Each week, the NTRA will provide a rundown of those who have qualified for the National Horseplayers Championship (NHC) the previous weekend. Twenty- eight NHC Tour members earned 2022 NHC berths last weekend through contests on Horseplayers.com, Horsetourneys.com, and at Monmouth Park.
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. The 2021 NHC is slated take place in the Bally's Events Center from Aug. 27-29 with the 2022 NHC set for Jan. 28-30 at Bally's.
Last weekend's qualifiers, and their respective contest sites, are as follows:
Horseplayers Friday, 6/11/2021
Chris Littlemore of Whitby, ON, was the 2018 NHC Champion, winning $800,000 and honored at the 2019 Eclipse Awards as Horseplayer of the Year. In 2019, he was a Final Table participant.
Shawn Turner of Middletown, MD, has qualified for his seventh NHC.
Horseplayers Saturday, 6/12/21
Sarah Wiener of Las Vegas, NV, has qualified for her eighth NHC. “I love traveling to the horse contests and meeting such great people that I now call friends,” say Wiener.
Michael Goodrich of Hopewell, NJ, has qualified for his fourth NHC.
Bernard Reilly of Fair Haven, NJ, has qualified for his seventh NHC.
Dave Wang of Las Vegas, NV, put himself in a qualifying position when Hey Padre won last Sunday's 10th race at Gulfstream Park, paying $30.40. Wang is related to NHC royalty, as his aunt, Sally Goodall, was recently inducted into the NHC Hall of Fame. Wang has now qualified for his fourth NHC.
Monmouth Park Pick Your Prize Saturday, 6/12/21
Ken Seeman of Wantagh, NJ, has four top 20 finishes in the NHC, finishing 12th, 14th and 11th in three of his first five cracks in the Championship. In 2019, he finished 20th and cashed for $17,250. He has now qualified 14 times for the NHC.
Sean O'Malley of Atresia, CA, has qualified for his fifth NHC.
Anthony Mattera of Estell Manor, NJ, has qualified for his fifth NHC.
Matthew Bickey of Beckley, WV, has qualified for his third NHC.
Ed Deicke of Lido Beach, NY has double qualified for the 2022 NHC. He finished 20th in last year's Championship and cashed for $16,500. Ed volunteers his time to serve as an NHC Tour mentor.
John Kaiser of Krotz Springs, LA, has qualified for his seventh NHC.
Gary Minchiz of Cream Ridge, NJ, has qualified for his eighth NHC.
Thomas O'Connor of Rochester, MI, has qualified for his sixth NHC. He finished 45th in 2017 and cashed for $10,480.
Kevin Engelhard of Franklin Park, NJ, has qualified for his 14th NHC. He first participated in the 2005 Championship.
Sean Nolan of Alexandria, VA, has had an excellent NHC history with a second-place finish in 2001 for $30,000, a 10th-place spot in 2012, 20th in 2016, and 17th in 2020.
Stelios Kandias of Ridge, NY, has qualified for his second NHC.
Terrence Cook of Townson, MD, has qualified for his third NHC. He finished 23rd in 2018 and cashed for $16,800.
Terry Flanagan of South Orange, NJ, qualified for his second NHC.
Patrick Grippo of Poughquaq, NY, has qualified for this fourth NHC.
Rich Nilsen of Tarpon Springs, FL, an NHC Players' Committee member, has qualified for his 18th NHC. Starting back in 2001 with his first NHC, Nilsen had eighth-place finishes in 2002 and in 2011.
Greg Gass of Zionsville, IN, has qualified for his second NHC.
Jeff Bussan of New Canaan, CT, has qualified for his sixth NHC.
Stanley Bavlish of Fredrick, MD, was the 2007 NHC Champion. He is an NHC Hall of Fame Nominee, NHC Mentor, and an NHC Players' Committee member.
