Peter Fornatale interviewed Tony Brice of Colleyville, Texas, the second-place finisher at last weekend’s 15th annual National Handicapping Championship in Las Vegas. Here are questions and answers as a follow-up to the tournament.
Tell me what you do for a living.
Peter Fornatale interviewed Nick Alpino of Laguna Hills, Calif., the third-place finisher at last weekend’s 15th annual National Handicapping Championship in Las Vegas. Here are questions and answers as a follow-up to the tournament.
How do you feel looking back on your performance in this year’s NHC?
I’m thrilled. I almost got the whole thing in the last race. I was in it until the very end but those last couple of races I couldn’t do anything. But I’m thrilled to come in third place.
And then there were 50. Day 2 of the National Handicapping Championship at the Treasure Island Casino in Las Vegas is in the books. Just as he did on Day 1, Jose Arias, a 36-year-old environmental safety engineer from Bell Gardens in Los Angeles, put up an impressive performance, amassing $127.20 for a two-day total of $326.
His biggest win on the day came in Santa Anita’s ninth race, the California Cup Turf Classic, as Brian Koriner’s horse Weewinnin came through and paid $44.80 and $22, though for NHC purposes payoffs are capped at 20-1 ($42) to win and 10-1 ($22) to place.
The 50 players with the highest bankrolls at the end of the first two days of the National Handicapping Championship will compete for 10 seats at a “Final Table” and the grand prize of the $1.5 million tournament, the organizers of the event announced on Thursday.
Larry David, a Santa Rosa, Calif., resident, has become the first National Handicapping Championship Tour member to earn two berths to the 2014 championship under a new rule implemented just this year, the tour’s organizers announced on Friday.
David finished second in a tournament on Feb. 2 at NHCqualify.com and then finished second in a Feb. 10 tournament at Horsetourneys.com. Both tournaments awarded berths in next January’s championship to the top five players.
The National Handicapping Championship will go from a two-day format to a three-day format in 2014, the organizers announced on Tuesday, with the top competitors in the first two days squaring off for the final prizes during the third day.
LAS VEGAS – Jim Benes never imagined he would win $750,000 on a $3.60 place horse, but that’s exactly what put him into the winner’s circle with the $750,000 first-place prize at the Daily Racing Form/NTRA National Handicapping Championship on Saturday afternoon.
Benes, a 50-year-old professional horseplayer from Countryside, Ill., topped a field of 455 horseplayers vying for the top prize and title of Handicapper of the Year at the 14th annual horse handicapping tournament in the ballrooms at the Treasure Island Hotel & Casino.
LAS VEGAS – Richard Grose steamrolled the competition on the first day of the 14th annual Daily Racing Form/National Handicapping Championship that concludes Saturday at the Treasure Island Hotel-Casino, where the eventual champion will win $750,000 and the title of Handicapper of the Year.
LAS VEGAS – Richard Grose of Wentzville, Mo., didn’t hesitate in using his “best bet” on Friday’s first day of the 14th annual Daily Racing Form/NTRA National Handicapping Championship and it landed him in the early lead.
