2009 NHC qualifying contest schedule
 

The 2009 National Handicapping Championship qualifying contest schedule has been released by the NTRA. I would encourage everyone to consider playing in at least one of these. handicapping contests are great fun and will allow you to meet great people. More importantly, many of these contests allow you to overcome the greatest obstacle to winning in this game--namely takeout. There are contests that will have a positive expectation where all entry fees are returned as prizes plus NHC spots are awarded. Many contests also provide an opportunity to make a huge single day score.

Finally, anyone who has ever been to an NHC will tell you that it is an amazing event with a life changing purse. It is definately worth playing for.

http://www.ntra.com/content.aspx?typ...&section=races


Paul

http://www.ntra.com/content.aspx?typ...&section=races


-bt-

For some reason Louisiana Downs is not on the list. We are doing a similar schedule to last year.

5 Pre-Qualifiers where the top five make it into a closed final. I'll post the dates when I return to the office on Friday. The finals are on the last Saturday of our race meet. The first Pre-Q is the Saturday between Derby/Preakness.

The dates that BT listed are for the tour, not the qualifiers I think. That's why your dates weren't on there.

There are some Qualifers on that list

what exactly is this whole NHC Tour fee? What exaclty does $125 really get you, b/c they say that the tour fee doesn't get you a free entry into the "ALL" events, are there any events that are simply free once you are a NHC tour member? A little confussing

thanks


-bt-

If you go to the list that Paul posted there are a couple of events that say "NHC Tour: Fountain of Youth" or "NHC Tour: Maiden Challenge" those are events that you get into for free if you're a NHC Tour member. I believe there are about four or five of them for the whole year.

Basically the $125 gets you a free entry into all of those, which are obviously open to only NHC Tour members plus the ability accumulate points based on tournament play. Does that mean you have to travel around to different tournaments? Yes.

I will join just to get into the free tourneys and in the off chance that I play in a handful and get extremely lucky.

Hope that clears it up.

NT

Nick (or any one else who would know), any thoughts or recommendations about the Horse Player World Series. Is it even close to the NHC?

I've never played before. That being said, I qualified for this year's edition and am heading out on the 18th of February. The current standoff between TrackNet and the Nevada Pari-Mutuel Association will seriously hinder the track menu for the contest.

The format is 11 optional wagers per day for three days on designated tracks. Rather than scoring it with $2 WP they score it on a $20 WP basis. You can still buy-in for $1000 and they give you a discount on your rooms with that.

PM me if you have any more questions.

NT

if they do it like the qualifiers in the past under the same format, the $20 they give you for each race, can be spread to multiple horses too, so if you're on the fence between two longshots, you can split the $20 between them.

The HPWS is nothing like the NHC. The reason is simple. You can buy in. What makes the NHC special is that you have to qualify so just getting in is a big accomplishment. Further, the hotel and contest set up (a ball room as opposed to a race book) are not on par.

As Nick said, this year with the possibility of real limited (or real small) tracks, I doubt many will buy in which will greatly reduce the prize money as well.

Paul

Nick is right that joining the tour gets you three free contests during the year. These are on-line contests so there really is no cost. That alone is worth the $125. However, the benefits are much more. You also get to compete for $200,000 is prize money to the top ten by points for the year and qualifying spots for the following NHc for the top five.

Finally, you are also a part of the NTRA purchasing which gets you discounts on a whole bunch of stuff. It is a very worthwhile investment.

Paul

i work cross country so for the whole tour there is only three online tourney. all the rest you have to be there.

Not true. NHCQualify.com awards something like 28 spots in contests that run throughout April, June, August, and December.

X-Press bet is giving away 12 spots this year all on-line.

TVG gives away 6 spots in on-line play.

There are plenty of opportunities for any player.

Paul

I have qualified for the NHC before and agree it was a spectacular experience......I was a tour member in 2008....I used to travel to play in tournaments...

I no longer do so. The schedule is unfair to Canadians.There are too many spots to the NHC for which Canadians cannot compete. The playing field is not level.

Just a cursory look at the 2009 schedule puts 36 spots unavailable for Canadian players. If we use the total number of entries from last year that's a little more than a 10% disadvantage. Qualifying is hard enough.

I noticed that the Autotote Sports Haven contest in New Haven, CT is not listed. It's usually run around this time of year, and I was going to enter. There's no mention of it on their website. Anybody have any news on that?

I also see the Bradley Teletheater tourney, which is run later in the year, is missing too. I can't imagine that Autotote loses money on these tourney days.

Sadly Autotote is out of the contest business. I am very dissapointed about that as well as it was one of the few contests I could actually drive to.

Paul

Did they also re-schedule the Arlington contest that you qualified in last year?

I was very happy to see a Fair Grounds contest listed as there was none in 2008. It's scheduled for March 21.

NT

Yes, unfortunately Arlington moved the April contest to the summer when they have live racing.

I am going to try to get to the Fairgrounds. Rumor is that it will be a $500 entry fee and a $3,000 live bankroll on the live FG races only.

It is not easy to get from Boston to new Orleans anymore with the cuts to airline schedules so I am still up in the air.

I booked my flight already and will be at Laurel March 7 for sure.

Paul

$500 entry fee and a $3000 bankroll on teh FG chalk fest? I'm out if that's the style. That's a format that works at Santa Anita and the other California tracks but is ludicrous at FG. They're lucky if they get 25 people in it with those parameters.

NT