on for the race," noted Frostad. "He has a good stalking style and a good kick."

The colt is coming off a second-place finish to Exhi in the Marine Stakes on May 29. Hotep had won the Wando at Woodbine on May 8 in his first local start of the year.

"He gets pretty revved up. He just gets on his toes and uses a lot of energy in his races," said Frostad. "We wanted to give him five weeks into the Plate. We wanted him in good order for the big race."

Earlier this year Hotep raced at the Fair Grounds in New Orleans. He was 10th in the Risen Star Stakes and 11th in the Louisiana Derby. The colt has career earnings of $187,740 with three wins in eight starts.

Dark Cloud Dancer is 15-1 in the morning-line and will be ridden by Javier Castellano from post four. Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith has the mount on Giant's Tomb. The chestnut colt is 12-1 in the program and will leave from post eight. Smith rode Awesome Again to victory in the 1997 Plate.

Other Plate winners for Sam-Son Farm are Regal Intention (1988) and Dance Smartly (1991). Frostad also saddled Victor Cooley to win the race in 1996.

Here is the complete field for the Queen's Plate in position order: Vicar Street, Tyler Pizarro, 30-1; Who We Gunna Call, Gerry Olguin, 30-1: D's Wando, Emma-Jayne Wilson, 20-1; Dark Cloud Dancer, Javier Castellano, 15-1; Big Red Mike, Eurico Rosa da Silva, 6-1; Smart Sky, Chantal Sutherland, 30-1; Ghost Fleet, Richard Dos Ramos, 20-1; Giant's Tomb, Mike Smith, 12-1; Mobilizer, Jono Jones, 7-2; Roan Inish, Davy Moran, 9-2; Hotep, Patrick Husbands, 3-1; Mobthewarrior, Emile Ramsammy, 10-1 and Moment of Majesty, Robert Landry, 12-1.

The two fillies, Roan Inish and Moment of Majesty, will each carry 121 pounds while the 11 males will tote 126 pounds each. The winner will earn $600,000.

Post-time for the Queen's Plate is slated for 5:40 p.m. (et).

The Triple Crown will continue with the Prince of Wales Stakes on Sunday, July 25 at Fort Erie Racetrack and the Breeders' Stakes on Sunday, August 15 back at Woodbine.

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FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million

Football Betting

In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.

And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.

Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.

So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.

Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)

The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.

As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.

The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.

In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.

Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.

And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.

So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.

There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.

So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.

And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.

There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)

Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.

Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.

Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.

So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.

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