Southern California’s Del Mar Racetrack has been is often overshadowed by East Coast venues like Churchill Downs and Belmont Park. The reality is that the 72 year old track has a history to rival their better known counterparts that includes the greatest horses and jockeys in the sport, as well as a healthy dose of show biz glitz. Operated by the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club and located 20 miles North of San Diego, its perhaps most famous for its iconic slogan: “Where The Surf Meets the Turf.”

The Del Mar Race Track was founded in the late’30’s by a group of business and show biz elite, including Bing Crosby, Oliver Hardy and Jimmy Durante. During much of the pre WW II era, horse racing ran a close second to baseball in mainstream popularity, so these racing enthusiasts were clearly at the right place at the right time in terms of market forces.

The show biz legends that have been Del Mar regulars could fill a book. Bing Crosby was one of catalysts behind the building of the facility, and he personally greeted guests on opening day. During the late 30’s/early 40’s it hosted stars such as W.C. Fields, Edgar Bergen, Red Skelton, Ava Gardner and Paulette Goddard.

In’38, Del Mar hosted an internationally anticipated match race between Seabiscuit and Ligaroti. This event drew a record crowd and gained worldwide notoriety for the track. Seabiscuit won the $25,000 winner-take-all duel by a nose, and would forever be enshrined in the annals of American popular culture. Horse racing at Del Mar continued to be a smash until the facility went dark in’41 due to World War II. It would remain closed until’45, and for a time was used as a training facility by the military.

After the war Del Mar didn’t miss a beat, and reopened the day after Japan surrendered to Allied Forces in Tokyo Bay. That day drew over 21,000 fans to the park and set a new wagering record of over $950,000. The track flourished during the post war economic boom years, and improved transportation between the major urban centers in Southern California–along with a new crop of stars including Mickey Rooney, Jimmy Durante and Desi Arnez, Jr.–kept the track in the limelight.

Even though the popularity of horse racing among the mainstream populace would ebb over the years, Del Mar remains a viable part of the thoroughbred community to this day. Theyve updated their facility, with a state of the art grand stand and most recently a synthetic polytrack surface that was installed in 2007. The racing season at Del Mar begins in mid July, and hosts crowds of 20,000+ on a daily basis throughout.

Ross Everett is a widely published freelance writer and highly respected authority on World Cup betting. His writing has appeared on a variety of sports sites including sports news and sportsbook directory sites. He lives in Las Vegas with three Jack Russell Terriers and a kangaroo. He is currently working on an autobiography of former energy secretary Donald Hodell.

The offensively struggling Kansas City Chiefs have finally found a way to win-play a team with a more stagnant offense than their own. The Chiefs gave Todd Haley his first win as a NFL head coach on Sunday with a—6 win over the Washington Redskins. Kansas City won despite not scoring a touchdown, compiling their– points via 4 Ryan Succop field goals and a game ending safety.

To successfully bet on NFL football you occasionally have to put aside W/L records and look at the underlying statistics. Those who did that found reason to take Kansas City as +6′ road underdogs and were rewarded with the outright victory. Kansas City is now 2-4 against the NFL pointspread and has covered two straight while Washington is a dismal 1-5 versus the money. The 20 combined points went well UNDER the posted total of 36′.

After the contest, Haley sounded more relieved than excited about finally putting a “W” on the board:

“We made it pretty difficult, right down to the end. We’ve pushed through a very difficult period. We needed to get some positive reinforcement with a win.”

Kansas City QB Matt Cassel also won for the first time since coming over from New England in the off season. His postgame comments were more upbeat:

“There’s been a lot of change, but this has definitely been special. We rose to the occasion. We made some big plays. We put ourselves in a position to score points.”

Embattled Redskins’ coach Jim Zorn was stripped of his offensive play calling duties by team management after the contest. In one of his last decisions in that role, he pulled starter Jason Campbell at halftime and went with Todd Collins. He explained his move as follows:

“I felt the need to create a spark on our football team offensively and went with Todd. I think the guys responded well. We kept our spark, at times, and then we refizzled.”

