Burris leads Calgary to Grey Cup berth

Football Betting Lines

11/15/2008 - Calgary, AB (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Henry Burris threw for 236 yards and a touchdown, and rushed for 32 yards and the go-ahead touchdown as the Calgary Stampeders held off the B.C. Lions 22-18 to win the West Division final and advance to the 2008 Grey Cup game.

Mike Labinjo had three sacks and eight tackles for Calgary (14-5), which will travel to Montreal to take on the Alouettes in the 96th Grey Cup game, set for next Sunday. The Stampeders will play for the championship for the first time since 2001, when they topped Winnipeg for the Grey Cup.

Burris completed 17-of-27 passes and was intercepted once, and Ken-Yon Rambo had four catches for 53 yards and a touchdown for Calgary, which swept four games from the Lions this season.

Stefan Logan rushed for 130 yards on 18 carries to lead the Lions offense. Buck Pierce completed 16-of-29 passes for 262 yards and an interception for B.C. (12-8), which failed to advance to its second Grey Cup game in three years. The Lions defeated Montreal for the title in 2006.

Geroy Simon had five catches for 118 yards, and Ryan Grice-Mullen gained 107 yards on six catches for the Lions.

B.C. led 15-9 after Paul McCallum's 12-yard field goal early in the third quarter, but Sandro DeAngelis made two kicks, from 42 and 27 yards, later in the frame to tie the game at 15-15 entering the final quarter.

Burris led Calgary on an eight-play, 69-yard drive, and his one-yard scoring dive gave the Stampeders a 22-15 lead with 11:18 to play.

McCallum made a 30-yard field goal to cut the deficit to four points with 8:36 left, though. Grice-Mullen looked to have the ball wrestled away by Brandon Browner on what wound up being a 36-yard gain after a review with a minute and a half to go, setting B.C. up near midfield, but Pierce threw the ball deep and up for grabs on the next play, and Browner came up with the interception.

B.C. got one last chance when Burris failed to run off the last seconds of regulation before throwing the ball away on third down from the Calgary 41, but Pierce's Hail Mary pass was batted down to end the game.

McCallum connected on four field goals in the first half and conceded one safety as B.C. took an early 12-2 lead. Burris and Rambo connected on a 22- yard touchdown pass with nine seconds left in the half, though, cutting the deficit to 12-9 at the intermission.

Game Notes

McCallum was 6-for-6 on field goals...Lions running back Joffrey Reynolds was held to 43 yards on 10 carries...Nikolas Lewis had four catches for 62 yards for the Stampeders.

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Horse Betting

(This is an update of a sportsbook for the May 4th issue of ESPN The Magazine).

The Kentucky Derby's post-position draw happened on Wednesday. And, as is always the case, shortly afterwards, a buzz raced around Churchill Downs. It was a low rumble at first, nothing that the squares in the mint julep crowd pick up right away. But by the time the sun set over the twin spires, the chatter was impossible to ignore. Everyone -- sharps, trainers, owners -- was talking about one thing: the wise guy horse, the pre-draw long shot us mopes didn't have on our radar until it was too late.

"You think you're hearing the scoop," says handicapper Lane Gold. "Then you get to the window, the odds are short, and you missed it."

Recognizing a wise-guy horse early is as hard as picking a Derby bonnet. That's because handicappers don't like hype (see ya, I Want Revenge). They want Thoroughbreds who look good losing prep races like the Santa Anita Derby. They eye horses who ate up the field after starting wide or made an easy transition from synthetic tracks to dirt. They look for ponies who showed muscle gain race to race and those who ran hard after several weeks' rest.

"A wise guy," says John Avello, a bookmaker at Wynn Las Vegas, "looks for a horse who can improve."

When I first wrote Horse Betting for The Mag, which I turned in a three weeks before Wednesday's draw, I predicted these three horses had wise guy potential:

CHOCOLATE CANDY (15-1 in mid-April, currently 20-1 according to Avello): His second-place finish at Santa Anita, following a seven-week layoff, proved two things: He can run after resting, and -- by losing a high-profile prep race -- he wouldn't be overhyped.

DESERT PARTY (15-1; 15-1): He was upset in the UAE Derby by a horse he had beaten twice. The public remembers his loss, but the wise guys his wins.

PIONEEROF THE NILE (8-1; 4-1): The big favorite at Santa Anita struggled to win, so he initially got less hype than Quality Road and I Want Revenge.

You may have noticed that the odds on Pioneerof the Nile have been cut in half, from 8-1 to 4-1. Which means the wise guys took a shine to him long before the post-position draw. But, to be honest, this is one of those years with four elite horses getting everyone's attention, squares and sharps alike.

"You're not gonna get a lot of chatter about a horse that isn't in that group, which includes Pioneer, I Want Revenge, Dunkirk and Friesan Fire," Avello told me Wednesday. "We don't have a group of horses behind those top four who look like real legit contenders."

Come Derby week, the final two elements in picking a wise guy horse are how he's working out and what gate he's coming out of.

(By the way, picking a Preakness favorite is a whole different bale of hay, partially based on how horses finish in the Derby. You can see my analysis of who has the best shot at Pimlico on Insider Sunday morning.)

Well, early in the week I Want Revenge, Pioneerof the Nile and Friesan Fire were working out better than anyone. Some thought Friesan Fire, currently 6-1, might have run too fast, burning a five-furlong run in :57 4/5. "When you are running that fast you have the sense that it took something out of him," says Gold. "The Derby is longer than any horse has run, and if they need that extra surge you worry they won't have it because they burned it in the workout."

But, Gold points out, Friesan Fire's trainer is Larry Jones, Two years ago his horse Hard Spun did a five-eighths workout in :57 3/5 and then went on to finish second, behind Street Sense, in the Derby. "Every trainer has different methods," says Gold. "And clearly he knows what he's doing."

Now, as for starting position, Gold says to remember this: Churchill Downs traditionally has 14 starting gates. For the Derby, it brings out auxiliary gates and between the original 14th gate and the new 15th gate, there is a little more space than there is between gates 1-14. "That 15 position will give you a precious second or two to sort out what's happening to your inside," says Gold. "Sixteen is also okay because you can follow the horse in front of you."

Dunkirk, one of the race favorites, is coming out of gate 15. In 16 is Baffert's Pioneerof the Nile. I Want Revenge drew 13, where Smarty Jones won from in 2004, and Friesan Fire picked the sixth position. "He doesn't have a lot of speed to the inside of him," says Gold. "So he will get a clear shot to be near the front."

All the jibber-jabber means this: Pioneerof the Nile has leapfrogged from 8-1 to being the second favorite, along with Dunkirk, behind I Want Revenge. Meanwhile, Friesan Fire, with a good trainer, a strong week of training and a decent post position, is still at 6-1. "By Saturday, it's possible he could go from fourth to the favorite," says Gold.

In other words, meet Friesan Fire, your 2009 wise guy horse.

"Now," says Avello, "it's time for action."

To visit this horse betting site go to MySportsbook.com for all your horse racing betting needs.