Young blood pumps up WHT event

Say hello to the new kid in town.

While 23-year-old Justin Mustari didn’t win the inaugural World Horseplayers’ Tour event, the Santa Anita Preakness Challenge, he definitely made a name for himself, netting prizes worth over $50,000, including his $23,790 day one bankroll, $25,000 in prize money, and a seat to the 2019 National Horseplayers Championship.

The event, which featured a fully added prize pool, was filmed for an upcoming TV pilot. This was indeed part of the appeal for Chicago’s Mustari, a project developer for Five Star Insulation, who purchased his entry for $5,000.

“The fact that it was going to be recorded for some type of TV show was very cool to me,” said Mustari, “To get a younger crowd into this sport is definitely something that we want.”

Mustari did his part for the show, seizing the lead in race four before relinquishing it to the ultimate winner, “Philly Joe” Metka. Not only was Mustari drawing live in the last race, for a second when his selection, Well Developed, dug back in in the stretch, he looked the most likely winner.

“Through the first five races it was very exciting to see my name at the top, and I thought that I had a very good chance from there on out,” he said, “and even during the last race I thought I was home.”

Young Mustari is hardly a babe in the woods when it comes to tournament play. He’s been playing in Hawthorne’s series of live-bank events since he turned 21. He also cashed for fifth place in the 2017 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge and earlier this year ran sixth in a Santa Anita event trying to qualify for the WHT/SA Preakness.

But his experience in tournaments paled compared to those of the guy he was sitting next to at the first ever live-bankroll final table, fellow Chicagoan Garett Skiba. Skiba is one of the most successful players in tournament history, with five six-figure cashes to his name. But Mustari was not intimidated.

“I’m friends with a lot of tournament players and they’re all confident and I’ve learned that from them,” he offered.

It’s not just friends he has in the tournament world. Mustari’s father, Frank, is the one who got him into the game.

“My dad was a big part of getting me into racing,” he said. “Growing up going to the track all the time and telling him the bets I want to make and he’d go up there and make them for me.”

For Mustari, competition is a key component of enjoying tournament play. “The experience of playing in tournaments is different than just going to the track on a normal day,” he said. “Your competition is there in front of you, just like a golf tournament, and when you feel that energy it’s a lot of fun.”

He doesn’t mention golf as a mere metaphor. Mustari is a scratch golfer who plays competitively in tournaments.

“In both golf and racing tournaments, you’ve got to be extremely focused and be ready to make big decisions,” said Mustari. “You’ve got to know when you want to go for those par fives in two and know when you want to go for those big exactas and big tris.”

In an amazing moment of strategy heading to the last race, Mustari outfoxed tournament veterans Nick Tammaro and Tony Zhou when it came to sizing his wager. The tournament featured increasing “blinds,” minimum bets that escalated throughout the contest. Heading to the last, he was in third with $7,500 and Tammaro was behind him with $6,000. He assumed that the leader, Metka, would bet the minimum of $5,000 and rolled the dice that they’d end up on different horses.

“My first thought was to make sure I kept myself in third place,” he explained. “Knowing that Nick would have to go all-in for $6,000 or just bet the minimum $5,000 I had an edge over him. I played $6,499 to leave myself with $1,001 in case Nick only bet the minimum 5,000 and neither of us hit the race.”

Mustari also wanted to make sure if Tammaro did go all-in he would still be ahead of him if they played the same horse.

“My next thought was that Tony was going to bet pretty heavy just knowing the type of player he is and the success he’s had,” Mustari continued.

Zhou ended up leaving $88 on his bankroll, which was not enough to stay in second if nobody hit the race. Mustari gamed out the scenarios perfectly and even though his horse lost in the last, he made himself at least an extra $10,000.

With a brain as sharp as that, it looks like the kid is here to stay.