NHC Final

[km]

The NTRA/DRF National Handicapping Championship is over. The link below has the top 20 and other prize winners =

http://www.drf.com/nhc/2004/nhc.html

None of our HTR buddies made the top 20. McKee came close, an excellent 23rd place, but just an inch out of the money. They'll be baaaack, probably next week. Nice try gang - congrats for just making it to the finale.

The NHC again turned out to be rather dull on Day-2 with very little movement in the standings. This is always the problem when there are mandatory races and the chalk win them - makes it very tough for players to make a late move. The key to this tournament is getting on the board early on Day-1. Those who fell behind (about 150 players) had no choice but to shoot for the moon, but with mandatory races, they are all playing the same bombs - so it comes to a standstill.

[timh]

I wound up 32nd; disappointing after being in good position, 15th, on day one. You're right, the second day was very low key. Very few playable, decent priced winners in what seemed to be the competitive races. The poor ESPN crew had a real hard time finding much excitement or buzz going on.
Looking back the thing I learned was that on days when it does kind of go dead like yesterday one should realize that its dead for everybody. I continued to look for horses that would pay $20 or so all day. If I had lowered my sights a little and hit a couple af $10 or $12 horses it would made the difference of me getting in the money or not. However it's easy after the event !
Tim

[km]

Very good effort Tim, i was hoping you might get some deja vu from 2003 (3rd place finish) with such a good spot in the standings after Day-1. Thanks for your comments.

The way the NHC is setup, is like a pro speed bias racetrack -- or the proverbial 'boat race' in harness racing. Those who race near the front are almost always staying there. As Tim mentioned, a real bore for television. A major scheduling mistake is using the 9th at SA (final race in the contest) as a mandatory race. If the chalk wins, it's a non event for everyone.

Solution for t.v. is to allow more optional plays overall, or schedule the mandatory races early in the final day to allow some real poker strategy at the end. And have scoring updates after every race. If the final race at SA is an optional play, then those few players still holding a bullet can create some tension, even if the chalk wins it, they might be able to pass someone with those few more points. That definitely could have happened this time with several players within a few dollars in positions 2-6 right up to the end.