There’s less than a week until March Madness, but before that can begin, teams in the top conferences across America need to settle their conference tournament championships.
We’re cutting to the Championship Week chase as the men’s conference basketball tournaments are playing out across the U.S.
Friday features quarterfinal and semifinal action in the high-major conferences — including the ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten and SEC — and new customers taking advantage of our FanDuel Sportsbook promo to bet on the action will score a $200 bonus if their initial wager wins.
March Madness shifts into full gear next week with the NCAA Men’s and Women’s College Basketball Tournaments tipping off.
Friday is dedicated to top-notch college basketball action deep in the high-major conference tournaments, and new customers using the Caesars Sportsbook promo code PLAYRACEDYW can snare a double their winnings bonus.
The college basketball postseason is in full effect with conference tournaments in all of the high-major leagues, including the SEC, Big 12, Big Ten, ACC, and Big East.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Booth, Happy Is a Choice, and Miles Ahead will bring some superlative Beyer Speed Figures into the Grade 3, $250,000 Whitmore on Saturday at Oaklawn Park.
The six-furlong sprint for 4-year-olds and up is the final local stepping-stone to the Grade 3, $500,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap here April 12.
Booth established himself as the fastest horse at the current Oaklawn meet based on Beyers, when he put up a 105 winning the Commodore overnight stakes in his most recent out Feb. 24.
“He had a breakthrough race,” trainer Steve Asmussen said.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Something will likely have to give when speedsters Guns Loaded and Rolando square off in a field of just six 3-year-olds entered for Saturday’s $115,000 Hutcheson Stakes at Gulfstream Park. The tradition-rich six-furlong dash is the first of two stakes to be decided on the card along with the $115,000 Captiva Island for older fillies and mares going five furlongs on turf.
Slim stakes pickings this Saturday, something that will not be said again until April 26. We’ll try to scrape something together.
Whitmore
The score stands at Tejano Twist 4, Miles Ahead 0, but I’ll guess Miles Ahead finally takes the measure of Oaklawn sprint kingpin Tejano Twist.
These two hardly rate as the only plausible Whitmore winners.
Happy Is a Choice might have suffered slight second-back regression in the King Cotton, but this horse, from this vantage point, looks maxed out and will prove a half-notch inferior even at his best.
There’s nothing approaching a standout right now among Kentucky Oaks hopefuls, nor is there one among eight 3-year-old fillies entered Saturday in the Virginia Oaks at Colonial Downs.
The $250,000 Virginia Oaks, contested over 1 1/16 miles around one turn, and run for the first time on dirt, serves a nominal prep toward the Kentucky Oaks. Five fillies will earn Oaks qualifying points distributed 50, 25, 15, 10, and 5. The only entrant with any points, Gowells Delight, might not run.
Bob Baffert has trained six Kentucky Derby winners, won the Breeders’ Cup Classic four times, won four Dubai World Cups, and sent out winners at 39 racetracks, if not more. But Baffert has never won a race at Colonial Downs. He’s had but one chance, when Senor Swinger finished fourth as the 1-5 favorite under Pat Day in the 2003 Virginia Derby.
