Two win seats to Wynn Challenge

David Watts and Al Roehl were the biggest winners on DRF Tournaments over the weekend, each netting a $2,000 seat to the Wynn Challenge and $500 for travel. The Wynn Challenge is an important mythical-money contest focusing on Del Mar and Saratoga that takes place Aug. 4-5 at the Wynn Las Vegas.

Last weekend’s qualifiers required players to put up $290, with one in 10 entries winning a grand prize. This format has proved popular and should be returning to DRFT in the coming days.

Watts was best in Saturday’s event with a score of $84.30, nearly $20 ahead of Ali Aksoy in second. Watts collected points in six races, including Who’s the Lady ($26.80 win-place combined) in Gulfstream’s 10th race.

On Sunday, Watts nearly completed a remarkable double in DRFT’s other weekend Wynn qualifier, but he fell $4 short of Roehl, who was best in the field with $74.20.

Roehl had only $7.10 through the first six races but collected points in five of the contest’s final six races. The shortest price was Holy Helena ($10.40) in the Queen’s Plate at Woodbine, and the longest was Music Babe ($16.60) in Monmouth’s 10th.

Also last weekend, qualifying continued for the three big events scheduled for this Saturday. There’s a Grade 1 qualifier for the World Championship of Handicapping as well as qualifiers for the Wynn ($108 to play, 1 in 27 qualify) and Del Mar Handicapping Championship ($400 to play, 1 in 22 win).

Last weekend, six players moved on to first-round qualifiers for the WCH: Michael Teal, Brien Westfall, Edward Peters, Dan Shugar, Harrychand Sukhram, and Fred Koebberman. Players put up $95 to play in Round 1, and one in seven go through to the Grade 1 (Grade 1 entries also can be purchased directly for $580). From the Grade 1, one in 10 will win a $5,000 buy-in to the $1 million, no-takeout WCH.

Qualifying action will return to DRFT on Friday with last-chance feeders for all three big qualifiers on Saturday. Go to tournaments.drf.com for more information.