Monmouth Park Sunday, 6/13/21
Nick Fazzolari of Colt's Neck, NJ, an NHC Mentor, has qualified for his ninth NHC. He finished 33rd in 2020 and cashed for $13,500.
Greg Knepper of West Lawn, PA, has qualified for his 11th NHC.
Friday's Stronach 5, featuring races from Pimlico, Gulfstream, and Santa Anita, had 39 winning tickets with each worth $1,767.
Friday's sequence started with a bit of a longshot in Posterity ($17.60) winning Pimlico's seventh race. Lea Farms LLC's Lightening Larry ($8.80), a 2-year-old by Uncaptured, won the second leg and the fifth race at Gulfstream. The third leg of the sequence was a single for many in 2-5 shot Golden G ($2.80), who won Pimlico's eighth race.
The Stronach 5 headed to Santa Anita for the final two legs. Summer Rose ($3.80) was a popular favorite winning Santa Anita's second race while the sequence ended with Santa Anita's third race and the 6-1 shot Constant Conflict ($14.40) drawing away down the stretch.
Friday's races and sequence
Leg One –Pimlico 7th Race: Posterity $17.60
Leg Two –Gulfstream 5th Race: Lightening Larry $8.80
Leg Three –Pimlico 8th Race: Golden G $2.80
Leg Four – Santa Anita 2nd Race: Summer Rose $3.80
Leg Five –Santa Anita 3rd Race: Constant Conflict $14.40
The minimum wager on the multi-race, multi-track Stronach 5 is $1. If there are no tickets with five winners, the entire pool will be carried over to the next Friday.
If a change in racing surface is made after the wagering closes, each selection on any ticket will be considered a winning selection. If a betting interest is scratched, that selection will be substituted with the favorite in the win pool when wagering closes.
The Maryland Jockey Club serves as host of the Stronach 5.
Saturday's Grade 3, $150,000 Whimsical Stakes brings together eight strong distaff sprinters running six furlongs on the all-weather course at Woodbine but the spotlight will be on two of them, Artie's Princess and Boardroom, who meet for the third time in their brief careers.
When last seen in the fall in the Grade 2 Bessarabian Stakes, Artie's Princess prevailed by a diminishing margin to win by a head over Boardroom, who had encountered stifling traffic on the far turn. Prior to that Boardroom had won the Duchess Stakes while Artie's Princess had won the Ruling Angel Stakes.
Our Secret Agent hopes to turn the tide on both fillies after finishing second in the Ruling Angel and Duchess before ending up third in the Bessarabian. Summer Sunday also has the credentials to run well, having taken the Belle Mahone Stakes last September three races following a third place effort in the 2020 Whimsical.
Chart is a stakes winner as well, having captured the Grade 2 Ontario Colleen Stakes on turf last summer at Woodbine. Amalfi Coast won the 2019 Bessarabian Stakes then 11 months later in October 2020 won the Sweet Briar Too Stakes so fits on all counts with these.
Sav has finished first or second in 11 of 16 career starts, with her best effort in a stakes coming when third in the Grade 3 Ontario Fashion Stakes last September. Golden Ami won the first two races of her career last March and November before a sixth place finish in the Grade 3 Sugar Swirl Stakes in her only try at this level.
Boardroom gets slight preference to win this year's Whimsical Stakes. She might be a perfect-five-for five in her career except for two things beyond her control- broken equipment and severe traffic trouble. After easily winning the first two starts of her career last June and July, Boardroom suffered from a piece of broken equipment in the Ruling Angel Stakes (won by Artie's Princess) which denied jockey Contreras steering control. The fact that Boardroom finished third in that race was a testament to her desire to win. Next up in October, Boardroom won the Duchess Stakes, earning a career best 101 ™ Equibase® Speed Figure in the process, which was the same figure Artie's Princess earned for her Ruling Angel victory.
