'Old-school' handicapper David Harrison wins National Horseplayers Championship
David Harrison, a 63-year-old real-estate appraiser from Webster, N.Y., won last weekend’s National Horseplayers Championship in Las Vegas with a total score of $342, earning $725,000 for the contest’s top prize.
Harrison entered Sunday’s final table at the tournament with a $30.30 lead over the closest of the other nine finalists. Going into the final race, he was still up $16.60, and when an even-money shot drew off in the stretch of the last mandatory race, he knew he couldn’t be caught.
“This is an absolute life-changing score,” Harrison said. “I’m a middle-class, middle-income, hard-working guy. This is going to help me hopefully retire a little bit earlier than I’d planned. I’m totally overwhelmed and don’t even know what to say.”
:: For the first time ever, our premium past performances are free! Get free Formulator now!
The National Horseplayers Championship, held this year at Bally’s Las Vegas, is the richest tournament of its kind in the world. This year, 509 individual contestants played 643 entries. The tournament requires players to make $2 mythical win-place bets on a mix of mandatory and optional races at tracks across the U.S. over a three-day period. Total prize money was $2.34 million.
Ryan Patrick Scully of Montgomery, Ill., finished second, earning $200,000. A.J. Benton of Manchester, N.H., was third, earning $150,000.
In addition to the prize money, Harrison will get an exemption into next year’s NHC. He will also be provided with a free berth in the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge, a live-money tournament that requires a $10,000 buy-in.
:: Want to start playing with a $510 bankroll and have access to free Formulator? Learn more
Harrison said that he has been handicapping since the late 1970s. He credited the late Harvey Pack, the handicapper and television host for the New York Racing Association, with teaching him how to bet horse races. After he was presented his winning trophy, he threw his Daily Racing Form into the air, the signature sign-off from Pack on his television show.
“I’m an old-school guy,” he said. “I just use the Form.”
After the tournament, the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, which administers the NHC, said that it had issued its first-ever disqualification of a contestant, for breaking a rule that requires the contestant to be on-site for the contest.
On Monday, Jonathon Kinchen, a public handicapper and frequent tournament player who appears on racing broadcasts produced by the New York Racing Association, acknowledged that he was the player who was disqualified.
Kinchen said that he registered for the contest on Wednesday in Las Vegas, but then flew to Florida on Thursday. Over the first two days of the tournament, he texted his plays to an on-site contestant, who placed his bets for him, Kinchen said. He planned to fly back to Las Vegas on Sunday morning if he made the semi-finals, Kinchen said.
“The one thing I want people to understand is that I didn’t cheat,” Kinchen said. “I broke a rule. I am accepting my DQ and I regret it.”