The winner of next year’s National Horseplayers Championship will be guaranteed a purse of $1 million, approximately 25 percent higher than recent first-place awards, the organizers of the tournament announced on Thursday. The $1 million minimum is a restoration of sorts for the NHC, the most prestigious handicapping tournament in the U.S. The NHC had a first-place purse of $1 million as recently as 2012, but the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, which administers the tournament, changed the formula after that year to increase purses for also-rans in the tournament. Keith Chamblin, the NTRA executive vice president in charge of the NHC, said that the organization will tap additional revenues from tournaments held throughout the year to increase the purse and is not expecting to reduce any downstream purses. “We certainly hope not,” Chamblin said. “We’re up about 30 percent in participation so far this year, so we think we’re going to have up to $300,000 more to offer this year in prize money. It’s a little early to predict an exact number, but that’s how we’re trending right now. It could possibly be even over that number.” :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. The NHC has in recent years been held over three days in mid-March in Las Vegas. This year, the contest had 828 entries from 651 players, and the winner, Dylan Donnelly, collected an $825,000 first-place purse. Also in 2027, the Silver Sunday Contest, held for the past three years in Las Vegas on the final day of the tournament, will be expanded to allow any players in Las Vegas to participate. The tournament was formerly limited to NHC players. Chamblin said that approximately 1,000 people attended the tournament last year, with “hundreds” of people there to cheer on friends or family or take in the atmosphere. The purse for the Sunday tournament is expected to be approximately $200,000 next year, compared to $100,000 this year, Chamblin said. The NHC tournament eventually whittles the field down to 10 percent of entrants by Sunday morning. The Silver Sunday tournament was started to allow the other 90 percent to stay in the action, with every player in the NHC granted a free berth – including those still playing in the larger tournament.  “That tournament has already achieved all of our goals and then some,” Chamblin said. “So we’re excited to expand it next year.” Chamblin said that the NTRA is still “modeling” the entry fee for those non-NHC players entering the Silver Sunday tournament, but he expects the number to be around $500. Although the exact size of the prizes won’t be determined until all the entry fees are in, the first-place purse is expected to be $100,000, and the tournament will also award berths to the following year’s NHC plus tournament points. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.