Pirollo Named Rookie of the Year
Lexington, Ky. (Feb. 27, 2026) – Topping a field of more than 3,725 of the nation’s best horseplayers over a 12-month period, Dave Nichols of Wayne, PA, captured the 2025 National Horseplayers Championship (NHC) Tour. Nichols earned $75,000 for winning the Tour and is eligible for a $5 million bonus if he captures the 27th NTRA National Horseplayers Championship (NHC), March 13-15 at Horseshoe Las Vegas.
Nichols won online and ontrack contests during the 2025 Tour season while amassing 24,492 Tour points.
“I’m extremely excited to win the NHC Tour. As a regular contest player, this was always my biggest goal, so I’m ecstatic to have ended up on top,” said Nichols. “There is very little that separates the top players on the Tour, so I was very fortunate to wind up the winner. I’m sure the top 10 or 15 players on this year’s Tour could point to one race or one contest where, if things had gone a little differently for them, they would have ended up as the Tour Champion. Jill Matzat was every bit as good as I was this year. It was bound to come down to a photo finish between us, and I was lucky enough to get my nose down at the wire.”
Jill Matzat of Boca Raton, FL, finished in second-place in the Tour standings with 24,432 points. She was followed by Louis Masry of Solana Beach, CA, who finished in third place with 23,784 points. Dylan Donnelly, who made the NHC Final Table in 2025, from Rancho Cucamonga, CA, was fourth, with 23,670 points. Paul Shurman of Dix Hills, NY, finished in fifth place with 23,415 points.
Larry Pirollo of Largo, FL, finished in 64th place with 15,909 points and won the Jim Nace Award as the Tour’s Rookie of the Year.
“Last March, I saw Dave Portnoy promoting the NHC on X and it immediately caught my interest. I got a late start in April and had to quickly learn the tournament game, but I developed a system that began producing consistent results — and here we are a year later as NHC Rookie of the Year,” said Pirollo. “I grew up going to the track with my Dad (Larry), Uncles (Joe / John), and Grandfather, which eventually led me into horse ownership with great friends Joe, Eddie, and Kenny from New Jersey. With strong guidance this year from John Fisher and Kenny Orchard, this run has been incredibly special. I respect the grind from all the tournament competitors, and I’m truly grateful and excited for what’s ahead at the main event.”
Official NHC Tour Leaderboard standings can be found here.
Nichols has qualified for the NHC itself 12 times, first qualifying in 2014. He will be in Las Vegas this year and next year, as well. He remains very thankful to everyone who has helped him get here.
“A big thank you to those at the NTRA who spend every week updating the Tour leaderboard and fielding non-stop questions from the players. Michele Ravencraft and Holly Short are very patient rock stars who make the NHC what it is.
The biggest thank you of all goes out to my wife, Jenn, who listens to me gripe about horse racing all the time, but had to deal with the extra anxiety of me being on the cusp of winning the NHC Tour over the last 4 months. I wouldn’t have won without her support.”
The NHC Tour is a yearlong bonus series awarding $345,000 in cash prize money and 75 qualifying berths to the NTRA National Horseplayers Championship (NHC). Membership in the NHC Tour is mandatory in order for top finishers of sanctioned NHC qualifying events to be eligible to compete in the NHC Finals in Las Vegas. Membership in the NHC Tour is open to adults 21 years of age or older and requires a one-time, annual membership fee of $50. The NHC Tour membership must be in place prior to the start of any given qualifying tournament in order for one to qualify for the NHC Finals at that qualifying tournament.
Over the past 25 years, more than 11,000 individuals have qualified to the NHC, which has awarded nearly $50,000,000 in cash and prizes. This year the NHC will host more than 600 individuals and will award nearly $4.5 million in cash and prizes.
To sign up for the NHC Tour, go to www.ntra.com/membership.
About the NHC
The NHC is the most important tournament of the year for horseplayers and is the culmination of a year-long series of NTRA-sanctioned local tournaments conducted by racetracks, casino race books, off-track betting facilities, and horse racing and handicapping websites, each of which sends its top qualifiers to the national finals. There are no bye-ins to the NHC. Each year, the NHC winner joins other human and equine champions as an honoree at the Eclipse Awards and is named Horseplayer of the Year. For more information on the NHC, visit NTRA.com/nhc.
About the NTRA
The NTRA, based in Lexington, Ky. and Washington, D.C., is a broad-based coalition of more than 100 horse racing interests and thousands of individual stakeholders consisting of horseplayers, racetrack operators, owners, breeders, trainers and affiliated horse racing associations, charged with increasing the popularity, welfare and integrity of Thoroughbred racing through consensus-based leadership, legislative advocacy, safety and integrity initiatives, fan engagement and corporate partner development. For more information visit NTRA.com.
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