November 2023
The NHC tour kicked off fall right this October with many contests from coast to coast, awarding 41 seats to the Horseshoe Las Vegas next March.
The first day of the month started with the $4,000 Santa Anita Opening Weekend Challenge hosted on track and online on Xpressbet. Nisan Gabbay & Joseph Rosen came out on top, and the full leaderboard can be found here.
Monmouth Park hosted its own $300 Fall Qualifier that yielded 2 NHC seats and cash prizes to the top five finishers. Bill Rendino and Dan Bergen won their NHC prize packs and will be making their way to Las Vegas. The following day the NTRA hosted its final free contest of the 2023 NHC Tour on Sunday October 8. All participants needed to be NHC Tour members to be eligible to win a qualifying spot. The three seats to the 25th NHC went to Travis Foelsch, Bob Schreiter, and TJ Sonde.
Keeneland’s Fall meet was not without great contests that led to 13 NHC seats being awarded. On October 13 Paul Weizer, 2023 NHC Champion Paul Calia, and Robert Mack punched their tickets to Las Vegas. The next day’s annual BCBC-NHC Tournament drew more than 200 online and on track participants and awarded a whopping 10 berths to the 25th NHC. Seats went to Robert Traynor, Marshall Gramm, Mike Castagnoli, Chris Savage, Tom Maloof, Jim Videtic, Richard Jerardi, Jim Tipps, Gary Steichele and James Metzger.
Horseplayers.com awarded 13 seats to NHC 2024 during October to: Joseph Paese, Michael Beychok, Thomas Blosser, Adam Haskins, Chris Bertolucci, Chris Hawranik, Tanya Taylor, Mark Stillmock, Joe Kasperski, Alex DeVito, Bill Alberg, Robert McIntyre and Tony Wong
Horsetourneys also awarded 8 seats to Robin Buser, Devanathan Murugesan, Jeff Bussan, Nick Noce, Peter Dresens, Tim Gavin, Francis Boustany and Jim Colbert.
William Rendino
Dan Bergen
Thomas Blosser
Marshall Gramm
Robert McIntyre
Jim Videtic
Paul Weizer
Q&A with Paul Weizer
Hometown: Leominster, MA
Occupation: Professor of Political Science
What was the first contest you played in and when? My first contest was at Suffolk Downs in 2002 and I first qualified for the NHC at Suffolk in 2004. This will be my 18th NHC in March.
What do you like most about handicapping contests? I like many things about contests. First and foremost is the chance to meet people with similar interests. The camaraderie at contests is tremendous. Many of my closest friends in life I have met through handicapping contests and I have been able to travel the country and see many of our greatest racetracks as a result. Second, the hardest part about racing in general is overcoming the takeout. There are still many contests where 100% or more of entry fees are paid back to the players. That is very appealing.
What is your favorite racetrack? Keeneland is far and away my favorite track. It is as close to paradise as one can get for a horseplayer.
How did you get interested in handicapping contests? I had been playing the races since I was a teenager. Once I found out about contests, I was excited to see how I measured up against the best handicappers and was lured by the opportunity for a big score.
When and where did you qualify for the 2024 NHC? I qualified for the 2024 NHC at Keeneland this October.
Tell us about the day you qualified for the NHC. I was on track at Keeneland. In fact, other than the remote COVID years, I have been on track for every Keeneland contest ever held. My strategy was simply to select the races I liked best and leverage my money so that if I was right once, I would likely be at the top of the leaderboard. That day, fortunately, I was.
What is your favorite restaurant in Las Vegas? Lakeside at the Wynn
What do you like best about the NHC? Seeing friends that I don’t get to see very often and, of course, playing for huge prizes.
What are your ideas to improve the NHC? I would like to see the contest be less top-heavy and reward more players for their success during the year.