Kanaan makes late race pass for IndyCar win

Autoracing Betting Lines

08/12/2007 - Sparta, KY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tony Kanaan was strong all day, but still needed to make a late race pass of A.J. Foyt IV to capture Saturday night's Meijer Indy 300 IndyCar race at the Kentucky Speedway. The No.11 Andretti Green Racing driver crossed the finish line 1.7457 seconds ahead of Scott Dixon.

The victory was Kanaan's fourth of the season and 11th of his IndyCar career.

" I didn't tell anybody, but it was my Dad's birthday on Friday, so this was for you Dad," said Kanaan.

Kanaan brought the field to the green flag with series points leader Dario Franchitti right beside him. The two front-row qualifiers immediately put some distance between themselves and third place. The gap to Dixon was half-a- second after just five laps.

But the fastest cars on the track were Sam Hornish Jr. and Dan Wheldon who moved into fourth and fifth, respectively. They caught Dixon on lap 25 and passed him on the following lap.

Then on lap 36, Hornish Jr. and Wheldon got together down the back straight and both drivers were out of the race. What had happened was Hornish Jr. had been trying to pass Franchitti for second, got loose spinning up the track and collected Wheldon who was just an innocent bystander and had no place to go.

Everyone took the opportunity to pit and Franchitti's AGR crew was just a bit quicker than Kanaan's AGR crew to grab the race lead. On the drop of the green flag the top four cars, which included Franchitti, Kanaan, Tomas Scheckter and Dixon, put two seconds between themselves and fifth-place Scott Sharp. By lap 80 the gap for the front runners was more than four and-a-half seconds.

A second round of pit stops began on lap 90 and after they cycled through it was Kanaan leading Dixon and Franchitti. They were still that way at the mid- point of the 200-lap event. The trio was three seconds ahead of Scheckter, in fourth.

On lap 108 Franchitti got around the outside of Dixon for second place and tucked in behind Kanaan. The three were putting up fast laps and pulled away by more than four seconds.

A debris caution flag on lap 125 in turn three slowed the field and closed the gap between the leaders and the pack. The yellow flag also set up a round of pit stops and Dixon beat out both Kanaan and Franchitti.

The restart with 70 laps to go meant there would be one more pit stop before the checkered flag.

Dixon didn't hold the lead for long as Kanaan caught him on the first green- flag lap. But Franchitti was having a much harder time getting around the Target Chip Ganassi racer. He could get side-by-side, even edging a little ahead, but not enough to make the pass.

Kanaan built his lead to almost three seconds with 40 laps remaining as Dixon and Franchitti continued to battle side-by-side for second place. The fight allowed Scheckter to join them, though there was no place for him to try and get around them.

On lap 164 Franchitti slid all the way to the top of the track, had to get off the gas pedal and by the time he could get going again found himself in eighth place.

Final pit stops began under green flag conditions. Scheckter was the first of the leaders to pit. Then Kanaan as they waited as long as they could for a caution flag. Franchitti, Danica Patrick and Dixon came in together and Franchitti came in a little hot. He slammed the outside pit road marker and his crew was forced to replace the front nose wing slowing his stop.

When the race restarted, A.J. Foyt IV was leading with Kanaan and Dixon just behind.

Then Patrick spun, while still under caution, and it ended here day. Something exploded on her car and she just missed hitting a safety vehicle.

On the restart, Kanaan made quick work of Foyt IV and so did Dixon. Kanaan had more than one second on Dixon and unless the No.11 AGR driver made an error the race was his. Kanaan was perfect and he won his fourth race of the season.

After Franchitti crossed the finish line, he ran into the back of Kosuke Matsuura who was already slowing down and once again went airborne hitting the outside wall. Fortunately, no one was injured as Franchitti got another ride in an ambulance.

"That was a scary moment after the race but thank God he's ok," said Kanaan of the post-race incident.

With his second place finish, Dixon moves to just eight points behind Franchitti. Kanaan, after two consecutive wins, is 52 points behind the leader.

The next IndyCar race is scheduled for Sunday, August 26th at the Infineon Raceway.

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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.