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Originally Posted by The Indomitable DrugS
The problem with horse racing contests and tournaments is that they give you way too few races ... and it's basically just a matter of who can get the hottest the quickest.
It's not even close to a true test of a players ability.
I'd love to see a tournament created with a big winning prize that attempts to find out who the most complete horse player is.
Over a year...make everyone play the exact same 350 races at a track - go with 10 different tracks in every region of the country - and use a wide variety of races. Everything from Grade 1 stakes to $5,000 maiden claimers. Everything from 2yo's at 4.5fs with all debuters to starter allowance races with old hard hitting horses going long. Everything from dirt, to synthetic, to turf.
When you start talking about having to play the same 3,500 races over an extended period of time .. the luck factor is greatly diminished.
I know a lot of very good handicappers are set up to focus on just one circuit and wouldn't like something like that. A lot of the best ones I know are also specialists and very strong in a few areas .. but have bigtime deficiencies in other areas of their game that they can overcome by simply passing races and sticking to their strength. So, they wouldn't like the format.
But, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. If they want to call it the NHC .. they should come up with a demanding format that favors the best all around players.
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The Horseplayer World Series does a much better job testing handicapping ability than the NHC in my opinion. The HPWS is all optional races and it's 3 days long rather than 2. They give you 8 tracks to choose from as well.
NT