The National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) is offering two free online contests in the next few weeks that will give horseplayers an inexpensive avenue to earn their way into the world’s richest and most prestigious handicapping contest, the $2.5 million-estimated Daily Racing Form/NTRA National Handicapping Championship (NHC). The action starts Saturday with the year’s final NHC Tour Free-to-Play Qualifier, hosted by NHCQualify.com. Two weeks later, on Sept. 17, there’s a free NHC Tour Rookie Contest exclusively for NHC Tour members that joined for the first time in 2016, also on NHCQualify.com.

From now through the Rookie Contest on Sept. 17, new members can join the NHC Tour for $25, which is half off the normal registration amount. In addition to the ability to participate in dozens of NHC qualifiers through the remainder of 2016, members receive Daily Racing Form discount offers, a weekly NHC newsletter and NTRA Advantage discount offers on products from leading partners like Office Depot/OfficeMax, John Deere and others.

The top four finishers in Saturday’s NHC Tour Free-to-Play Qualifier each earn an automatic berth to the Daily Racing Form/NTRA National Handicapping Championship, presented by Racetrack Television Network and Treasure Island Las Vegas, to be held January 27-29, 2017, at Treasure Island. Each winning prize package includes NHC entry, four nights at Treasure Island and airfare reimbursement up to $400. To register, visit NHCQualify.com. (The free qualifier also offers NHC Tour points, with the top 10 percent of finishers earning shares of a points pool estimated at 250,000 points – with 3,750 to the winner – based on an estimated 1,500 players.)

The top two finishers in the Sept. 17 NHC Tour Rookie Contest each earn an automatic berth to NHC 18, including four nights at Treasure Island and airfare reimbursement up to $400. To register, visit NHCQualify.com.

One must be a current NHC Tour member prior to the start of any given qualifying tournament in order for one to qualify for the NHC Finals at that qualifying tournament. In addition to offering free-to-play NHC qualifiers, the NHC Tour offers $300,000 in additional prize money to Tour point leaders and qualifying berths to the NHC.

To sign up for the NHC Tour, go to www.ntra.com/membership.

For more information on the NHC and NHC Tour, visit www.ntra.com/nhc.