It’s never easy to qualify for the National Handicapping Championship. And the feat gets trickier still when you’re facing a field of 2,000 competitors. But that hasn’t stopped Jim Sebes (pronounced SEE-biss) from winning his way into the NHC twice in the last three years via one of the NTRA’s free contests.
What is his strategy when it comes to playing against these big fields?
“With these big contests, you’ve got to throw deep every play,” he said.
While most of the action in the contest world will be happening live at Santa Anita this weekend, there are a couple of important opportunities online as well. It's become a frequent sight at live tournaments to see players concurrently managing their picks in online contests. The practice, known as "multi-tabling," can lead to some very big days.
Santa Anita announced a new wrinkle to their live-bankroll contests yesterday: Any player who wins a Santa Anita contest in 2016 and goes on to win the Breeders' Cup Betting Challenge will receive a $1 million bonus. Should the same player go on to victory in the National Handicapping Championship, he or she will receive an extra $1 million.
The Santa Anita Preakness Challenge takes place this weekend at The Great Race Place. The live-bankroll betting contest features a buy-in of $4,500. Of that amount, $3,000 will act as a live bankroll and $1,500 will fuel the prize pool, 100 percent of which will be paid back to players in the form of cash, National Handicapping Championship seats, and Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge seats.
For Duke Matties and his brother Paul, track biases aren’t just a real factor in handicapping, they can be the difference maker. To use bias information correctly, a lot of extra work is required, and you have to love what you’re doing if you’re going to succeed.
We’re halfway through the Ultimate Betting Challenge and so far we have a Gulfstream exacta. Brian Gross of Chicago is in first with $16,474.60 and Will Nefzger of Louisville, Ky. is second with $12,324.
Gross jumped out to an early lead on Day 1, jumping up to more than $17,000 after the seventh at Gulfstream Park when My Wish List won and paid $46 to win and keyed a whopping $1,306.40 exacta with a 40-1 shot. Nefzger was down to a mere $312 at one point but clawed his way back into the mix. After hitting the last, won by 15-1 shot Cardiac, he jumped into second.
LAS VEGAS - Moments after winning the 17thDaily Racing Form/NTRA National Handicapping Championship here Saturday afternoon at Treasure Island Las Vegas, and a first place purse of $800,000, Paul Matties had this to say: “Whenever I meet someone and they say they are a horseplayer, I automatically like them, and know they are smarter than anyone else.”
Obviously, we all can feel very good about our new NHC champion.
The 17thDaily Racing Form/NTRA National Handicapping Championship is in the books. Paul Matties of Ballston Spa, N.Y., topped a field of 629 entries to win the $800,000 first-place prize and an Eclipse Award as Horseplayer of the Year at Treasure Island Las Vegas.
The NHC offered record overall cash and prizes totaling $2,778,760, including the money awarded for the NHC Tour.
Day 1 of the 17th annual National Handicapping Championship is in the books at Treasure Island in Las Vegas. The field is led by first-time qualifier Phil Bongiovanni, a 43-year-old Thoroughbred racehorse owner from Yorba Linda, Calif. Bongiovanni’s bankroll sits at $200 after the first day of the three-day tournament.