Contact: Jim Mulvihill, NTRA Communications, (859) 422-2663, jmulvihill@NTRA.com

 

SATURDAY’S FIRST-EVER NHC ‘SEASON OPENER’ QUALIFIER ON HORSEPLAYERS.COM

INCLUDES EIGHT GRADED STAKES

 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Friday, March 31, 2017) – HorsePlayers.com, the new official online qualifying site of the National Horseplayers Championship (NHC) and the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge (BCBC), is offering its first NHC qualifier Saturday. The 12-race contest, which begins at 4:12 p.m. ET, includes seven Grade 2 stakes races and concludes with the 66th running of the Grade 1 Florida Derby.

Saturday’s NHC qualifier will utilize the “Live” format, allowing players to submit picks for each race individually throughout the day. Registration is now open and the entry fee is $165 for the contest that will offer a guaranteed two berths in the NHC and up to five berths in the NHC based on 325 entries.

Equibase, the official data provider of the NHC, will provide complimentary premium past performances for Saturday’s contest, which consists of the following races:

April 1, NHC ‘Season Opener’ Qualifying Contest Races:

  1. Fair Grounds, Race #7, 4:12PM ET
  2. Gulfstream Park, #10 (Honey Fox G2), 4:25PM ET
  3. Fair Grounds, #8 (New Orleans Hcp. G2), 4:39PM ET
  4. Gulfstream Park, #11 (Gulfstream Park Oaks G2), 4:57PM ET
  5. Santa Anita, #4, 5:00PM ET
  6. Fair Grounds, #9 (Mervin Muniz Mem. G2), 5:06PM ET
  7. Gulfstream Park, #12, 5:32PM ET
  8. Fair Grounds, #10 (Fair Grounds Oaks G2), 5:41PM ET
  9. Gulfstream Park, #13 (Pan American G2), 6:06PM ET
  10. Fair Grounds, #11 (Louisiana Derby G2), 6:21PM ET
  11. Santa Anita, #7, 6:30PM ET
  12. Gulfstream Park, #14 (Florida Derby G1), 6:40PM ET

Several “feeder” contests offering berths to the Saturday contest as prizes are available Friday on HorsePlayers.com for as low as $18 per entry.

NHC Tour membership ($50) is mandatory to be eligible to qualify for the NHC. Online registration for the 2017 NHC Tour is open at http://ntra.kinsta.cloud/membership.

HorsePlayers.com  is a joint venture between the NTRA – founder, owner, and operator of the NHC and NHC Tour – and the Breeders’ Cup, which owns the BCBC. The opening weekend BCBC qualifier on HorsePlayers.com  is set for Sunday, offering a minimum of two fully paid $10,000 berths to the BCBC.

About the National Horseplayers Championship

In its 19th year, the NTRA National Horseplayers Championship (formerly known as the NTRA National Handicapping Championship) is presented by Racetrack Television Network, STATS Race Lens and Treasure Island Las Vegas. The NHC is world’s richest and most prestigious handicapping 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. Each year, the NHC winner joins other human and equine champions as an honoree at the Eclipse Awards. The most recent NHC offered record prize money and awards totaling more than $2.9 million. NHC 19 will be held February 9-11, 2018, at Treasure Island Las Vegas.

About the NTRA

The NTRA, based in Lexington, Ky., 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. The NTRA owns and manages the NTRA Safety and Integrity Alliance; NTRA.com; the Eclipse Awards; the National Handicapping Championship; NTRA Advantage, a corporate partner sales and sponsorship program; and Horse PAC®, a federal political action committee. NTRA press releases appear on NTRA.com, Twitter (@ntra) and Facebook (facebook.com/1NTRA).

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