Yup, the 2006 Kentucky Derby is just around the corner.

With that said, all you horse racing aficionados could already have your own picks and I won’t be surprised if Brother Derek is on your list.

However, when we talk about horse racing, it seems the big name races always smile on the underdogs, leaving handicappers look stupid. Last year is a testament to that and I won’t be caught off guard this time.

No siree.

So without further ado, here are three underdogs that may find their way past the odds-on-favorite, Brother Derek, at the 2006 Kentucky Derby.

Cause to Believe, this colt from Northern California hasn’t beaten much competition this year but remain as one of the sleepers to win at the Kentucky Derby. In horse racing, events as big as this seems to smile on the unknowns and the underdogs and Cause to Believe is definitely one of those.

Cause to Believe is a son of the 1995 2-year-old champion colt Maria’s Mon and is gray in color like his sire. Cause to Believe is also the third foal from his dam Imaginary Cat, an unraced Overbrook homebred.

Cause to Believe has the 5th winningnest trainer in North American history in Jerry Hollendorfer coming to the 2006 Kentucky Derby. If that’s not enough to make Cause to Believe a legitimate sleeper in this horse racing war at the Kentucky Derby, I don’t know…

And so the 2006 World Poker Tour wrapped up. Everyone’s exhausted after the poker tourney’s Final table, add to that all the media blitz and the post-poker-tourney party (a tournament on its own).

But Joe Bartholdi will be partying long after Season 4 fades amidst the desert dust of Vegas. Bartholdi has beaten over 600 players from 40 countries to bag the WPT Season 4 Championship Title along with the $3.76 million cash that goes with it. Plus, as in the past, this win assures him a seat in next year’s WPT championship.

What a lucky bastard, yes that’s how we all think of just about now. In fact that’s how we all think of every poker player pocketing millions of dollars after winning a tourney.

But this guy is no flash in the pan. He’s been one of the more prominent poker pro for some years now and very visible around the tourney circuits.

So a pro won this event. But a non-pro $25 satellite winner came very close let me tell you.

Second place finisher, Davidson Matthew of Toronto, Canada, enthused, "This tournament has turned me from an amateur to a professional. It’s set me up to play poker. Now if I lose, financially, it just doesn’t matter." To put his accomplishment in perspective — his $25 spent on a satellite buy-in to cash over $1.9 million puts his…

The last time Detroit met Milwaukee in the first round, the Pistons became the 2004 NBA Champions.

An omen? Yes, it is exactly that.

In Game 1, the Pistons showed the heart of a champion as they countered a late rally by those pesky Bucks in the third quarter to come away with a convincing 92-74 win at the Palace of Auburn Hills.

And the Pistons were able to do just that despite of Richard Hamilton going down what seems like a serious ankle injury.

Mah’ man, Rasheed Wallace, led the Pistons with a game-high 22 points, in 4-of-6 shooting from three-point range. Yup, I’ve been a fan of ‘’The Sheed'’ long enough to know that his versatility is as good as the Kevin Garnett’s of the league. It’s just that his awesome game has been overshadowed by suspensions and technical fouls.

Detroit outscored Milwaukee by 12 in the second half en route to a 92-74 home playoff victory on Sunday. Rasheed Wallace scored 22 on 9-for-14 shooting, including 4-for-6 from behind the long line. - NBA.com

Richard Hamilton followed ‘’The Sheed'’ as he…

Yup, apparently, video games are not games anymore.

ABC has announced its plans to launch an ‘’interactive game'’ based on their TV series, ‘’Lost.'’

Yup, maybe it’s their attempt to generate more ratings. A rather cheesy way to do just that don’t you think?

The network is calling it, ‘’The Lost Experience,'’ something that will make, or should I say, FORCE, a gamer to watch their stupid series just so that they can finish the goddamn game.

Hu-whattt?!? My sentiments exactly.

The Lost Experience will feature a storyline different from that of the show. Users will have to watch the show to collect phone numbers and other information to use in the game.

The game itself will feature new characters and background on the Hanso Foundation, the mysterious group behind the Dharma Initiative. - Gamespot News

‘’The game reaches back into ‘Lost’ history and looks forward to future episodes,'’ said Mike Benson, ABC Entertainment’s Senior Vice President of Marketing.

He added, ‘’It’s like a giant, worldwide, mysterious jigsaw puzzle that will…'’

You think you’ve heard all the fairy tales ever written? Well some parents in Lexington, Massachusetts weren’t ready for a new kind of fairy tale being taught to their kids.

The Parents Rights Coalition of Boston is protesting against a public school where a teacher read a book titled King & King to her 7-year-old students to teach them about the different types of marriage.

The story goes like this: The crown prince rejects a bevy of beautiful princesses, rebuffing each suitor until falling in love with a prince. The two marry, sealing the union with a kiss, and live happily ever after.

