
Mike Gillum found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow when he topped the field of 765 entries and took home the $800,000 grand prize at the 25th National Horseplayers Championship. Gillum, who operates a produce company and is a regular at the Horseshoe Indianapolis.
After finishing day one in 5th place, Gillum found himself in the 81st spot with two races to go on day two. He jumped over a few people to qualify into the Semi-final round in 64th place, barely inside the 10 percent cut line set at 77 entries. When asked about his strategy going into today, Gillum said, “My picks did not change since 6am this morning, I played exactly what I would have played regardless of which place I was in. I got lucky, it was just my day today.”
2023 – Paul Calia

Entries: 765
Prizes: $4,42,019
Winning Score: $362.50
After a weekend of nail-biting handicapping prowess, Paul Calia, of Kansas City, Missouri, toppled a field of 779 entries to take home the grand prize of $800,000, in addition to finishing in 4th place, and an Eclipse Award crowning him Horseplayer of the Year. This is the first contest that Calia has ever won.
Calia amassed a winning score of $362.50 on his first entry, and $305.50 on his second entry, over the three-day tournament from 53 mythical $2 Win and Place bets – 18 on Friday, 18 on Saturday, 10 in Sunday morning’s Semifinal round, and 7 at the exciting Final Table which ultimately yielded his victory. He is the first winner to also finish in the top ten with a second entry.
2022 – David Harrison

Entries: 643
Prizes: $3,568,591
Winning Score: $342.00
David Harrison of Webster, N.Y., topped a field of 643 entries to win the $725,000 first-place prize and an Eclipse Award as Horseplayer of the Year at this weekend’s 23rd annual National Horseplayers Championship (NHC) presented by Racetrack Television Network, Caesars Entertainment, and Bally’s Las Vegas.
“This is an absolute life-changing score,” Harrison said. “I’m a middle-class, middle-income, hard-working guy. This is going to help me hopefully retire a little bit earlier than I’d planned. I’m totally overwhelmed and don’t even know what else to say.”
The contest came down to the Baffle Stakes at Santa Anita – a 6 1/2-furlong turf sprint for 3-year-olds – with Harrison $16.60 ahead of Benton and $17.20 to the better of Ryan Patrick Scully. The other seven were at least $44 from the top.
“The guys in second and third only had a few options,” Harrison said. “Don’t Swear Dave went up to 4-1 and I thought, ‘If I don’t have that horse they could nip me. And my name’s Dave! I can’t let that horse beat me.’”
Harrison started the day in 14th and made his big moves in the morning’s Semifinals round. At the Final Table, no player moved more than one position.
“My goal was to creep up and I hit my first couple of races,” he said. “Then the one that really got my confidence up was the horse at Laurel – Let Me Finish. Every time I get into a discussion with my wife she’s always telling me that – let me finish. That was one of my hunch plays and that’s probably the reason I won.”
Harrison has been handicapping since the late 1970s, when he would frequent Belmont Park, and credits the late New York Racing Association broadcaster and handicapper Harvey Pack for teaching him how to handicap. After the trophy presentation, Harrison tossed his Daily Racing Form in the air in tribute to Pack.
“I’m an old-school guy,” he said. “I just use the Form.”
2021 – Justin Mustari

Entries: 563
Prizes: $2,154,000
Winning Score: $370.80
Justin Mustari, 26, from Des Plaines, IL, and the youngest NHC champion, won a first place prize of $725,000 and an Eclipse Award as Horseplayer of the Year at the 22nd National Horseplayers Championship.
“I had to give myself a chance to win with this kind of money,” Mustari said. “I definitely didn’t like this horse as a top pick but I had to find something in the range that could get me there. I thought this horse coming off the layoff potentially had a chance if he ran back to some earlier numbers, and he did.”
Mustari was the NHC two-day leader at the end of Saturday but lost the lead during the morning’s Semifinals round that led to the Final Table. He did not cash in any of the first six mandatory Final Table races.
“I’ve got to buy a house because I still live with my parents,” he said. “My dad has been the reason I play this game and he taught me everything I know so I have to give a lot of credit to him.”
2020 – Thomas Goldsmith

Entries: 694
Prizes: $2,997,500
Winning Score: $404.10
Thomas Goldsmith, 57, from Montgomery, TX, won a first place prize of $800,000 and an Eclipse Award as Horseplayer of the Year at the 21st National Horseplayers Championship.
“I’m just like in shock,” said Goldsmith, who couldn’t even bring himself to stand in middle stage during the Final Table proceedings. “This is it. I’m never going to top this, right? $800,000? How am I going to top that?
“I was just trying to find something that’s going to win, like anything else. I’m not a numbers guy. I look for horses that are in trouble…whatever. Bad break. Excuse trips. Bad trips. And in this place you’ve got to bet long shots. Most of these are horses I’m not going to easily play. It’s hard. You’ve got to find winners at all different race tracks.”
2019 – Scott Coles

Entries: 668
Prizes: $2,863,000
Winning Score: $367.00
Scott Coles, a futures trader from Illinois, was the youngest NHC champion to date. At 34, Coles toppled a field of 668 entries, and amassed a total score of $367. Coles won a first place prize of $800,000 and an Eclipse Award as Horseplayer of the Year at the 20th National Horseplayers Championship.
“I started playing the (NHC) tour at the very end of 2016. Didn’t qualify. Tried last year on and off, didn’t get there,” Coles said. “This year I was fortunate to get double qualified. Navigating through (the NHC) was interesting. There were a lot of nerve wracking moments.
“I was trying not to watch the odds as much and just pick winners and just keep moving up knowing that if you get to the Final Table with how close the pack was, anybody had a chance. All in all I was just trying to grind out winners rather than worrying about finding 20-1 shots.”
2018 – Chris Littlemore

Entries: 702
Prizes: $2,974,700
Winning Score: $348.30
Chris Littlemore, a retired autoworker from Whitby, Ontario, Canada, was never seriously threatened throughout the Semifinals and the Final Table, cruising to an $800,000 first-place prize and an eclipse Award as Horseplayer of the Year at the 19th NTRA NHC Presented by Racetrack Television Network, STATS Race LensTM The NHC had a record field size of 702 entries (568 individual players) and offered a record overall cash and prizes totaling $2,974,700.
I didn’t feel that confident, Littlemore said of entering Day 3 as the leader. I didn’t like the card that well. I didn’t like the races. I got lucky that a lot of chalk came in and kept me on top. I kept my distance. As the day wore on, I wasn’t having a good day, so I just kept picking away, picking away. I was fortunate enough that no big long shots came in to overtake me, and I picked the right horse int he last and it got me through.
2017 – Ray Arsenault

Entries: 654
Prizes: $2,385,000
Winning Score: $407.70
Ray Arsenault became the third Canadian to capture horse racing’s most prestigious handicapping contest when he defeated 654 entries at the 18th NHC held at Treasure Island Las Vegas. Arsenault, a 64-year old transportation broker used his methods of searching out long shots and value horses to take the tournament lead on day two. He never looked back during Sunday’s semifinal round and at the Final Table of 10 players, entering as the leader and continuing to win with long shots.
I played the same way I always play, he said, I rarely play a horse under 5-1 and I love playing bombs because the feeling of hitting a longshot is just great. Today I happened to hit a few.
I cut my teeth when I could barely walk, he said. My dad would go to Greenwood all the time and I’d tag along. I’d look for programs on the ground so I could sell them to the guys coming in for the last two races.
This is it. This is like the Super Bowl of horse racing.