Roberto Ruuiz, a resident of North Middletown, N.J., took the lead midway through Day 1, and held it safe the rest of the day–finishing with a final Thursday score of 1,526 points–to earn a $7,704 daily prize in this weekend’s $577,800 Horseplayer World Series at The Orleans in Las Vegas.
Perhaps you noted last week that the NTRA has developed a new system by which NHC Tour members will now receive a rating of somewhere between 2 and 10, based on their play in the NHC and NHC qualifying events during the current year and over the past four years.
Fountain of Youth Day was a big one for many. Irad Ortiz Jr. rode five winners, including the day’s biggest, Promises Fulfilled. Dale Romans not only trained Promises Fulfilled—thereby insuring a Derby start as long as the horse stays healthy—he scratched the more highly fancied Free Drop Billy from the Gulfstream headliner to run him instead in this Saturday’s Gotham. It’s questionable, however, whether Ortiz and Romans were happier at the end of the day than HorseTourneys player Mark Thomason.
Last week we bemoaned the lack of Kentucky Derby preps. This Saturday we have a good one—the Fountain of Youth from Gulfstream featuring the 2018 debut of last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Good Magic. The Gulfstream card on Saturday is loaded with stakes. To pump up the day further, we are offering an up-to-$75,000 Pick & Pray with $50,000 Guaranteed. More on that in a bit.
According to the Horse Player World Series page on the website of The Orleans Hotel and Casino (www.orleanscasino.com), eligible contest tracks for the March 8-10 Horse Player World Series have been announced.
As with trainers in Grade I races, this weekend’s featured tourneys saw many of the same names pop up on the leaderboard over and over again—and not just always on the same day.
If you’re really into the Kentucky Derby prep races, this isn’t your weekend. It seems as though they were all held last weekend…or next weekend. On one level, it’s disappointing. From the standpoint of contest play, however, it’s pretty meaningless. By now, we hope you’re done watching replays to determine how many karats the Oaklawn gold rail was on Monday…or to answer the time-honored question, “Are Bravazo and Snapper Sinclair stars or are Noble Indy and Instilled Regard bums?” Instead, you can just throw yourself into this weekend’s tourneys, having the comforting knowledge that the Fountain of Youth (and our up-to-$75,000 contest) will be back the following weekend.
Contest players really do a great job of jumping right back into the saddle after a big event like the NHC. We hosted 20 featured tourneys over the now-immediately-after-the-NHC President’s Day weekend and virtually all of them drew large—and pretty salty—fields. Many of those “week-after” tourneys even took on something of an NHC “feel.”
With another NHC in the books—and one that left HorseTourneys regular Chris Littlemore $800,000 richer—we turn our sights forward this weekend to the upcoming Horse Player World Series…and even the 2019 NHC.
Despite some earnest efforts, especially those by Keith Fenton (2nd place, 315.10 points) and Garett Skiba (3rd, 314.00 points) no one from the chasing back managed to reel in second leader and now NHC 2018 champion Chris Littlemore.
Littlemore, a retired General Motors auto worker currently based in Whitby, Ontario, Canada, blazed a trail at NHC 2018 and wound up with 348.30 points for his 53 mythical $2 win, $2 place plays. He collected $800,000 US for the victory and will also receive an Eclipse Award.
Littlemore credited his selection of Holiday’s Angel ($39.00 to win, $12.00 to place) in Saturday’s Oaklawn Park sixth race as the winner that made his tournament.
Fenton, a qualifier via online play at HorseTourneys.com and resident of Fort Worth, Texas, made a steady Sunday bid and fended off the late bid by Skiba, who selected the winner of NHC 2018’s last race, the ninth from Santa Anita. The nervous moment for Fenton ended when War Heroine paid $11.20 and $5.20 which left Skiba 1.10 points short of second and its $250,000 prize. Skiba won $125,000.
Notably, St. Petersburg, Florida’s Gloria Kahlden, who qualified via HorseTourneys.com, made NHC 2018’s Final Table, ended up seventh and walked off with the handsome sum of $58,500.
Significantly, HorseTourneys.com qualifiers enjoyed tremendous success at NHC 2018 as 21 of them made the group of 71 Sunday semifinalists.
Other noteworthy performances by HorseTourneys.com include: Ernest Powers (11th place, 255.90 points, $25,000), Mike Yurczyk (18th, 242.70 points, $19,500), Stephanie Davis (21st, 240.70, $18,000), Chris Podratz (29th, 231.40 points, $13,500) and George Chute (30th, 230.00 points, $13,000).
Sincere thanks,
Bob Nastanovich
@BNastanovich, on behalf of HorseTourneys.com
HorseTourneys.com Blog 