David McCarty of San Diego leads after Day 1 of the three-day 2022 NTRA National Horseplayers Championship (NHC) presented by Racetrack Television Network, Caesars Entertainment, and Bally's Las Vegas. McCarty amassed a bankroll of $162.80, leading a total of 643 entries from 509 individual players in the richest and most prestigious handicapping contest. All players wagered on 18 races from around North America, including eight mandatory races.
McCarty, a biotechnology consultant, had his biggest score of the day with an optional play in Aqueduct's eighth race. Runningwscissors went gate to wire going six furlongs, paying $29.20 to win and $9.80 to place. He also had longshot winners with Miss Casey ($17.40) in Laurel's fifth and Crafty Princess ($14.20) in the Fair Grounds opener. Overall McCarty cashed with 20 of his 36 win and place plays.
McCarty is making his eighth NHC appearance.
For the complete TVG Leaderboard and other contest information, please visit NTRA.com.
The three-day NHC continues Saturday at the Bally's Event Center, which has been transformed into the world's largest race book. Day 1 bankrolls will carry over to Day 2, which will require mythical wagers on eight mandatory races and 10 optional plays. The top 10% of the field after Day 2 will continue on to the Semifinals round Sunday, and the top 10 will play at the Final Table presented by Caesars Race and Sportsbook and Global Tote, A BetMakers Company, to determine the ultimate rankings, including the $725,000 first-place prize, and Eclipse Award as Horseplayer of the Year.
In the last three years with 36 plays the cut line after Day 2 averaged $183.20 ($192.20 in 2020, $184.20 in 2019, and $173.40 in 2018). Last year there were only 35 races due to a weather cancellation on a mandatory race. This year's top 10 percent will include the top 64 players. The current 64th place spot belongs to Joseph Carnevale with a score of $81.10.
In addition to its three presenting sponsors―RTN, Caesars Entertainment, and Bally's Las Vegas―the NHC is supported by official partners Daily Racing Form, EquinEdge, FanDuel Group, Four Roses Bourbon, NYRA Bets, Race Lens, TVG, and 1/ST Bet. The Final Table, where only the top 10 players advance to determine final placings based on seven climactic races, is sponsored by Caesars Sportsbook and Global Tote, A BetMakers Company.
Tour Winner Costello Playing for $5 Million Bonus
NHC Tour winner Kevin Costello (who goes by his middle name, Kevin, but uses his given first name, Joseph, in tournaments to make his taxes easier) is playing for what would be the biggest single payday in handicapping contest history if he can win this weekend's 23rd NTRA National Horseplayers Championship (NHC) presented by Racetrack Television Network, Caesars Entertainment, and Bally's Las Vegas. On top of the $725,000 first-place prize that everyone is dreaming of, the NHC Tour winner is eligible for a $5 million bonus if he can be the first to pull off the sweep.
The bonus is covered by a policy the NTRA purchases each year via Insurance Office of America (IOA). However, the premium is established for one entry and Costello is double-qualified this year with the maximum two entries. As a result, Costello had to pick which of his entries would be eligible for the bonus. He went with his second entry, which shows on the leaderboard as “Joseph Costello- 2.”
“There's a running joke with my friends that it always seems my second entry does better than my first,” Costello said. “I guess I tend to wing it a little more with my second entry. I have an inkling that, statistically, when I do win tournaments more of them have come from that second entry.”
Costello is a 6-time NHC qualifier.
Costello led the entire field after his first optional play of the day paid $32.40. Unfortunately, the payoff came on Entry 1, which is not eligible for the bonus.
Defending Champion Mustari Aims for Repeat
Justin Mustari, who became the youngest NHC winner in history last August at age 26, is looking to make history again this year as the NHC's first repeat winner.
“It feels good to walk back in this room again after everything that happened in the final race last year,” Mustari said. “It still feels like a miracle.”
Mustari, of Des Plaines, Ill., said after taking down the $725,000 first-place prize at #NHC2021 that he planned to buy a house for himself and girlfriend Paulina. That hasn't happened just yet because Mustari, like the expert horseplayer he is, insists on getting the price he wants.
“We were under contract one time but the seller backed out and the market right now is just so hard,” Mustari said. “I'm not going to buy anything way overvalued so I'm still waiting for the right one.”
Of course, another big check this year could allow Mustari to increase the top of his price range.
“I'm just chipping away today but tomorrow there are a lot of opportunities on the Pegasus card,” Mustari said.
Remington Announcer Day Makes NHC Debut
Track announcer Dale Day of Remington Park is making his NHC debut this year after qualifying in one of the free online contests open to all NHC Tour members on Horseplayers.com. Other track announcers who have qualified over the years include Travis Stone, Vic Stauffer, John Curran, and Nick Tammaro.
“I've been around horse racing a long time but I've never seen anything like this,” Day said. “You come down here in the morning and you just feel the anxiety.”
Day started playing in qualifiers three years ago after trying the free contest presented by “At the Races with Steve Byk.”
“I joined the NHC Tour after that and I've only played the free contests but now that I've been here and seen it I already know I'm going to be playing a lot more to try to get back,” Day said.
Day regaled a gaggle of NHC regulars with a story about a long-ago visit to Las Vegas with NHC Tournament Director and NTRA COO Keith Chamblin, who once worked with Day at Remington.
“It was December 1994 and we had just finished our season,” Day said. “Chamblin suggested we go to Vegas and we ended up with a big group from Remington.”
The group stayed at Barbary Coast and had a great time. After the first two nights, though, one member of the crew noticed that their considerable supply of booze, cigars and Daily Racing Forms seemed to be diminishing faster than could realistically be expected. The rest of the group chalked it up to excessive consumption.
Day came back to his room on the third afternoon and noticed that it smelled like cigar smoke, even though the group had been out all day. And that is when he found a stranger trying to hide in the back of the closet with a lit cigar and a fifth of whiskey.
“I was just buzzed enough to not be as scared as I should have been,” Day recalled. “I just looked at him and said, 'What are you doing?' He said it was his room. I told him, 'No, this is my room.' And then he jumped up and elbowed me and ran for it.”
Hotel security nabbed the trespasser, who confessed that he had been breaking into the room each day and helping himself to the Remington stash. Police later learned that the suspect had collected keys (back in the day of actual room keys as opposed to cards) from dozens of local hotels and had been ransacking them regularly for months.
Barbary Coast did reimburse Day for his room.
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