DerbyWars $20,000 Saturday Game Recap

Paul Shurman put another $20,000 DerbyWars Game win on his resume Saturday!

Shurman, a consistent leaderboard topper, just won a $15K game in October. He is a 13-time NHC qualifier and was the 2011 NHC Tour Champion. He finished in 6th place at the 2014 NHC and is in the hunt for another appearance in 2015. We caught up with him at Keeneland - watch the video!

Shurman scored $163.50 to win the game, despite not putting in a play for one of the races!

"My approach to the game was to look for value and pick winners," Shurman said. "When I was in second place yesterday with four or five races to go, my goal was to get ahead of the person in first so I could play more defensively. But after getting into first place with a $16 lead, I couldn't pass up the cap horse in the second to last race. It was a lightly raced four year old coming off two solid efforts at Saratoga. I had it as best bred for 1 3/8 distance.  Shipped to Del Mar for this. Talamo on the grass. It won and I didn't even have to play the last race."

Shurman takes home the $7,000 cash prize, as well as a spot in the $100,000 Game slated for Dec. 26-27. His DerbyWars win capped off an epic weekend for Shurman - In another contest Saturday, he also won a seat at the 2015 Breeders' Cup Betting Challenge!

In second place was William Holmes (art vandelay) with a final score of $121.90. John DaSilva (postpicker) continued his streak of great plays with a third-place finish at $112, and Craig Hom (chestnut) rallied to finish 4th with $103.20. These guys also won a spot in the $100K game!

In Sunday's action, JT from Texas also scored a repeat win in the $10,000 High Stakes game! JT has won 2 $10K High Stakes games in 3 weeks - that's amazing!