Online Horse Racing Contests Bring The Action to Your Fingertips
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Horseplayers will spend the majority of their bankrolls to qualify for live tournaments held around the United States. And why not, live tournaments such as the National Handicapping Challenge (NHC) and Breeders' Cup Betting Challenge (BCBC) offer the biggest overall cash rewards. Then you have tournaments held at race venues like Santa Anita, Del Mar, Keeneland, Belmont, Aqueduct, Hawthorne, Arlington, Gulfstream, Laurel and Monmouth, just to name a few. Those tournaments not only offer handicappers a shot at huge cash rewards, but serve as feeders into the NHC and BCBC as well.
Same can be true for online tournaments which feed into the live tournaments.
Players like Brett Wiener (bwiener), Joe Koury (JoeK) and Eric Moomey (moomeyer) have done extremely well on the road at live tournaments, but they all agree being off site has its benefits.
"Playing tournaments online allows me to lay in my bed in my underwear and watch the races," Wiener said.
Koury has a different take as he pointed out to me a few months ago how busy weekends can be with family events and most of the bigger tournaments taking place.
"Being able to put picks in online when you don't have to be somewhere and being able to do whatever you have to do is a big benefit," Koury explained.
Eric Moomey enjoyed a second-place finish in the February $50K on DerbyWars, while attending a Wilderness First Aid course in New Mexico with his son. He admitted to tracking the races on his phone without being able to follow too closely.
Even when players are competing in a live on-site tournament, you will be hard pressed to find many players that don't have DerbyWars up on their laptop or iPad as they multi-task several tournaments throughout the day.
When it comes down to the differences in handicapping an online tournament that typically has mandatory races versus a live tournament where playing races are optional throughout the day, Wiener provided some good perspective. He pointed out that live money tournaments have an abundance of race results where players may be hitting races that you passed on.
In contrast, online tournaments have formats where each player is required to play the same race with the same mythical $2 win-place wager.
"I can handicap with anyone if we are in the same race. At least you have a chance in the same race someone else might pick a longshot," said Wiener. "I don't play favorites."
Whatever the case, online tournaments are at the palm of all the hottest hands in the tournament world.
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A 7-1 difference maker in a $25K game?
In horse racing tournaments it is all about the odds.
Finishes between players often come down to dollars and even dimes.
But back to the odds...
What are the odds that two players in a $25K game separated by just .20 cents in the middle of the pack catch a 7-1 shot in the final race to finish 1-2 in the contest?
And that 7-1 shot ends up being the highest odds in a 14-race contest on a Triple Crown day...?
On Preakness Day, a tournament rarity ended up in the favor of (berrysink857) and Chris Watson (dud). Each of them selected So Sweetitiz in a turf stake at Santa Anita, producing a win-place payout of $24, which catapulted them from mid-pack to the front.
Separated by just 20 cents in the end, (berrysink857) earned $7,800 cash and an entry into October’s $250K game, while Watson earned $4,125 and a $50K game entry chip. Watson, who played three entries in the game, also placed eighth in the contest, earning another $400.
Longshots were virtually non-existent throughout the Preakness Day $25K game, which opened the door for a 7-1 shot to make a huge impact late. On average, scores for top finishers of a $25K game range from at least $100 and up. Rarely does the highest win payout in a 14-race tournament sequence come back as $17. The highest price horse in a contest can be a difference maker when there are few horses to pay above $11 to win. The highest price horse proved to be So Sweetitiz at 7-1 and oddly enough, the 1-2 finishers had that selection.
--- By Dustin Haluska
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