Betting Picks

Offshore gaming operator Bovada — a top-ranked online sports book and gaming site — is once again taking bets and accepting new players in the state of New York. This is great news for residents of the Empire State, considering there are no establishments available in this jurisdiction to bet on the Giants or Jets in this weekend's NFL games. The well-known site offers action on all the major sporting events, along with casino games, poker and horse racing.

Canelo Alvarez is a man on a mission. Fresh off a majority decision over Gennady Golovkin to win the unified middleweight world title in their Sept. 15 rematch, the Mexican superstar offers his fans another title shot just in time for the Christmas holidays. Alvarez, who is a prohibitive favorite on boxing betting lines, will step up a weight class and take on Rocky Fielding for his secondary world title on Saturday, Dec. 15 at Madison Square Garden in New York.

One of the final stakes races for the 2018 Woodbine Race Track thoroughbred season, the $175,000 (G2) Kennedy Road Stakes has drawn a mixed field of nine runners aged three and older, including one locally based heavy favorite and one invader making his Canadian racing debut. They'll be racing six furlongs on the Woodbine all-weather course, and the race is available for betting at Bovada's online racebook.

A full field of fourteen two-year-old colts are ready to go to the gate at Churchill Downs on Saturday for the running of the (G2) $200,000 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes. In addition to the purse money, the horses and their connections will be trying to secure points to qualify for a return trip to Churchill on the first Saturday of May for the 2019 Kentucky Derby.

The turf is the main focus of racing at Del Mar this coming Friday, as the southern California track hosts the $200,000 (G2) Hollywood Turf Cup. A very tough field of eight older horses are expected to go to the Del Mar gate to battle for the win over 1 1/2 miles in what should be an excellent betting opportunity in Bovada's online racebook.

The final Grade 1 stakes race in the US for older horses running on dirt this year goes this holiday Friday at Churchill Downs with the running of the $500,000 Clark Handicap. Eight have been entered to run 1 1/8 miles on the Churchill dirt, including a couple names that will sound familiar from both the 2017 and 2018 Triple Crown trail.

Thanksgiving weekend is usually reserved for football, but don't overlook the CFL Grey Cup. The league's two top teams — Ottawa and Calgary — will meet in the 106th championship game. It will actually be the third time both teams have faced this season, and earlier season results give us a good idea of who to bet on come Sunday!

It's starting to snow in Toronto and that's always an indication the throughbred racing season at Woodbine is winding down. But there is still some betting to be made on stakes races before the season ends, including Sunday's $225,0000 Coronation Futurity. It's the top race of the year at Woodbine for two-year-olds and a likely preview of some of the horses we'll see in next year's Queen's Plate.