James Metzger wins it for America. Metzger, 35, a financial advisor from Louisville, Ky., broke a long streak of Canadian dominance in major handicapping contests by winning the Woodbine Mile Horseplayers Tournament on Saturday, netting cash and prizes worth more than $60,000 including his $30,000 final bankroll. His haul includes seats to the National Horseplayers Championship, the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge, and a VIP return trip to Woodbine for Pattison International Day next month. A few years back, Metzger discovered contests when someone asked him to invest in another player’s entry. “I was kind of offended by the idea because I’m super-confident in my own handicapping skills, so I decided to enter myself,” he admitted. “Through that, I found out about qualifiers and tournaments.” This weekend was his first win, and his methods were notable for a couple reasons. For one, he used his ability to assess horses in the paddock to help him along. This is not unheard of – well-known players such as Frank McGoey and John Nichols are known for using a horse’s looks – but it is uncommon. Another interesting element is that instead of deciding to play the contest and then looking at the entries/past-performances, for Metzger it was the other way around. “The whole reason I flew up for the contest was because of Oscar Performance,” he said. “With the hot and dry weather, I figured he’d get very fast ground again, so I thought he’d be extremely tough to beat. I just wanted to make sure he looked OK physically, with what happened last time [when he was vanned off at Arlington], and he looked absolutely superb in the paddock.” Oscar Performance’s win in the Mile put Metzger in contention, but he still had work to do. After the next race, Tony “The Terminator” Zhou crushed a double paying out to 11-1 Starship Jubilee in the Canadian Stakes and sat atop the board with $19,000, plus a second entry in the top five around $4,000. Zhou looked odds-on at that point to win his first major live-bank event. Meanwhile, Metzger’s next significant opinion came in the Northern Dancer, in which he entered the day wanting to bet as much as he could on Patterson Cross. Again, a trip to the paddock paid dividends. “I didn’t like how he looked in the paddock, and Johnny Bear, my alternate opinion, looked great,” Metzger said. “I wasn’t going to bet Johnny Bear because I figured he’d be the favorite, having won the race last year, but for some reason he was 17-1. He seemed to be coming into the race at least as well as last year, and was going to get a great pace setup, so I bet half my bankroll (as required) on him.” That $1,700 win bet brought his total to $30,000, and gave him a lead he would not relinquish. The strategy of betting big in the contest’s penultimate race made all the more sense because the nightcap was an inscrutable affair, a 15-horse cheap claimer. Zhou’s decision to bet $4,000 in the Northern Dancer even after amassing that big lead looked very justified when the smoke cleared. Had he sat on his winnings, Metzger still would have stormed past. Zhou finished third with $13,650 in bankroll, plus $4,100 in cash and a seat to the NHC. Second place went to Alan Schaffer ($16,135, plus $10,500 and a BCBC seat). Fourth- and fifth-place finishers Scott Carson ($8,513) and Nick Noce ($8,100) each won cash and NHC seats. Noce, a New Jersey resident who simply (and quite sensibly) loves Woodbine, ended up as the Canadian player of the year by finishing best in an interconnected series of Woodbine contests. For that, Noce also won $6,500, a $3,500 entry to next year’s Mile contest, and a Sovereign Award (the Canadian version of the Eclipse Awards). Keeneland Fall Challenge Elsewhere this weekend on DRF Tournaments, Alex Calzi won a seat to the Keeneland Fall Challenge, besting a field of 16 by a wide margin. He finished with $116.80 with five collections including Starship Jubilee and Johnny Bear. The next closest player was more than $42 back in second. Sunday’s biggest winner on DRFT was Jason Kisch ($105.50), who won a $500 entry to the Orleans Fall Classic as well as $500 in travel by beating a 17-entry field wire to wire. He started with a cap horse, Magical Tale ($64), and never looked back, though Calzi gave him a run for his money, getting within $11 at the end and netting some additional DRF site credit. Next weekend’s biggest DRFT contests are a qualifier for the World Championship of Handicapping and another chance to win into the Fall Classic. Players should also be on the lookout for games that will point them to the Del Mar Fall Challenge, a $5,000 live-bank event taking place Nov. 10-11. DRFT’s first Del Mar qualifier will take place Sept. 29, and players can feed into that starting this week. For more information, go to tournaments.drf.com