LAS VEGAS – Call it beginner's luck if you want, but Nolan White hopes it continues.

White, a 36-year-old attorney from Canton, Texas, leads after the first day of the 13th annual Daily Racing Form/NTRA National Handicapping Championship presented by Sovereign Stable. There are 480 horse handicappers vying for the record $1 million first-place prize and title of 2011 Handicapper of the Year. NHC XIII concludes Saturday at the Treasure Island Hotel & Casino, which is hosting the finals for the first time.

LAS VEGAS - Will slow and steady win the race?

The 13th annual Daily Racing Form/National Thoroughbred Racing Association National Handicapping Championship started off with 26 of the record 482 qualifiers hitting a 30-1 longshot in the first mandatory race, but halfway through Day 1 of the two-day finals that pays $1 million to the 2011 Handicapper of the Year, Phil Hoedebeck, 49, of Wichita Falls, Texas, has moved into the lead as of 2 p.m. Pacific time.

Timothy McGinn, a former vice chairman and board member of the New York Racing Association, was charged with fraud on Thursday in an indictment released by prosecutors for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Albany, New York, where McGinn ran a brokerage firm with partner David L. Smith.

Both McGinn and Smith were charged with 30 counts of fraud in the indictment, which alleged that the two partners misled unsophisticated investors about the risks and returns of securities. The indictment says that the two “misappropriated” at least $8 million in investors’ funds.

The Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation is currently in negotiations to relocate as much as half of its current herd to a ranch in Colorado owned by the Thoroughbred breeder Tom McKenna, the retirement foundation said on Thursday.

The organization has signed a non-binding letter of intent with McKenna to take possession of as many as 600 horses, the foundation said, and is planning to continue negotiations and conduct an on-site inspection of the 45,000-acre property, which is located near Walsenburg, Colo.

Back in the 1970s, David Milch and Frank Capra Jr. had unconnected brainstorms that a racing show on TV would sell. Milch even put a title, “The Main Chance,” on his opus. It was not by accident that he gravitated to racing for subject matter. His father, a surgeon in Buffalo, N.Y., owned horses and began taking his son to Saratoga when little David was still in short pants. David Milch’s uncles liked everyone to believe they were in the furniture business, but making book was really the name of their game.

Those hoping to get lucky in "Luck" include:

LAS VEGAS – The field of 482 for the Daily Racing Form/NTRA National Handicapping Championship Presented by Sovereign Stables was completed Wednesday as the final five contestants having earned their berths in the Last Chance Qualifier at Treasure Island Hotel & Casino.

There were 113 entries at $500 apiece in the Last Chance to try to make the $1.5 million NHC XIII finals, which offers a $1 million first-place prize and the title of 2011 Handicapper of the Year.

A former assistant to D. Wayne Lukas, he has conditioned 2006 Horse of the Year Invasor as well as 2007 champion turf female Lahudood. McLaughlin has trained for Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin and Darley Stable as well as Sheikh Hamdan’s Shadwell Stable, for whom he won the 2006 Belmont Stakes with Jazil. In 2005 McLaughlin came within a half-length of winning the Kentucky Derby with Closing Argument. He hopes to get there this year with Alpha and/or Consortium.

Birthdate: Nov. 15, 1960 in Lexington, Ky.

BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. - Stephanoatsee, runner-up to Alpha in the Count Fleet Stakes at Aqueduct on Jan. 7, is off the Triple Crown trail due to an injured pastern bone, trainer Graham Motion said Tuesday.

Stephanoatsee, a half-brother to 2011 Preakness winner Shackleford, will undergo surgery Wednesday at the New Bolton Equine Clinic in Pennsylvania.

Motion said that Stephanoatsee chipped a piece off the top of the pastern bone in his right foreleg. Dr. Dean Richardson will reattach the piece rather than remove it, Motion said.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Never Retreat, who was not based in Canada but shipped into Woodbine for three impressive performances, is a finalist for a Sovereign Award as outstanding turf female and has to be considered a leading candidate for Horse of the Year honors.

The Jockey Club of Canada released its list of finalists for 2011 Sovereign Award honors on Tuesday morning after the ballots of 37 voters were tabulated.