I write a lot about horseplayers and tournaments, but one thing I almost never write about is myself and how I connect to those topics. This piece is different. For the past nine months or so I’ve been moonlighting from my DRF gig to co-create a television property, The World Horseplayers’ Tour. The World Horseplayers’ Tour is many things: it’s a TV show, a new vision for racing tournaments, and right now it’s an actual pilot episode. In May, over Preakness weekend, The World Horseplayers’ Tour put up the money to run an actual tournament at Santa Anita. There was no entry fee; players simply put up their $5,000 and competed for more than $150,000 in cash and prizes that were funded by The World Horseplayers’ Tour and the host track. It was a two-day contest with the first day very much resembling a traditional live-bank event.The second day was something completely new. Tournament player Jonathon Kinchen and I created a new contest format, made for TV, based as much as possible on how a poker tournament works. The top eight players from our first day made the final table, taking the money they had won on day one and putting it in their pockets. At that point, the bankrolls converted to mythical money, just as in poker. The second day the contestants were required to bet on one horse to win in each of the nine live Santa Anita races.The similarities to poker didn’t end there. As the contest progressed, the minimum bets, a/k/a “the blinds,” increased. There were no max bets; players had the option of going “all in” at any time. Of course, betting horses isn’t exactly like poker. In poker, each hand has a winner, and in a tournament setting all the money eventually flows one way. In our tournament, just as at the betting windows, sometimes you hit and sometimes you don’t. The contest becomes more attritional. We see this as a feature, not a bug. Instead of the typical live-bank contest format where players try to preserve bankroll and fire it all at the end, our players had to make their stands along the way.We couldn’t have gotten luckier with the eight players who made the final table. Nick Tammaro is one of the sharpest and wittiest guys in racing. Tony Zhou is a computer player who is on the verge of winning a major. Garett Skiba is the most successful live-bank player of all time. Frank McGoey is a pro player with an old-school vibe about him. Tom Arndt is a gambler’s gambler and a horseplayer everyman. Jason Avila is smart and charismatic and represents his hometown and family with pride. “Philly Joe” Metka has the same first name as a city. Justin Mustari, 23, brought much needed young blood to the final table.We were fortunate to team with Michelle Willrich of Serrica Productions to put the pilot together. Our co-executive producer, Jason Auerbach, was also integral to the process. Over the last few months, Kinchen and I have gotten a crash course in TV production, and the experience has been educational, stressful, and also really fun. After a week in Santa Monica, notes on many cuts, a bonus voiceover session in Albany, and countless hours of tireless work by Michelle and Jason, on Wednesday the show was finally able to make its debut.The feedback has been tremendous and overwhelmingly positive. Now we’re ready to begin the task of finding a broadcast partner and also rallying industry support. The plan is to present a series of tournaments in 2019, with each being the centerpiece of an episode. We’re hoping that no entry fees will be necessary, and that racetracks will help us fund the prize pools as an advance on the money our players will bet. We tracked the play of our 85 players at Santa Anita over three days and we put more than $1 million through the windows. That number is certain to grow as WHT events grow in popularity, spurred on by word of mouth and the TV component.I’m also proud to announce that Daily Racing Form has been a major supporter of the WHT since day one. We promoted the pilot event through DRF channels and DRF Tournaments was the exclusive place to qualify for the pilot event. The relationship with DRF continues this Tuesday, with the pilot episode appearing as part of the DRF TV live stream. You can tune in at 1p.m. to live.drf.com to check it out for yourself or watch via the DRF Facebook or Twitter feeds. An archive of the show will also live thereafter at drf.com/youtube.