Ken Massa
21st August 2001, 04:06.58 AM
The Orleans Handicapping Championshiop was held Aug 16-18 with 663 entries (well under the estimated 800 expected). Top prize was $109,000.
The three days of this event were heavy with with chalk at the tournament tracks (AP, CRC, DMR, LAD, PIM, SAR) and the low volume of longshots caused the lowest accumulative point totals for the top 10 winners in the history of the event. Six HTR members took part (see below).
The big prize winners in this year's tourney got most of their points from the final three races on the card on Friday at Arlington. Check your HTR consensus for AP, Aug 17. Most of us hit the 8th race at $40, Fr1 #1 (PL 5). We then played the Fr1 #1 in race 9, it had a three length lead in the stretch but lost by a zop at 23/1. Heartbreak loss and the horse that did get his nose on the wire and win that race was 35/1 and it was the key horse for the eventual tournament champ.
We should not have cried for too long. In race 10 at AP that day, #1 Fr1 scored again at 60/1 on the grass. All of us saw it, none of us played it. Shame. We were honestly too bummed out on the previous loss to get up and play a live Fr1 horse on the turf. Hindsight is 20/20, but if we had prevailed in race 9, methinks one of us would have tagged the 60/1 in race 10 and won this thing by racking those three consectuve Fr1's at AP in a row. Excuses are for losers though; bottom line - we stunk.
There were just a couple of other do-able prices during the three days, but overall slim pickins on longshots with strong velocity numbers that usually get the prize money for HTR players. PIM, SAR, LAD and CRC had almost nothing to bite on.
HTR members
Doug Craft ----- finished 63rd overall and won a small prize
Rick Newton ---- had a good final day and won a small daily prize, 123rd overall
Glen Love ------ out
Ken Massa ------ out
Tommy Castillo ----- out
Bernie Stroum ------ out
The three days of this event were heavy with with chalk at the tournament tracks (AP, CRC, DMR, LAD, PIM, SAR) and the low volume of longshots caused the lowest accumulative point totals for the top 10 winners in the history of the event. Six HTR members took part (see below).
The big prize winners in this year's tourney got most of their points from the final three races on the card on Friday at Arlington. Check your HTR consensus for AP, Aug 17. Most of us hit the 8th race at $40, Fr1 #1 (PL 5). We then played the Fr1 #1 in race 9, it had a three length lead in the stretch but lost by a zop at 23/1. Heartbreak loss and the horse that did get his nose on the wire and win that race was 35/1 and it was the key horse for the eventual tournament champ.
We should not have cried for too long. In race 10 at AP that day, #1 Fr1 scored again at 60/1 on the grass. All of us saw it, none of us played it. Shame. We were honestly too bummed out on the previous loss to get up and play a live Fr1 horse on the turf. Hindsight is 20/20, but if we had prevailed in race 9, methinks one of us would have tagged the 60/1 in race 10 and won this thing by racking those three consectuve Fr1's at AP in a row. Excuses are for losers though; bottom line - we stunk.
There were just a couple of other do-able prices during the three days, but overall slim pickins on longshots with strong velocity numbers that usually get the prize money for HTR players. PIM, SAR, LAD and CRC had almost nothing to bite on.
HTR members
Doug Craft ----- finished 63rd overall and won a small prize
Rick Newton ---- had a good final day and won a small daily prize, 123rd overall
Glen Love ------ out
Ken Massa ------ out
Tommy Castillo ----- out
Bernie Stroum ------ out