Cancer survivor Boustany leads horseplayers championship

Las Vegas 

In the seven times Louisiana dentist Francis Boustany has been in the National Horseplayers Championship, he has been the leader once before.

“I think I came in like 39th or something,” Boustany said Friday afternoon. “I was in the lead one day for that one, but I didn’t hold the lead the entire day. I had it about two-thirds of the day, and then I caved in at the end.”

For at least this one day in 2023, Boustany will go to bed in first place among the 779 entries in the 24th NHC, which will be worth $800,000 in cash to the eventual winner.

A survivor of throat cancer and the cousin of a former Congressman who was instrumental in passing an important tax break for horseplayers seven years ago, Boustany vaulted to the top of the standings with a pair of long-shot winners at Oaklawn and Aqueduct.

Playing two tracks at once is nothing for Boustany, 72, a Lafayette, La., resident who has been playing the horses for more than 50 years.

“I usually handicap about eight tracks at the same time,” he said. “My friends always tease me, and I say I’m just kind of sick in a good way with horses.”

Under the Gun, a 4-year-old gelding, won at 17-1 for Boustany at Oaklawn in Friday’s third race, a six-furlong test for $32,000 claimers who were non-winners of two.

“He was by Gun Runner,” Boustany said. “He looked like a late developer. He broke his maiden at Turfway, and the track was off at Oaklawn. I thought maybe some of that synthetic breeding for an off track might kick in. I was a little concerned. Steve Asmussen was the trainer, but he had his son (Keith) riding. You’re up against all these accomplished jockeys, so I was afraid.”

His fear was allayed when Under the Gun rallied from fifth and got to the wire for a one-length victory.

That was followed at Aqueduct by a fifth-race win for Necromancer, another 4-year-old gelding who came through in a $40,000 claiming race also for non-winners of two. Dylan Davis rode him for trainer Bruce Levine from seventh to first, again by a length, to pay off at 11-1.

“He was coming off a layoff, and he was coming out of a key race where two or three won the following time out, so I keyed off of that,” Boustany said.

At 6-1, Takntothecleaners also scored for Boustany when he led from gate to wire in a one-mile turf allowance at Fair Grounds.

By the end of the day, Boustany was up to $149.40. Each player made 18 imaginary $2 win-place bets, eight on a common set of mandatory races and 10 other optional plays. Albion Benton, 42, of Manchester, N.H., was second with $135.30; Cara Yarusso, 49, of Eagan, Minn., third with $133.40; and Ken Seeman, 60, Wantagh, N.Y., fourth with $129.20.

Scores carry over to Saturday, when each player must play another 18 races. The top 78 players, or 10 percent, will be guaranteed at least $12,050 each when they advance to Sunday’s semifinals in this year’s NHC worth $4,442,019 in cash and prizes.

Boustany, whose cousin Charles Boustany was a six-term Republican Congressman from Lafayette, already counted himself a winner by simply being in the Horseshoe Las Vegas event center. Last year at this time he was battling throat cancer.

“I had 35 radiation treatments for pharyngeal cancer,” he said. “I just kind of gutted it out. I lost about 50 pounds. It’s a heck of a way to go on a diet, but I’m cancer-free right now, thank the good Lord. I’m very thankful to be here.”

With his wife Connie alongside, Boustany finds himself without some of his horseplaying friends who have been with him at past NHCs.

“A couple of my buddies, Craig Hom from San Francisco and Lucas Van Zandt from Connecticut, they normally qualify like clockwork. But they did not this year, so I want to give a big hello to them.”

Boustany himself did not get into the tournament until he qualified in an online event at HorsePlayers.com last month.

“I probably played in five or six tournaments all year (in 2022), because my health had been so bad,” Boustany said. “But I got lucky.”

Lucky and blessed. And in the lead at the NHC for a day.

“You know that old saying stop the race?” he said. “Now it’s stop the tournament.”

Coverage of the National Horseplayers Championship is made possible in part by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, which is providing hotel accommodations to Horse Racing Nation.