When these two fillies next met in the Bessarabian in November, Boardroom was in position to win on the far turn when a horse boxed her in, forcing her and jockey Contreras to wait for a break in traffic when otherwise she would have been in high gear. After circling four paths wide on the turn while the winner got a much better trip, Boardroom was closing with every stride when the wire came, missing by a head with another 101 figure. With the outside post in the Whimsical, Boardroom should be able to avoid traffic while it is likely Golden Ami sets a brisk pace, chased closely by Sav, giving her the opportunity to close nicely to win this race.
Summer Sunday loves to win races, as evidenced by her record of eight victories from 12 starts on the all-weather main track at Woodbine. As a four year old (the same age as Boardroom and Artie's Princess) in 2019, Summer Sunday won the Hendrie Stakes and Royal North Stakes in succession, then in her 2020 debut she finished third in the Whimsical. Later last season she won an allowance race during the summer before taking the Belle Mahone Stakes in the fall, with the better of those two efforts earning a 100 ™ figure good enough to be competitive with the main contenders if repeated.
Artie's Princess won the first two starts of her career in the summer and fall of 2019, then nearly won the Frost King Stakes with a career-best 102 figure. Resting from November of that year to last June, Artie's Princess returned to win easily with a 99 figure then two later won the Ruling Angel with a 101 figure effort. Duplicating that in the Bessarabian and having won all three races in her career when returning from a layoff as she's doing today, Artie's Princess has every right to add to her already strong five-for-six record on the main track at Woodbine with a win in the Whimsical Stakes.
The rest of the field, with their best ™ Equibase Speed Figures, is Amalfi Coast (103), Chart (85), Golden Ami (100), Our Secret Agent (100) and Sav (99).
Whimsical Stakes – Grade 3
Race 9 at Woodbine
Saturday, June 19 – Post Time 5:31 PM E.T.
Six Furlongs on all-weather
Fillies and Mares, Four Year Olds and Upward
Purse: $150,000
Unsolved during an action-packed Sunday featuring five stakes worth $475,000 in purses, the Maryland state record carryover jackpot in the 20-cent Rainbow 6 stands at $1,093,866.44 when live racing returns to historic Pimlico Race Course Friday.
Post time for the first of eight races is 12:40 p.m.
A total of $270,155.04 was put into the popular multi-race wager on top of a $1.07 million carryover Sunday, when multiple tickets with all six winners each returned $671.74. Included in the sequence were wins by Valued Notion in the $75,000 Ben's Cat, Pixelate in the $100,000 Prince George's County, undefeated Chub Wagon in the $100,000 Shine Again and Street Lute in the $100,000 Stormy Blues.
Grade 3 winner Blame Debbie, racing for the first time in 200 days, opened Sunday's stakes action with a victory in the $100,000 Searching.
The Rainbow 6 jackpot is paid out only when there is a single unique ticket sold with all six winners. On days when there is no unique ticket, 60 percent of that day's pool goes back to those bettors holding tickets with the most winners while 40 percent is carried over to the jackpot pool.
Introduced in Maryland April 2, 2015 on opening day of Pimlico's spring meet, the Rainbow 6 had its previous state record carryover reach $345,898.33 spanning 31 racing programs before being solved by one lucky bettor for a life-changing $399,545.94 payout April 15, 2018 at Laurel Park. The winning ticket was purchased through Maine off-track betting.
Friday's Rainbow 6 begins in Race 3 (1:37 p.m.), a starter-optional claimer for 3-year-olds and up scheduled for 1 1/16 miles on the grass which attracted an overflow field of 15 including 2019 Maryland Million Turf winner Mr. d'Angelo and King Causeway, Maryland Jockey Club host and analyst Naomi Tukker's “must-use” horse in the sequence.
King Causeway will be making his just second start since last November for trainer Justin Nixon, having rallied to be third in his comeback in a similar spot May 23 at Pimlico. It was only the second time racing away from Woodbine for a 5-year-old gelding that has been third or better in 10 of 17 career starts.
