$100,000, NHC Berths and Tour Points to be Awarded; Online Contest Offering Five NHC Berths and Tour Points to be Offered to Non-NHC Qualifiers
Lexington, Ky, (February 22, 2024): The 25th National Horseplayers Championship (NHC) presented by Caesars Entertainment, Horseshoe Las Vegas, and Racetrack Television Network (RTN) kicks off in one month and will be bigger and better than ever before. With more than 700 entries and nearly $4 million in cash and prizes, the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) announced today a new facet of the competition, the Silver Sunday Contest which will be held on Sunday, March 17. This contest will replace the Sunday Consolation Contest where only entries that did not make the Semi-Final Round would participate in a 10-race contest for prize money.
New to the 25th NHC program, the Silver Sunday Contest will be available to all individuals competing in the tournament with no entry fee. Every individual will receive a maximum of one entry and will have to place mythical Win/Place bets throughout Sunday, March 17 on ten optional and seven mandatory races (the seven mandatory races will coincide with the NHC Final Table). The top 25 highest bankrolls, including ties, will receive a share of $100,000 in prize money. The top five highest finishers will win an entry into the 2025 NHC and the top 10% will receive on track 2024 NHC Tour points. Full contest rules can be found on ntra.com.
Additionally, a separate online contest consisting of the seven mandatory races that comprise the 2024 NHC Final Table will be offered online on Sunday, March 17 to NHC non-qualifiers only and offer five berths to the 2025 NHC as well as Tour Points. Both the Silver Sunday Contest and the online contest for non-NHC qualifiers will be free-to-play contests and limited to one entry per individual. Both contests will require a 2024 NHC Tour Membership in advance of the start of the contests. The online contest will be hosted on horseplayers.com.
The NHC, the world’s richest and most prestigious handicapping contest, features more than 600 top horseplayers competing for an estimated $4 million in cash and prizes. All qualifiers will receive a complimentary four-night stay at the Horseshoe Las Vegas and travel reimbursements which total more than $1 million. The complete field and total prize breakdown will be finalized following the Last Chance/First Chance Contest, held Thursday on the eve of the NHC.
All information on the 25th NHC can be found at www.ntra.com/nhc including the 2024 full schedule of events, the 2024 Official Rules, and more. To sign up for the 2024 NHC Tour and win your way to next year’s NHC visit 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.
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