American Turf Magazine
/ December-January 2015-2016
10
gifts, good seating, and NHC qualify-
ing berths that are paid for by the track
and not by the players’ entry fees.
The format of the Belmont tourna-
ment is time-tested and proven – per-
haps even the best amongst mythical
money contests. Entrants make a win,
place or show bet on 10 races a day for
each day of the two-day contest. The
bets include nine regular daily bets and
one “powerball” double bet.
Contestants are limited to two entries
per person, and the races from NYRA
and the two best simulcast tracks run-
ning at the time are open for betting.
There is a 15-1 odds cap, ensuring that
the eventual winners earn their victo-
ries and that nobody can run away with
the contest just by picking one huge
longshot. A field in the neighborhood
of 250-300 is expected, and with the
$400 entry fee (not too big and not too
small), that makes for a total purse of
more than $100,000. Mythical money
tournaments offering six-figure prize
structures and no takeout are a dying
breed, but thankfully for tournament
players, NYRA so far is still keeping
them alive at Saratoga and at Belmont
Park.
Top Online Tournament Site Award:
The Conny goes to:
Horsetourneys.com
In a total jump-ball between the top
two online handicapping sites, Horse-
Tourneys and DerbyWars, the Con-
nie this year goes to Horsetourneys,
mainly because they continue to offer
free past performances while Derby-
Wars stands out by failing to offer this
one fundamental perk.
Both HorseTourneys and DerbyWars
are well-run and well-designed web-
sites for online handicapping tourna-
ment aficionados that continue to offer
more and more expanded daily contest
options, dozens of them. Both sites
offer scores of qualifying berths into
the National Handicapping Champi-
onship weekly or monthly throughout
the year as well as big cash contests with
substantial prize money. Additionally,
both sites, particularly Horsetourneys,
offer tons of other contest qualify-
ing chances to NHC tournaments at
racetracks and casinos everywhere.
Also, while DerbyWars did debut a
small new live on-site contest in 2015,
it cannot compare to Horsetourneys
big-money, prestigious “The Big
One” tournament, a two-day tour-
nament at Laurel awarding 10 NHC
spots, 5 Breeders’ Cup Betting Chal-
lenge spots, plus cash purse money of
$200,000. You can only qualify for The
Big One at Horsetourneys.com.
HorseTourneys.com offers a wide
array of ‘live” and “Pick and Pray” for-
mat contests, and there are of course
numerous cash and NHC qualifying
events with extensive “feeder” contests,
starting for as little as a few dollars
each to enter.
Entry fees for regular HorseTour-
neys NHC-qualifier contests start at
$155, and prize packages for the NHC
include entries into the contest plus
hotel and $500 for travel expenses.
They also offer occasional all-optional
tournament formats, where players
choose their contest races, and quick-
play contests where all the races in a
particular contest go off in the span of
about an hour or so.
Finally, another great feature of this
website is the fact that HorseTourneys
provides a full listing of its breakage
information in plain sight right at the
top of the home page, thereby offering
full transparency in terms of take-outs.
Generally speaking, HorseTourneys.
com contests offer the best online
handicapping contest experience for
players trying to qualify for the NHC
(or other contests), and rack-up NHC
Tour points with a good variety of low-
cost events.
Top Tournament Destination:
The Conny goes to:
The Surfside Race
Place at Del Mar
The Surfside Race Place at Del Mar
again is offering not one, not two, but
three NTRA-qualifying contest week-
ends during 2015 (incl. Jan. ’16), with
each contest weekend containing three
separate daily contests each offering
at least 2 NHC qualifying spots and
$5,500 in cash to the top finishers.
All told this season, the Surfside Race
Place is awarding a total of 21 qualify-
ing berths to the National Handicap-
ping Championship.
Tournament hopefuls can choose
between contest dates in April, July
(includes 3 bonus NHC berths), and
January – or play in all of the above
–at the glitzy off-track betting facility
adjacent to the Del Mar racetrack just
north of San Diego. For participants in
the NHC Tour, the contests at Surfside,
provide a significant boost for players
in search of NHC Tour points, which
offer further opportunities for players
to earn qualifying berths into the NHC.
Surfside’s tournaments are live
money events where entrants make
wagers on each day’s races from the
Southern California race track that
was running at the time of the contest.
Contests cost $300 to enter plus the
wagering stake, so these can be costly
to attend if you make a weekend out of
it and play all three weekend contests
– Friday, Saturday, Sunday – totaling
over $1,000 a weekend. However, the
contest setting is nice, the format is
solid, and the Surfside Race Place at
Del Mar simply can’t be beat for horse-
players with an eye on qualifying for
an NHC spot.
Top “Super Qualifier” Tournaments:
The Conny goes to:
Hawthorne Race
Course
Hawthorne is the Chicago area’s ver-
sion of the Surfside Race Place, just
without all the bonus sun and sand and
surf associated with Del Mar. It’s tough
to differentiate the super qualifier con-
cept from the tournament destination
concept, but we’ll give this award to the
deserving folks at Hawthorne, none-
theless, in recognition of the track’s
dedication to spectacular tournament
offerings that total 20 NHC spots
throughout the year with a grand total
of zero dollars in entry fees.
That’s right, at Hawthorne, you
can compete in seven different NHC
qualifying contests on four different
weekends (one spring, one summer,
one fall, one winter), and win one of
20 available NHC berths that track
pays for without ever having to pay an
Contest Central
