Rico Bosco's "Bosco's Bets" featuring Dave Portnoy

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Big weekend again with MLB, NBA Playoffs, NHL playoffs, and the big ticket of the weekend The Kentucky Derby. We have a treat for all the Rico Riders today as horse owner Dave Portnoy will join me for an interview, but more on that later.

As always, these trends and stats are brought to you by OddsShark.com . The spot on the internet for trends, tips, stats, etc. Their team of writers does a fantastic job breaking things down, so before your next wager make sure to visit OddsShark.com .

MLB

– The full odds for the day can be found here

– Let’s dive into some of the marquee match ups  :

mlb1

– For you prop guys , here’s the updated CY Young award odds.

NBA

nbamay

– The game I’m looking forward to the most is Spurs-Thunder. Joe Osborne of OddsShark points out that it’s been very rare of the Spurs to drop back to back games. He writes, “San Antonio isn’t an easy team to beat twice in a row, as evidenced by their 13-2 SU record following a loss, which includes a 10-0 SU record after losing as the favorite.” For the full read go here .

– After a lights out shooting performance versus the Hawks to take a 2-0 lead and in the drivers seat of the East, the Cavs have now jumped up ahead of the Spurs regarding futures odds.

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NHL

One game tonight and 3 on Saturday , here’s the breakdown :

nhlweekend

For more on Tonight’s Islanders-Lightning game , here are the trends :

islanderstrends

Kentucky Derby 

I am not a horse racing expert, as Mike Francesa made abundantly clear in my call to him yesterday , however – I love the Derby. It’s always a big sports day with NHL and NBA playoff games, baseball games, and back before he retired Mayweather seemed to always fight. The Derby was always my favorite though. Horse racing has a very short window (6-7 weeks) in the general public’s eye and The Derby is the kickoff to it. Everyone seems to be in a pool, or have a horse they like, and I think it’s great for the sport (like all other sports) to have one day where all eyes are on them. The NBA has Christmas, The NFL has the Super Bowl, MLB has Opening Day, and the ponies have the first Saturday in May.

On to the race…

The post positions and odds are here :

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OddsShark.com does a great job breaking down all the props including odds on head to head wagers, post position of the winner, and time of the winner.   Feel free to check that stuff out. There are also profiles on horses themselves. Again, a fantastic job by Oddsshark.com.

Here’s a few last minute trends and facts before the picks :

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Picks : 

I am rolling the dice with 17 horse Mor Spirit, I like that his jockey Gary Stevens has won 3 previous Derbys, and I like that his trainer (who I’ll admit I originally thought was the owner) Bob Baffert is royalty in the Horse Racing world with 4 previous wins.

Additionally in some brief research in watching the horse, I was impressed with how it seemed to have an extra gear at the end of the race while others were burning out. Check out The Robert E Lewis Stakes win , and it’s 2015 Los Alamitos win. Both times settling in behind the leaders, and both times hitting stride just when it needs to. Like the experience of the staff, but also like the horse a lot too.

Mor Spirit +1400 

For the expert, Dave Portnoy, you’ll have to listen to our interview below. To my amazement, he never once mentioned the horse Tom’s Ready was running in the 12 post. I figured that would have been too good to be true for a Brady fan . Here’s our interview :

 

Thanks again to Dave for coming on, and an even bigger thanks to my man Hank who never stops working, and uploaded this at 1am last night so we can all have it. You the man Hank.

Enjoy the weekend.

CFB YTD: +31.15 units College Football 2015-2016 Season, 183-152-7 (+15.8 units) Regular season College Basketball via Twitter, +7.7 units in the NCAA Tournament. For all stats and trends check out OddsShark.com & follow @Rico_Bosco on twitter for picks,  birthday wishes to Mike Francesa, questions, all things floral hats, admiration of D’Jais, and overall entertainment.