The National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) today unveiled a National Horseplayers Championship (NHC) rating system similar to a handicap or rating used in golf, tennis, bowling and E-sports. With the maximum rating of 10, three longtime NHC Tour standouts are tied at the top-rated contest players in the world – Roger Cettina and brothers Bill Shurman and Paul Shurman.
All active NHC Tour members automatically receive a rating, with Rookie Tour members assigned an initial score of 2.0. The NHC Player Ratings will be updated weekly based on current onsite and online play in NHC qualifiers. A searchable leaderboard is posted on the NTRA.com website and an individual’s rating appears on the NHC Tour player bio pages housed on NTRA.com.
The NHC Player Rating is based on a number of variables, including contest volume and frequency of play and Tour points attained during the current year, as well as the previous three years, with the impact of the previous years of play decreasing on a variable scale. Tour members can improve their rating through the accumulation of Tour points and other factors such as winning an NHC qualifier, double-qualifying for the NHC and overall performance at the NHC. Player ratings also can drop based on subpar play.
“We believe the rating will generate more interest in the NHC while providing Tour members with another way to measure their skill level against other contest players,” said Keith Chamblin, chief operating officer of the NTRA and NHC Tournament Director. “While there are many factors that go into the computation of one’s NHC rating, the process to get rated is simple. Join the 2018 NHC Tour and start playing in officially sanctioned NHC qualifiers.”
The current top 10 rated NHC players are:
Paul Shurman – 10
William Shurman – 10
Roger Cettina – 10
Mike Ferrozzo – 9.99
Brett Wiener – 9.99
H. Mitchell Schuman – 9.99
Sean Nolan – 9.99
Eric Moomey – 9.98
Trey Stiles – 9.98
To join the NHC Tour and receive a rating, go to www.ntra.com/membership.
To view current NHC ratings, go to www.ntra.com/player-rating.
The 2018 NHC Tour season is under way with qualifying contests held weekly onsite and online, including on www.HorsePlayers.com, the official online qualifying site for the NHC and Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge (BCBC).
About the NHC
In its 20th year, the National Horseplayers Championship, presented by STATS Race Lens, Racetrack Television Network and Treasure Island Las Vegas, will be held February 8-10, 2019. 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 buy-ins to the NHC. Each year, the NHC winner joins other human and equine champions as an honoree at the Eclipse Awards. For more information on the NHC, visit NTRA.com/nhc.