NHC Tour Kickoff contest

[Lost Cause]

Hello,
If anyone is interested the NHC tour\'s free contest is tomorrow.
The races are :
Gulfstream Park races 4,5,7,8,10
and,,
Santa Anita Races 7,8,9,10,11

Since TG gave us the Santa Anita Race 9 in the ROTW already, you can buy a create a card at the discounted rate for the other 9 contest races..

Good Luck everyone

[elkurzhal]

Thanks for the great data T-graph, and to Mall and others who got this off the ground.

Hope to see you all in Vegas!

[Mall]

Thanks for the kind words, and special thanks to Alan for his positive comments on the Tour yesterday on Jason Levin\'s \"Inside Racing.\"

Assuming my count was correct, and assuming everyone who signed up played in yesterday\'s contest, the Tour is starting out with 825 players. To clear up any possible confusion on the matter, March 1st was not a deadline, and you can sign up at any point during the year, including at Laurel on 3/8, where they plan to have one or more dedicated laptops available for anyone who wants to sign up before their contest starts. btw, it\'s possible that in six months or so there will be another freeroll for Tour Members only with 3 additional NHC spots up for grabs.

Finally, congrats to everyone who earned Tour points yesterday.

[drbillym]

I am a little confused about the tour, as I thought it would be possible to play on line.  But I see the Laurel contest is also for on site play only.  Us working stiffs obviously can\'t travel around the country playing at all the different venues.  So perhaps the format is for pros only?

[Mall]

You can play online, in the contests which are online. You can also play at live venues, so points earned in both types of contests count, with the qualification that you can only count the points you earn in a maximum of five contests, a rule which was added as part of an effort to, at least somewhat, level the playing field for those who can\'t make it to very many contests. btw,you can download a complete copy of the Rules at: http://www.ntra.com/content.aspx?type=other&id=30638§ion=racesis

Although contests are typically added throughout the year, that page also has the most recent schedule of online and live events. As you can see, there are already many online contests, a sufficient number, I think, to give one a legitimate chance without ever leaving the computer, although I wouldn\'t necessarily recommend that approach, if for no other reasons that most online contests attract big--and tough--fields,and usually are limited to all mandatory races.

[elkurzhal]

Mall,
For the contest that have qualifiers, what will the number of entries be for scoring proposes?  Number of total entries or the number who qualified to the main contest.

For example,  the NHCqualify contest have ~600 in the qulifiers, and ~60 in the main.  How many would earn points, and on what scale?

Thanks!

[Mall]

Sorry for the delay, particularly given that week one sold out very quickly, but my understanding is that the top 20 finishers in the nhcqualify finals at the end of the month will earn tour points.

[elkurzhal]

No problem.  I intended to play in the Arlington Park contest on 4/5 and got shut out.  They took some walkups last year...  Guess this contest thing is catching on.

Here is the kickoff recap.  FWIW, I spelled Thoro-graph correctly...
http://www.drf.com/nhc/2008/nhcrecaps.html#nhctourkickoff_recap_from_march1
NHC Tour Kick-Off
By DAVE TULEY - Posted 03/07/08

On Saturday, March 1, the NTRA hosted the NHC Tour Kick-Off online tournament for those who became members of the Tour prior to the event.

As of that morning, 859 had paid the $125 to be members of the NHC Tour and 825 entered the freeroll tournament that awarded three berths in the 10th annual Daily Racing Form/NTRA National Handicapping Championship at the Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas on Jan. 23-24, 2009, plus Tour points to those who finished in the top 30.

Contestants made 10 mythical $2 win-and-place bets at ntra.com/nhctour on 10 races from Gulfstream and Santa Anita. Prices were capped at $42 to win and $22 to place.

Eric Kurzhal, 31, of South Bend, Ind., finished first with a score of $140.40. Kurzhal, who said he uses DRF and Thoroughgraph in his handicapping, tabbed Wine on the Porch in Santa Anita's 11th race, the final race of the tournament to become an NHC qualifier for the second time after finishing 143rd this past January in NHC IX. Jamaal Barnett, 25, of Ontario, Canada, finished second with a score of $139.

Howard Hong, 43, of Phoenix, was the news of the tourney for finishing third with a score of $134.20, not because he's the longtime TV commentator for Turf Paradise, but because he was fourth when the results were first posted. During the auditing process, it was discovered that the third-place finisher was actually a test entry that had been set up prior to the tournament to make sure things were running smoothly on the website. That is standard operating procedure, except that the test entry should have been deleted prior to the competition. Hong will be making his fifth NHC appearance.

* With qualifying events being worth a standard 3,500 NHC Tour points for winning an event, Kurzhal tied Autotote Sports Haven winner Joseph Perry atop the standings with 3,500 points apiece. Barnett is tied for third with Sam Darron, 49, of Elkton, Md., with 2,100 points; and Hong is tied for fifth with John Cappell, 60, of Westport, Conn., with 1,575 points.

[TGJB]

I\'m trying to deal with the info that a DRF employee does not know how to spell Thoro-Graph.

Third place finisher Howard Hong not only uses TG, but used to work for us. He was one of the original TG employees when we had an outpost in California back in the early 90s. I think we were his first job in racing, he\'s been the face of Turf Paradise for quite a while.

[NoCarolinaTony]

elkurzhal Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> No problem.  I intended to play in the Arlington
> Park contest on 4/5 and got shut out.  They took
> some walkups last year...  Guess this contest
> thing is catching on.
>

Hey Congrats Eric on the tourney. Those two plays were great. Yes these contests could be catching on because they are a lot of fun to do.

NC Tony