Three former champions – Brian Troop, Michael Beychok, and John Conte - have made their way into the final 50 at the National Handicapping Championship, the world's richest handicapping contest with more than $2.3 million in purses, held at the Treasure Island in Las Vegas.
The overall leader after the second day of the three-day event is John O'Neil of Huntington Station, N.Y., who built his bankroll to $253.
O’Neil felt like he was unlucky to have not had an even better day.
ARCADIA, Calif.- A sequence of longshots on Saturday has led to a pick six carryover of $116,493 for Sunday’s nine-race program at Santa Anita.
Sunday’s pool could surpass $500,000 on a program that includes solid field sizes for the pick six races.
The pick six covers the fourth through ninth races on a program that begins at 12:30 p.m. Pacific. The pick six races have fields of 9, 8, 10, 14, 11, and 12.
A modest winter storm that brought a mixture of snow and rain to the area forced officials to cancel Saturday’s live racing program at Aqueduct. It is the fifth full card to be canceled here in the last 17 days. Another card was scrapped after two races.
Aqueduct and Belmont were to be open for simulcasting on Saturday.
Saturday’s $125,000 Rego Park Stakes for New York-bred 3-year-olds was rescheduled for Friday. The six-furlong race was to be redrawn on Sunday. Three other races scheduled for Saturday were put up as extras and could be brought back for Thursday.
LAS VEGAS – Joe Jarvie, a building engineer and former NCAA basketball official from Renton, Wash., hit the last race on Friday to vault into first place on Day 1 of the three-day Daily Racing Form/NTRA National Handicapping Championship at Treasure Island.
Jarvie’s score of $115.80 is low by historical standards, but it was still enough to net him $5,000 in cash and a $10,000 seat at the Breeders' Cup Betting Challenge as the Day 1 leader. Jarvie heads a field of 606 entries and 521 individual players.
Jockey Roman Chapa on Friday appealed a summary suspension the Sam Houston Race Park board of stewards levied against him pending an investigation into his ride in last Saturday night’s ninth race, the $50,000 Richard King Handicap, which he won aboard Quiet Acceleration.
The ride is being investigated after a photo of the finish of the race shows what may be a foreign object in Chapa’s hand.
Chapa has been off his mounts since Monday. The appeal is set to be heard by the stewards Feb. 9, said David Rollinson, a steward at Sam Houston.
With a winter storm approaching, Laurel Park on Friday evening canceled its Saturday race card.
The Laurel racing surface has been stuck in a freeze/thaw mode all week, and Friday night’s storm is expected to include freezing rain and sleet.
“Given the questionable surface we have had all week with the freeze and thaw and pending sleet and freezing rain tonight, it is in the best interest to preserve the racetrack,” said Sal Sinatra, general maneger of the Maryland Jockey Club.
Have you ever wondered what goes into the process of selecting the mandatory races at the National Handicapping Championship? I always have, and Wednesday I had the chance to sit in on the meeting where the mandatory races were decided.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – No horses or humans were hurt when a tack room caught fire in Barn 12A at Belmont Park on Wednesday night.
According to New York Racing Association officials, clothing left on a wall-mounted radiator caused the fire. Ontrack security personnel and the Elmont Fire Department responded.
Eighteen horses are stabled in the barn. The tack room belonged to trainer Luis Miranda, according to NYRA spokesman John Durso.
Durso said the total damage incurred is estimated to be less than $1,000.
JRC Callas First, bought privately for $8,300 at the end of 2013, was named 2014 World Champion Running Quarter Horse in a ceremony at the Heritage Place Sales Company in Oklahoma City on Wednesday evening.
Racing as a 4-year-old gelding in 2014, JRC Callas First won 8 of 10 starts and earned $216,530. He was also named champion aged gelding and champion aged horse. He won six stakes, in Texas and New Mexico, including two Grade 1 races - the Refrigerator Handicap at Lone Star Park in October and the Zia Park Championship in New Mexico in late November.
Just a Way, the winner of the Dubai Duty Free at Meydan Racecourse in March, was named the world’s best racehorse of 2014 by a panel of experts in a ceremony in London on Tuesday.
Just a Way was given a rating of 130, one point higher than Japan Cup winner Epiphaneia. The remainder of the 10 runners consisted of five European-based horses and one each from the United States, Asia, and South Africa.
