so much for the myth..ladys cant capp

[paisjpq]

Originally Posted by blackthroatedwind

On the subject of the Handicapping contest there is an extremely interesting letter in today's DRF concerning qualifiers......



Rule change would root out 'shills'

I think the NTRA and Daily Racing Form should consider changing the rules for qualifying for the NTRA/DRF National Handicapping Tournament, which went on this past weekend in Vegas. All contests around the country should allow people to enter as many times as they want, and you should be able to win multiple entries to the final tournament.

I qualified last year and am now basically sick and tired of seeing people bringing 10 or 15 family members or friends to the track and using them as shills to qualify. One man who has qualified on multiple occasions (and has himself and three or four family members in the finals again this year) routinely brings about 15-20 people to every local tournament around where he resides and none of them ever pick up a Racing Form or a program. They all have headphones on and are usually reading a book or something. Every bet they make is directed by him, and they couldn't answer even a basic horse racing question when asked.

It's a totally unfair advantage to be able to cover four or five longshots in a race when you hate the favorite, and if they blow, you still have 10 more bullets to fire. I'm sure many more "shills" exist among friends that aren't as obvious.

If the tracks are going to blatantly look the other way, why not just let me enter 15 times myself and save everyone all the headaches. If you don't believe many people in the finals are "owned" by someone else, I've got a bridge to sell you.

Rob Clayton

Wilmington, Del.

the guy makes a great point...

[blackthroatedwind]

Originally Posted by paisjpq

the guy makes a great point...

Yes he does and this issue needs to be addressed.

[randallscott35]

Of course you should be able to qualify more than once. And there is no way of knowing how many of the 3 women in the TOP 10 were from dual entries. Last year, I believe 2 women in the Top 20's entries were being played by a relative or friend....Of course women can cap, but women entering these contests on their own is not common at all.

[ArlJim78]

Originally Posted by blackthroatedwind

Yes he does and this issue needs to be addressed.

I guess I had never suspected that this was going on, but thinking about it now I'm not surprised at all.

The letter writer did a good service though because i would think that they would now have to rectify this situation because its not fair.

[blackthroatedwind]

Originally Posted by ArlJim78

I guess I had never suspected that this was going on, but thinking about it now I'm not surprised at all.

The letter writer did a good service though because i would think that they would now have to rectify this situation because its not fair.

They were aware that the problem needed to be addressed but this letter did a terrific job of driving the point home.

[Bigsmc]

Originally Posted by blackthroatedwind

They were aware that the problem needed to be addressed but this letter did a terrific job of driving the point home.

I've seen it for myself at tournies I have entered. I'm sure it is the same familiy this gentleman is talking about.

You can't stop it unless you sequester the participants. Anybody in these tournaments can be coached with the communication choices out there.

How can you possibly stop it?

[philcski]

Additionally, they need to make the tournament payout structure less top-heavy. First prize paid a whopping $400,000 but 6th place only paid $8,000 in the NHC, that's even more stratified than poker tournaments which have the same problem IMO.