Jim Benes is ready for his close-up. The newest hot name on the handicapping scene is a familiar name – at least if you’ve been following contests since 2013, when professional horseplayer Benes made a splash by winning the National Handicapping Championship. Five years later, Benes is making waves again with recent wins in live-bankroll events in the Stronach Ultimate Betting Challenge, which he played in from Santa Anita, and the first Horseplayers Invitational at Hawthorne. The latter will soon be a television show on NBC Sports Chicago and will air April 21 and 28 at 10:30 a.m. Central. Already one of the all-time contest money-earners, Benes netted close to $70,000 in cash and seat value for the UBC win and tacked on another $25,000-plus in total value for his Hawthorne hit. The Madison Stakes at Keeneland last weekend was the race he crushed in the Hawthorne contest, which required playing four mandatory races at $200, one optional race at $200, and the Blue Grass Stakes at $500. He hit a $100 box exacta 12-8: Finley’sluckycharm over Miss Sunset. “I didn’t think there was a ton of speed, just thought they’d get great trips, and they were good enough to run one-two,” he said. After that, he had two bets left – his optional play, on which he whiffed, and the Blue Grass Stakes. Benes had been concerned about the weather in Kentucky and hadn’t done his usual intense preparation, which includes taking trip notes for every runner in each race. “I figured either I’d guess right in the race or hope it ran chalk-chalk,” he said. The latter scenario bailed him out when it came Good Magic over Flameaway. “It meant a lot to me to win a tournament at my home track in an inaugural event,” he said. “That’s make-believe stuff, it’s not supposed to actually happen.” Benes can’t recall a time when he wasn’t going to the races. Both his grandfather and father were avid horseplayers. “I grew up in the countryside and before I could walk, we went to any track we could find,” he said. “Some of them are gone – Washington, Aurora – we went to whatever was around. I never knew anything different.” Of course, he learned a lot from his dad about what to do, and about what not to do. “He could handicap with anybody. But he wasn’t a skilled bettor,” Benes said. He recalls missing the first week of fifth grade after hitting a trifecta for $3,000 in Detroit. “I remember Dad calling Mom to tell her we wouldn’t be back,” he said. “She was not a big racing fan.” Mom more than made up for that by being a massive fan of her son. She saw in him not only his dad’s passion for racing, but her own work ethic. “Mom always got everything done,” he said. “She was a strong woman. She saw how hard I was willing to work and she even took out a loan to get me started as a professional horseplayer. She believed in me in some way or form.” That ethic has always stayed with him. “I lived in Kentucky for a while and I’d go out with buddies to the bars in Cincinnati,” he recalled. “We were staying in a hotel room and my friend would go to bed and turn out the light, while I’d go into the bathroom to figure the form for Turfway.” Playing horses is the only job he’s had since high school. It’s been a grind, but he has no regrets. “It’s hard, but I’ve survived because I’ve worked my ass off and I love what I do,“ he said. “I don’t have a lifestyle where I need to be a multi-millionaire.” Illinois was where he played for many years, but the decline there in racing quality led him to quit briefly in early 2017. “It turns out there wasn’t a lot of need in the world for a 50-something pro gambler,” he admitted. “Finding a job wasn’t easy.” In September 2017 he resumed his trip handicapping work on the California circuit and started playing when Santa Anita resumed in December. It’s been an amazing run so far in his new-old career, thanks to these two important contest hits. His fiancée had mixed feelings about his returning to racing, but now he’s concerned she might think he’ll be able to win a big tournament every month. “Hopefully, she doesn’t think this is going to be a regular thing,” he said. “It’s easier to feel good about my decision to come back because I now have a little breathing room. I haven’t been destroying it by any stretch of the imagination. It’s a work in progress for sure.” Benes loves tournaments for the opportunities they provide to make scores, especially when money is added to the pot as in the upcoming World Horseplayers’ Tour/Santa Anita contest, which also will be filmed for television. “It’s a no-brainer,” he said. “If you play tournaments and there’s no entry fee, you’d be crazy not to play. Plus, the concept could be very beneficial for horse racing.” The once camera-shy Benes could be under the lights again come May at Santa Anita.