From security to format, horseplayers contest evolves

Las Vegas

Tighter security to prevent a repeat of last year’s collusion disqualifications was a big change. Yet that may take a backseat to what is in store for future editions of the National Horseplayers Championship, which began Friday and continues through Sunday.

For going on 25 years, the tournament has been built on mythical $2 win-place bets. In the not-too-distant future, the mythical part may be removed.

“We’ve discussed the idea of turning this into a live-money contest in the future,” said National Thoroughbred Racing Association chief operating officer Keith Chamblin, who has been the hands-on tournament boss since it began in 2000. “I still think it’ll be a win-and-place format, and I still think you’ll need to win your way in to get here. But we’d love for the money to go through the windows from a pari-mutuel standpoint.”

Asked if this could happen in the next 5-10 years, Chamblin said yes. But he stressed there is no specific date for making what could be a sea change. If anything, a new-look NHC would fall more in line with live-bankroll contests that make up so much of the year-long schedule of qualifying events both online and at NTRA-member racetracks.

Even though the concept is still in its nascent stages, Chamblin said each player would be given the same amount of real money for a bankroll that would continue to be the scorekeeping device. With actual dollars in play, Chamblin said players would keep what they earn.

“I had 360 (points) last time, so I’d have $360 in my pocket,” said last year’s NHC winner Paul Calia of Kansas City, Mo. “For $360, I’m not going to change how I play for that. If they’re talking about $10 or $20 to win or place, that would actually be kind of cool. But I don’t have a problem with the format now.”

Calia won $800,000 last year. Michael Beychok, 60, of Baton Rouge, La., pocketed a one-time, $1 million first prize in 2012.

“I’m a little partial to the $2 win-place for about a million reasons,” he said Friday. “But I love anything that changes the current structure. I think live money would be another element that tries to determine who the best handicapper is. That’s certainly an important factor in whether you’re a good handicapper or not. I would love it.”

Paul Coles, 39, the $800,000 winner in 2019 from Grayslake, Ill., offered cautious endorsement of a format change.

“I like the event as it is,” he said. “But if they add a live-money element, and they do it right, and you get to keep what you make, that’s always an advantage. With $2 win-place, I can’t imagine that’s very appealing. I think they’d have to raise the amount to make it worth everyone’s time. At the same time I’m always open to new ideas that make it better.”

Chamblin said there are a lot of details to be worked out before the new format can be put into place.

“It’s going to take a lot of coordination with our host partner, who we’ve had discussions with,” he said, referring to Caesars, owner of the NHC’s current home Horseshoe Las Vegas. “But it’s also going to take collaboration with the Nevada Gaming (Control) Board, and it’s going to take cooperation with the Las Vegas Dissemination Company, which is the tote (verifier) here.”

Chamblin said talks with Caesars have been going on “for a couple of years,” adding there are “a lot of dominos that are going to have to fall before we get to that point.”

If anything, Chamblin said technology could be the biggest hurdle to clear before moving forward. Then again, technology was the very vehicle the NHC enhanced this year to stop collusion.

Ryan Scully, Jordan Jayne and James Pauly, all from suburban Chicago, were banned from the 2024 and 2025 NHC after they were accused of working together against the rules to earn a collective $95,400 in last year’s finals. Scully was the most prominent of the group after he had finished second and pocketed $200,000 in the 2002 NHC.

They were caught after an audit of their plays showed a suspicious pattern of virtually simultaneous, common picks.

“For one thing we’ve got new software that’s allowing us to review plays,” Chamblin said. “If we choose to, we can (do live monitoring), but we’re more interested in looking at the plays like after day 1, seeing if there are any patterns that cause us any alarm midway through day 2, three-quarters of the way through day 2, at the end of day 2. So we can go up and address it with individuals almost on a real-time basis.”

Chamblin said a hold until March 27 has been built into the prize payments this year. It used to be that players could go right to the host casino’s cashier and collect their money right after the annual Sunday-night finish to the NHC. Not anymore.

“There’s a 10-day audit and review period that’s being implemented,” Chamblin said. “It gives players a chance to sort of self-regulate each other. If they see something, they have time to say something. If we see something, we have time to say something. Then we’ll pay the entire amount of the prize pool out of our Lexington (Ky.) office 10 days after the contest.”

Admitting some may see a fine line between camaraderie and collusion, Chamblin said if it walks like cheating and talks like cheating, he knows it is cheating.

“At the end of the day, if I’m playing in the contest, I’m going to make my own selection,” he said. “The people at the table might all like the same horse. They might all like different horses. But at the point where I go up and put my pick in on the contest platform, it needs to be my decision and my decision alone.”

Although NTRA CEO Tom Rooney said last year “we will try” to recover the dollars Scully, Jayne and Pauly collected, Chamblin said that pursuit never flowered. As he put it, “It’s going to be hard to get the doodoo back in the goose after it’s out.”

In discussing the NHC’s past quarter-century, Chamblin, 62, not so subtly hinted he is closer to the end of his time running the event than he is to the beginning. Like the coming format change, though, he did not offer a timetable for his retirement.

“I’m not going to work until I’m in a pine box,” he said. “But I’m not planning on going anywhere. I’m not planning on being here forever, either.”

Accommodations for Horse Racing Nation coverage of the National Horseplayers Championship were provided and paid for by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association.