Orleans March 30-April 1st

[km]

I haven't even left yet - who's there so far? What's the buzz guys, how many players signed up?

See you all on Thursday. Let's hope some for some prices for once on the first day this time, it has been light for bombs the last few contests on the opening Thurs.

I'll report back here each night on the tournament results and news.

[njcurveball]

Best of luck to all the HTR participants.

I look forward to reading your story about winning in the Newsletter next month!

Jim

[OPM]

Good luck guys and bring home the dough

[km]

Just got back to the room 5pm PST.

693 entries total.

Lots of longshot action on Thursday, most of us hit at least one of the cap horses, but so did a whole lot of other players, a few are already over 6000. They had a leaderboard posted every 2 hours, the leader at 3pm had over 7200!

This contest is typically won with 10,000 - 11,000 at the end.

I'll get the standings later and post more info on the HTR players, some of whom did pretty well on day-1, maybe someone picked up some day money.

[km]

Top HTR players from Thursday March 30; Day-1

Barbara Buckley (leaky eyes); 10th; 5206pts ($500 day money prize)
Alan Noring (AlanN); 24th; 4,304

Several others have hit 3000 points and are in the top 100.

Key winner for many of us was the $60.60 10th race at GP, it was the highest of many longshot winners that boosted the scoring during the day.

[km]

Orleans - Friday March 31 - DAY2

Not as much fireworks on Friday, but one player has already exceeded the magic 10,000 point mark, another is right behind with 9,500, so they are in the drivers seat with everyone else far back.

Highest scores for HTR Players going into the final day (all in the top 50)

Alan Noring (12th), 7,074
Barb Buckley, 6,136
Paul Parker, 5,624
Tommy Castillo, 5,556
Daven Turner, 5, 556
Ronnie Hopkins, 5,200
Ronnie Hopkins, 5,200 (he played two tickets with the same horses)
Mayo/Massa, 5,086

Day money is being paid on all three days this time. Huge day of racing Saturday -- the Florida Derby card with lots of races and big fields.

[tomcat]

Good luck everyone!

[km]

Lots of scoring in this contest, took 11,358 points to win it. Seven players hit the magic 10,000 mark. Top HTR finishers =

Alan Noring (Alan N); 12th place; 9,202 points
Javier Jaramillo; 29th; 7,864
Barb Buckley (Leakyeyes); 36th; 7,486
Tommy Castillo; 50th; 6,816

All four of those above have qualified for the HWS next January. In addition, Javier won the top day money on Saturday with 5,614 points. Congrats to you all !

There is one more contest on Sunday (early bird).

I'll recap all the action, scoring, prize money, etc. in the upcoming April newsletter.

[Donnie]

Nice job folks! Super job Alan and Javier!!

[km]

Late News from the Olreans ==

Congrats to John (jbshoulda) Buckley for winning the Sunday 'earlybird' contest and $10,000!!!

[ggpagels]

Nice job Alan, Javier, Tommy, and Mr. & Mrs. B. !!!:)

[Donnie]

.....and late kudos to JB!

[Mall]

Add my congrats to Alan & JB, & let me pose this question to Dehere: Aren't you forgetting about the oft-quoted Ernie Banks saying, "Let's play two." If you enter the Prm contest, for example, you'll already be handicapping the races for the online contest anyway, so why not play both? Last yr one gentleman qualified at Autotote & in the Youbet online contest on the same day. Although the best one could do in the nhcqualify format is make it to the next round, I imagine that participating in the nhcqualify finals would be quite a lot of fun if you already qualified at a live contest.

[dehere]

Good point Mel - so long as my blackberry works in Des Moines so that I can easily make my selections at NHCqualify doubling up is the way to go.

As for your last comment, I would think that the opposite would be more fun (to be competing live somewhere while also participating in the final round at an NHCqualify event - let's see, that makes the on-line event for Monmouth on May 27th or the Keeneland event on July 29th kinda interesting).

I see that the first event at NHCqualify has sold out. I guess that means that 20 of us move on to the finals. Who all is in this thing this week?

[Cliff]

Great showing guys!

[AlanLN]

Congrats to Javier, Barb, and Tommy! The contest was obviously more fun this time for me.

Way to go JB! Seems like you are becoming the early bird specialist. Maybe a new contest strategy for you would be to let Barb handle the entries for the main contest, and you fire away at the early bid money. :D

[Gambler]

Congrads to all. Happy to hear you are doing so good.