Monmouth, New Jersey bar owner Joseph Boyle topped a field of 225 entries to place first in Autotote's $80,000 Bradley Teletheater Handicapping Challenge on June 26-27. Boyle won first prize of $20,000 and also qualified for Daily Racing Form/NTRA National Handicapping Championship VI to be held next January in Las Vegas.

The seventh annual Bradley Teletheater Handicapping Challenge, held in Autotote's Hartford, Connecticut-area OTB, has become one of the richest and most prestegeous handicapping tournaments in the East along with its sister event held each February at Sports Haven in New Haven, Conn. The two-day contest cost $325 to enter and drew a sell-out crowd of 225 entries. All entry fees were returned to the top 20 overall finishers and top three daily finishers on both Saturday and Sunday.

Players are given 10 mythical $200 win, place, or show wagers per day to bet on the races from Belmont, Churchill, and the first six races from Hollywood Park. The top two overall money earners both qualified for the DRF/NTRA NHC VI.

Boyle, who owns Boyle's Tavern nearby Monmouth Park racetrack in New Jersey, finished Saturday in a three-way tie for second-place with $6,620. He trailed runaway day one leader Paul Shurman of Melville, N.Y. by $1,780, but made up the difference thanks to a pair of winning longshots during Sunday's action. Boyle's winning $200 win wagers on Second Performance ($23 in Belmont's race 7) and Loramateal ($17.80 in Churchill's race 10) were enough to give him a final contest-winning bankroll of $10,700. Shurman added $1,890 to his total on Sunday and finished with $10,290, but that amount was only good enough for second place. Shurman earned $10,000 in prize money for the runner-up finish.

Boyle will be making his first trip to the National Handicapping Championship finals in Las Vegas. Shurman, a handicapping tournament veteran who plays in a half a dozen or more contests a year, will be making his third straight trip to the NHC. He qualified both of the last two years with wins in Autotote On The Wire telephone wagering contests.

Other top finishers in the Bradley Teletheater Handicapping Challenge included third-place finisher Richard Rooney of East Sandwich, Mass. ($6,750 in prize money), fourth-place finisher Bart Fooden of Port Washington, N.Y. ($4,750), and fifth-place finishers Chuck Snyder of Glastonbury, Conn. and Paul Weizer of Leominister, Mass. ($3,750 each). Rooney, Fooden, Snyder, and Weizer, however, failed to qualify for NHC VI.