Usually when you ask a horseplayer how he or she got into racing the answer is the same. An older relative is typically given the credit – an uncle, an aunt, a grandfather, a father. For 57-year old Pete Acocella, the answer was a little different. When asked how he got into racing, he mentioned an old TV show – “Bowling for Dollars” (kids, ask your parents). When the attorney from Great River, N.Y., was a teenager in the mid-1970s, if he and his siblings hadn’t given his parents too much grief, they’d be rewarded with a show on the family’s 9-inch black-and-white TV. That show was “Bowling for Dollars” on WOR-TV. “Immediately after that show, Frank Wright and Charlsie Cantey hosted a program where they would broadcast the late double from the then-active New York racetrack,” Acocella said. “I enjoyed trying to select the winners and when I found out that there was a publication called the Daily Racing Form where you could find the horse’s past performances to base your selections on, my problem/puzzle-solving intrigue was piqued.”It was only natural that a game-show lover with an interest in racing and an instinct to solve puzzles would become attracted to handicapping contests. Acocella is a regular online at DRF Tournaments, and he’s had top-15 finishes in contests at Laurel Park, Gulfstream, and Monmouth. He’s also qualified for the National Horseplayers Championship eight of the nine times he’s tried, and an in-the-money finish at that event remains a “bucket list” item for him.DRFT is one of his favorite places to play. “I am a fan of the 10-entry limited contests,” he explained, “as they present a great opportunity to qualify, competing against what is always a talented but small group of serious, like-minded handicappers.”He also likes contests because of how they allow him to keep in touch with racing while still managing his work and spending plenty of time with his family – his wife, Patty, and their four children, Drew, Ashley, Zach, and Jake. “Recreational activities such as handicapping are a difficult commodity to squeeze into such a challenging though rewarding lifestyle,” he said. “Contest play allows me to pursue my passion for the sport and handicapping endeavors, at off and late hours. Most days of competing I am checking the results in the wee hours of the morning, whether contests were live or all-in. And that’s just fine by me.”This approach of not following along live is going to work a lot better in a game where you have to be best of five or 10 entries and can therefore pick winners in advance, as opposed to tackling a giant field where you’re more likely to have to shoot for prices to finish in the money in the contest’s final third.As for his handicapping, that same publication he learned about back in the ’70s is still at the forefront of what he does. “I am a pencil-and-past-performance guy,” he said. “I have considered and admire computer-based handicapping programs and would like to work the information processing and analysis that they provide into my repertoire, but have not done so to date.”He tries to get an edge through note-taking and taking a holistic approach to the Form. “I try to note trends – has the track been speed favoring or have closers been having greater success? – and also envision how I see the particular race or races playing out,” he said. “Figures are important, but not definitive. Class is not to be ignored.”It’s been a long time since “Bowling for Dollars” went off the air, but its effect on a young Pete Acocella can still be measured to this day. He’s been betting for dollars ever since.