The Redskins have managed to win only two of their first six games despite being the only team in NFL history to play their first six games of the season against winless opponents. They’ll get another chance to silence their doubters next Monday night as they host the Philadelphia Eagles. The Skins are +6′ home underdogs with the total set at 38′. They’ll have a bye the next week and return to action on November 8th against the Atlanta Falcons at the Georgia Dome. Kansas City will try to string together back to back wins as they host the San Diego Chargers on Sunday. There’s currently no line on the game pending San Diego’s Monday Night Football contest against the Denver Broncos.

Ross Everett is a freelance sports writer who has written on sports gambling and how to successfully bet on NFL football. He has appeared as a guest on TV and radio talking about boxing, mixed martial arts and NFL pointspreads. He lives in Las Vegas, Nevada with three Jack Russell Terriers and a lynx.

The UFC has only recently brought mixed martial arts to the mainstream in the US, but in Japan there’s a long tradition of fights pitting contestants from different disciplines against each other. While they’ve only been called MMA or ‘mixed martial arts’ in recent years, the sport clearly has its roots in these early contests between wrestlers, judo fighters and boxers. In Japan, Antonio Inoki’s fights against world famous martial artists brought great notoriety to the still evolving sport.

Inoki would often face other martial artists in fights that are widely accepted to have been “worked” (having a predetermined outcome) in the same manner as professional wrestling matches. While Inoki faced a number of karate, judo and boxing champions his most famous match was certainly his fight against world heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali.

There’s a great deal of uncertainty about many of the stories surrounding how the event came together and transpired, but a few facts are now known. Ali took the fight as it was a large and presumptively easy paycheck. The big money he was earning is what kept him from walking out when his camp started to disagree with Inoki’s handlers over the rules and ‘finish’ fo the fight. Some suggest that it was supposed to be a fair fight going in, but Ali at the last minute insisted on rules more favorable to him. The more likely version of events is that Ali’s handlers agreed to a predetermined finish, only to have Ali balk at the last moment.

The rules that were in place on fight night were so ridiculously one sided in favor of Ali that it almost defies belief. Inoki wasn’t allowed to hit Ali with a closed fist, nor strike him in the head at all. He was also prohibited from using any sort of choke or submission maneuver. Most problematically, he was prohibited from trying to take Ali to the ground. In other words, Inoki was basically not permitted to do anything that would threaten Ali with any sort of physical harm.

Despite the repeated howls from the media that the fight was ‘fixed’, it was anything but–it was a real fight and painfully boring. Ali did next to nothing, Inoki did whatever he could within the one sided rules. Eventually, Inoki spent most of the fight on the ground trying to throw kicks at Ali’s legs. The event ended up as a 74-74 draw. Both fighters got paid, and the fans got to watch a fight albeit a really, really bad one.

Some interesting trivia about the fight–the referee was former pro wrestler “Judo” Gene Labell, who is considered by many ‘the baddest man on the planet’ even in his 80’s. He could have very likely beaten up both men at the same time–a spectacle that might have been welcomed by the live crowd and closed circuit audience worldwide.

In the aftermath of the fight, Inoki’s popularity was greater than ever–in a perverse way he was something of a hero due to his trying to fight despite the rules being stacked so soundly against him. He remained one of the country’s most popular professional wrestlers and even enjoyed a career in Japan’s parliament. Without missing a beat, he quickly resumed his series of fights against other martial artists who were apparently all more comfortable with the “worked” environment of pro wrestling. Among his “victims” was none other than Leon Spinks, presumably serving as some sort of vindication for his draw with Ali. The popularity of these matches led to a number of promotions that were essentially hybrids of martial arts and pro wrestling, and these led to the big Japanese MMA promotions of today.

Ross Everett is a freelance sports writer and noted authority on sports betting odds comparison. He writing has appeared on a variety of sports sites including sports news and World Cup betting sites. He lives in Northern Nevada with three Jack Russell Terriers and an emu. He is currently working on an autobiography of former energy secretary Donald Hodell.