“This horse is an out-and-out closer and they didn't go fast up front, meaning anyone would struggle to make up ground, and still he ended up making six lengths,” Tukker said. “I feel like if the flow sets up in his favor, he could be much impressive in the latter stages of the race and quite the danger at 6-1.”
No Guts No Glory Farm's Blue Sky Painter, owned and trained by Jerry Robb, is favored at 7-5 in Race 4 (2:09 p.m.), a 1 1/16-mile claimer for 3-year-olds and up which have never won three races, or 3-year-olds. The 4-year-old Paynter gelding won first off the claim Feb. 4 at Laurel Park and has been narrowly beaten in three of four subsequent starts, including one each by a nose and a neck.
Tukker's price play comes in Race 5 (2:40 p.m.), a waiver maiden claimer for fillies and mares age 3, 4 and 5, also scheduled for 1 1/16 miles on the turf where Kinda Lucky, racing first time for trainer Brittany Russell after four starts last year for Eclipse Award winner Brad Cox, is the 2-1 program favorite.
Richard Golden's 3-year-old Maryland homebred filly Fire in the Hole is one of two horses among 16 entered trained by Graham Motion, listed at 6-1 on the morning line. She debuted running third behind Replicant and next-out winner Sebastian, beaten 1 ¼ lengths, May 8 in an off-the-turf maiden claimer.
“What I very much liked about her is, she's not prominent early but she has this really big, large, reaching stride which makes me think she can easily skip over the turf,” Tukker said. “Plus, she seems to stay for days.”
Claimers 3 and up which have never won three races will sprint six furlongs in Race 6 (3:12 p.m.). Robb and stable rider Xavier Perez once again have the program favorite in Maryland-bred Zip the Lip, off the board in three races since breaking his maiden beating older horses in a six-furlong claimer April 22 at Pimlico.
Back to the grass for a scheduled 1 1/16-mile claiming event for 3-year-olds and up in Race 7 (3:45 p.m.), trainer Hugh McMahon entered the pair of Laddie Liam, making his turf debut in just his fourth start since winning the 2019 Maryland Juvenile Futurity, and Rohrbacher, a five-time winner unraced since February 2020. Breaking side by side from Posts 4 and 5, they are respectively listed at 4-1 and 7-2 odds.
Completing the sequence in Race 8 (4:17 p.m.) is a 5 ½-furlong claiming sprint for maidens age 3, 4 and 5. The 4-5 program favorite from Post 6 in a field of nine is Lugamo Racing Stable's Golden G, making his second start for leading trainer Claudio Gonzalez after running second as the favorite going six furlongs May 30 at Pimlico over a sloppy track. Gonzalez and jockey Angel Cruz have connected at 29 percent from nearly 200 starters over the past two years.
Notes: Three horses scratched when the Ben's Cat was moved from the grass to the main track return in Saturday's Race 7, a five-furlong allowance for Maryland-bred/sired horses scheduled for the turf – Joseph, Matta and Railmaster. Also among the overflow field of nine are Grateful Bred, racing first time since finishing fourth behind Fiya in the Maryland Million Turf Sprint last October, and Little Bold Bandit, the 3-year-old younger full brother to 11-time stakes winner Anna's Bandit who graduated in a 4 ½-furlong maiden special weight May 15 at Charles Town …
The next scheduled stakes during Pimlico's Preakness Meet, extended through Aug. 22 with ongoing renovations on Laurel Park's main track, come Sunday, July 4 with the $100,000 Concern for 3-year-olds sprinting seven furlongs, $100,000 Lite the Fuse at seven furlongs for 3-year-olds and up and $100,000 Caesar's Wish going one mile for females 3 and older – both part of the Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred Championship (MATCH) Series – and $75,000 Jameela for Maryland-bred/sired fillies and mares 3 and up sprinting five furlongs on the grass. Nominations close Friday, June 25.
