Luck takes many forms in horse racing, both on the racetrack and in our handicapping. Dominick Capobianco, 54, knows a little something about luck after last weekend.
The FileMaker database developer (a fancy title for a computer programmer) wasn’t supposed to be at home playing in a contest last Saturday. But due to a little luck, the longtime racing fan is now headed to the National Handicapping Championship for the first time.
A bill signed Thursday by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo legalizing online daily fantasy sports contests in the state but prohibiting the same contests for horse racing is raising concerns about the future of online horse-racing activities in New York.
Last weekend, National Handicapping Championship Tour rookie Dan Zaretsky won an entry in the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge via DRF Tournaments. As an NHC Tour first-year player, Zaretsky is competing for a share of the $15,000 that will be distributed among the top five rookies. The BCBC will be an excellent place for him to try to get tour points, not to mention the winner’s share of the expected $1 million purse.
The biggest winner last weekend on DRF Tournaments was Dan Zaretsky, a National Handicapping Championship Tour rookie who is second in the Rookie Tour standings behind Pete Dressens on the strength of four solid scores in NHCQualify events. But it was on the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge qualifying side where he made his mark Saturday.
Nick Tammaro is a respected, young public handicapper known to many horseplayers from his frequent appearances on Steve Byk’s “At the Races” radio show. He’s also an accomplished tournament player. Last weekend, Tammaro won his way into the National Handicapping Championship for the fourth time via the Arlington Park live-bankroll contest.
With the Major League Baseball All-Star Game set for Tuesday in San Diego, the National Thoroughbred Racing Association has once again compiled its own Daily Racing Form/NTRA National Handicapping Championship all-star lineup based on NHC Tour standings approaching the midway point of the 2016 tour season.
Douglas Draper, a 66-year-old bankruptcy attorney, was one of the best stories at the 2016 National Handicapping Championship. Just a month after losing his father, a fellow contest player, he made a deep run at one of the two premier contests in the world.
Ever since the new DRF Tournaments platform was launched, customers and contest aficionados have been united in one message: They missed the public leaderboards that were once available at NHCQualify.com, BCQualify.com, and DRFQualify.com. They will be pleased to learn that as of last weekend, public leaderboards are back.
Anthony Mattera gave himself a nice birthday present last weekend: his first trip to the National Handicapping Championship. Mattera, 32, owns a consulting firm as an American Disabilities Act expert.
Mattera hails from Estell Manor, N.J., and was more or less raised at Atlantic City Race Course. His dad still tells the story – possibly embellished – of Mattera’s birthday party back in 1988, a few weeks after Risen Star, wearing the No. 5 saddle towel, triumphed impressively in the Belmont Stakes.
On Sunday, he got his season back on track with a qualification for the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge, the world’s most important live-bankroll contest, on the DRF Tournaments website. Cettina funded his entry with money he won in a credit builder on DRF Tournaments.