Now this fairy tale about gay marriage has sparked a civil rights debate in Massachusetts, the only U.S. state where gays and lesbians can legally wed, after a teacher read the story to a classroom of seven year olds without warning parents first.

The school defended itself saying they don’t have to ask permission to parents regarding what book to read to the children. Plus since gay marriage is legal in Massachusetts, it’s only right to educate the children about it.

Because face it, kids there see them all around. Their classmates, their classmates’ parents, their aunts, uncles, neighbors. It’s just one big gay party out there. So what’s all the fuss about one gay fairy tale?

And hello! Fairies, men in tights? Tell me you don’t find one gay thing about fairy tales! Naturally straight heterosexual parents find this act ‘’heinous and…'’

Finally, after months of absence, red is back.

That red scarlet Scuderia Ferrari that is. And yes, writing about Formula One suddenly became worth it again.

At the 2006 San Marino Grand Prix, Formula One fans witnessed one of the more exciting races in F1 history as the champions of the last two years went toe-to-toe all the way to the checkered flag.

Alas, it was the current F1 king, Fernando Alonso, who blinked first and Schumi, being the veteran that he is, took advantage.

It was a chess match between old school and new school. No one wanted to give in but both knew one of ‘em would have to make a pit-stop soon. They just don’t want to be the first one to exit the track and give the other an advantage. Who would pit first?

The answer finally came on lap 41 when Alonso suddenly sprinted into the pit lane. After a 6.7s stop he was back out again. Schumacher, meanwhile, was suddenly able to catch backmarkers Nick Heidfeld and Scott Speed, whom he had apparently been unable to catch earlier on.

But any hope in the Renault camp that they might impede their rival ended when…

Ten freakin’ million woo-hoo dollars from a goddamn progressive fuckin’ slot machine.

Who the hell wins something like that? No one I know but an 84-year-old retired waitress named Josephine Crawford.

Start praying she’s your grandma: Josephine just nabbed the BIGGEST slot machine jackpot in Atlantic City history. In fact, the entire nation’s biggest nickel slot machine jackpot ever, dudes. Phew.

I always rather thought ‘nickel slot machine’ sounds so teeny-tiny. Like it’s never going to win me anything big. And truly, Josephine had lost $35 within ten minutes at a nickel slot in Harrah’s Atlantic City that she started feeling a little bummed.

Enter Alicia Weeks, the granddaughter, who might as well have been named Lady Luck. Dear Alicia, aged 27, suggested to granny to try the Megabucks progressive jackpot, which had not produced a winner for three years.

To qualify for the progressive jackpot, Josephine had to bet 60 nickels at least, or $3. After an initial $20 investment, and it looked like luck was not coming, Alicia asked granny if maybe she wanted to quit for the night.

Josephine kept going. This was 7ish in the evening of a Tuesday, April 18th. Down to her…

First blood was drawn after Game 1.

The NBA Playoffs finally got underway as 16 of the NBA’s elite teams face-off in what will be their road towards basketball’s biggest stage, the NBA Finals.

In the East, Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O’Neal combined for 57 of Miami’s 111 points to bring the Chicago Bulls down, 111-106. Dwyane Wade’s struggles with these pesky Bulls were welldocumented all season long but Miami Heat head coach, Pat Riley, was confident that his star guard WILL come through. And did he ever.

D-Wade scored 14 of his 30 points in the fourth quarter, to put the Bulls away for good. That’s including a six-point outburst that rallied the Heat from their very first deficit of the night.

‘’Great players will find a way to get around any defense when you raise the stakes,'’ Riley said. ‘’And Dwyane is a big-game guy.'’ - Pat Riley quoted by ESPN

Meanwhile, in the West, Shaq’s former tag-team partner was having more problems than Oprah Winfrey and her weight issues.

Kobe Bryant made his return to the NBA Playoffs after parting ways with his seven-foot contingency plan. However, no one expected Kobe to be…

Here we go again for another edition of cheerleader-masturbation.

Face it, you’re more bat-boy than Barry Bonds.

So far, we have included the cheerleaders from three teams, including that Desperate Housewife, Eva Longoria, on our infamous ‘’Top Ten Sexiest Cheerleaders'’ right here on OddJack.

So far, our list looks like this:

10. Pacemates

9. Cavalier Girls

8. Silver Dancers

That only means one thing folks, it’s time for part 4.

As for the fourth edition of our ‘’Top Ten Sexiest Cheerleaders,'’ it’s time to get those Nuggets cheerleaders here, before Carmelo Anthony and the crew gets booted out rather abruptly from the playoffs by the red-hot L.A. Clippers.

Yup, at no.7, here are the DND (Denver Nuggets Dancers).

First for the DND is the fiery Lindsey Dudley.

Lindsey Dudley is now on her fourth season as a Nuggets dancer. She’s from the little town (No pun intended) of Littleton, Colorado and likes to…