’21 winner Mustari is 1 of 500+ in horseplayers championship

Las Vegas 

Justin Mustari could not help but feel good walking back into the Convention Center this week at Bally’s Las Vegas.

“Just walking back in here this year after winning,” he said. “It’s just an amazing feeling to be back here again.”

Mustari, still 26, became the youngest winner of the National Horseplayers Championship last summer, when he made a final-race, Hail Mary play on a 19-1 long shot at Del Mar to jump from fourth place to an unlikely victory worth $725,000.

Even more unlikely is a repeat title. None of the previous 21 NHC champions has done it. Never mind in a row. The 22 tournaments held since 2000 have had 22 different winners.

Mustari, who is from Des Plaines, Ill., will play at the same table as his father, veteran NHC competitor Frank Mustari. They are among as many as 556 players holding 643 entries in this year’s NHC, which returned to its usual place on the calendar after last year’s COVID postponement. The National Thoroughbred Racing Association, which hosts the annual competition, confirmed the first prize again will be $725,000 with a total of more than $3.5 million in cash and prizes on offer.

Players who had to earn their way into the NHC through racetrack and online contests last year are allowed a maximum of two entries. That is exactly what Mustari had last year. This year he has just the one he earned for last year’s triumph.

“That’s going to narrow down my (focus),” Mustari said Wednesday as part of a horseplayers roundtable for Friday’s Ron Flatter Racing Pod. “I’m probably not going to look through all six or eight tracks. I’m probably going to stick to about two or three solid tracks. Optionals last year were the reason I won the tournament, so I’ve got to stick to that again.”

Players make mythical $2 win-place bets Friday and Saturday using a combination of mandatory races, declared by a competition committee, and optionals, chosen individually. The top 64 finishers are guaranteed $10,000 each and advance to Sunday morning’s semifinals. From there the top 10 are assured of at least $50,000 each, and they play in Sunday afternoon’s finals.

Scott Cavalieri of Attleboro, Mass., a five-time NHC qualifier, won Thursday’s Last Chance/First Chance tournament, which offered the final 24 seats to this year’s championship in addition to early berths in the 2023 event.

The NHC runs from noon to 9 p.m. EST both Friday and Saturday. In addition to the 64-player semifinals, there is a consolation tournament that will run concurrently Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. EST. The championship finals are scheduled to start Sunday at 5 p.m. and run until a winner is declared around 9 p.m.