I love our one-day contest with 1/ST BET, the Hoops & Horses Pick’em Challenge, because it combines two of my favorite sporting events — March Madness and the Derby.
The Challenge: Make picks on the two Derby prep races on Saturday and the spread and total for both Final Four games. It’s free. You can sign up here and enter your picks. First place is worth a $500 1/ST BET voucher with prizes through the top 50.
I have been collecting picks from our dual-threat experts:
Mike Somich will host VSiN At The Track – The Road to the Kentucky Derby (2:10 p.m. ET today on YouTube) with Aaron Halterman of RacingDudes.com. Here are Mike’s picks:
Wood Memorial: Grande
Santa Anita Derby: Journalism
Auburn +2.5 / Over 160.5
Houston +5 / Under 136
Patrick Meagher, horse racing aficionado and co-host of VSiN LIve on Mad Dog Radio (7-10 p.m. ET, SiriusXM Channel 82) with Dustin Swedelson:
Wood: Grande
Santa Anita: Barnes
Auburn +2.5 / Over 160.5
Duke -5 and Over 136
Jeremy Plonk, 1/ST Bet handicapper whose picks appear on our horse racing page:
Wood: Captain Cook
Santa Anita: Journalism
Houston +5 / Under 136
Florida -2.5 / Over 160.5
Jeremy appearred on Money Moves with Stormy Buonantony and Grace Remington to handicap the Santa Anita Derby’s 5-horse field. >>Watch the segment.
“Mr. Ed” Sehon, who will resume his daily picks on VSiN.com, starting Saturday:
Wood: Captain Cook
Santa Anita: Citizen Bull
Duke -5 / Over 136
Florida -2.5 / Under 160.5
Finally, Dave “Dog or Pass” Tuley wrote a whole column with his rationale for the contest.
As you would expect, Dave isn’t playing the chalk in either discipline. He has a separate NCAA picks column here.
More from contest corner
Circa College Hoops Challenge: The Final Four selections – two plays from each of the 15 contestants – will be announced during tonight’s VSiN PrimeTime (7-10 ET) and posted on VSiN.com after 9 p.m. for VSiN Pro subscribers. Texas pro handicapper Paul Stone leads Jonathan Von Tobel by 2 points and Tim Murray by 3.5 points with just one more pick after Saturday. >>Standings.
VSiN March Bracket Challenge: If you are in the contest, the deadline is 5:30 p.m. ET Saturday for two picks worth eight points apiece. >>Standings.
Quick Hits
Women’s Final Four: Tyler Shoemaker has his Best Bets for tonight’s women’s semifinals. >>Betting Splits.
MLB: Greg Peterson has posted his top plays for today. Steve Makinen, Adam Burke and Josh Appelbaum will file their contributions by mid-morning and you can find them on our MLB page.
Bonus material from Steve: Team-by-team series trends, e.g. team records for first game of a series, middle game, last game.
NBA: Zach Cohen will have his plays later this morning.
NHL: Jonathan Davis will have his Best Bets later, too.
NFL: Zach has some early NFL win totals he likes. On Thursday’s A Numbers Game, Gill Alexander listed five he liked: Broncos Over 9.5 (-110); Giants Under 5.5 (-120); Cowboys Under 7.5 (-125), Raiders Under 6.5 (+110); Steelers Under 8.5 (-135).
College Baseball: Matt Grissom of College Baseball Insiders offers this pick for today: Texas ML (+114) vs Georgia. There’s no hotter offense in college baseball than the Georgia Bulldogs, but their pitching staff has been brutal. So while scoring runs hasn’t been an issue for the Bulldogs, keeping opponents from scoring just as many runs has. VSiN Best Bets: 6-2, +3.97 units.
This is The VSiN Daily newsletter for Friday, April 4. Sign up for this free email and get picks and insights delivered to your in-box every morning.
