Handicapping Contest - right here

[Ken Massa]

Good back and forth on the contest. How about the following structure.

Contest begins in Jan when GP and SA have begun.

1) choice of 4 tracks on Sat or Sun each weekend for 4 consecutive weekends.
player will select one day or the other each weekend - not both.

2) choose 10 races to play on your contest day. Bet a mythical $20 win on each horse ($200 total for the day). No place and show or exotics, too much trouble for us to keep track of.

3) Contest picks must be posted by 12noon ET on the day of the contest. Rick and Sam will watch for past-posting! picks will be posted publicly on a separate forum here.

4) To encourage both the selection of longshots and consistency in handicapping - we will have two prizes =
1) top mutuel total - with no caps on the longshots - this helps those that might miss a weekend or like to shoot for the moon with 50/1. Whoever wins the most money, wins that prize. --- 2) total number of winners - each player will have submitted a maximum of 40 selections by the end of the contest. The player with the most winners out of 40 will get this prize. ............. This division of prizes will allow two different strategies to be attempted and may encourage more players that prefer the consistency type format.

5) $50 entry fee - minimum 20 must join and send a "donation' to Rick by a certain date to be established - probably early Jan. Half the entry money will go to each prize winner. I will also throw in a free month of HTR download for each winner. Runner up prizes of handicapping books or other items will also be added. If enough players join - we can think about $100 daily prizes as well.

6) I will also a request that you send an additional $10 to Rick to cover his labor on this. Thus a 'donation' or 'gift' of $60 total is requested and we will post the address here later.

Contest is open to all - HTR member or not. Players do not have to justify their picks - just post on here - the track - race - horsename and prog# on the board before noon on the day of the contest. You will be required to use your real first name and last initial when posting the picks so Rick knows who you are. So instead of posting under "braindead" I would use "Ken M".

7) If we were to get 40 players - the top prizes would be a $1000 each. With good prizes and a small field of players and two possible strategies to win - the competition should be interesting! Let us know if you are "firm" on joining and we will start the ball rolling.

[Ken Massa]

I forgot to add: each player may join the contest with two entries (yes you have to pay for both) for those that want to try both for both prizes or play on both Sat and Sun each week. You will be posting picks for example as: "Ken M 1" and "Ken M 2" to avoid confusion.

[Glen]

Ok, I'm in. If I put $1/day into my cookie jar starting today, I should almost have enough for my entry fee!!!

[MikeDee]

me to....I'll play. I'll write to Santa and ask for the entry fee for xmas!!

[Bernie]

Count me in too - but I'm sorry to hear I can't post as "braindead".

[hdcper]

You can count me in!!! Sounds like fun. By the way Glen, how about sharing those cookies before using the cookie jar to save your entry fee. Or maybe Mike Dee could use the cookies to influence Santa's donation to the contest!

Hope we have a photo finish at the wire,

Hdcper(okay Bill T)

[MtKen]

Sounds like fun:cool:

[hurrikane]

I"m definatly in..but you have to put the large font back up..I'm old and blind.

Glen...you blow all the pick 4 money all ready? :D

[canuck]

The winter (crappy weather) should be in full swing by Jan and am always looking for a diversion-count me in

PS-managed to get 40 people at work to toss 20 bucks each into a Breeders Cup pool-it was won by a secretary who had Squirtle Squirt (her sons nickname is Squirty)-Val Royale (her name is Val) and Tiznow (her Aunt Tizzy) She now wonders why I call her Hatpin Annie...

[Donnie]

Count me in!! Sounds like a lot of fun! Only two entries huh? Was hoping I could "buy" this thing, as that is probably the only way I could share int he prize money!!:D

[Neil]

I'm in. And for those charting this pilgrim's progress... currently in Aiken, SC, where I toured Dogwood Stables. Have also been to Camden, SC where I was shown Shadwell's horses in training. Tomorrow it's back to Camden for the Colonial Cup, and then on to Florida.
Happy Thanksgiving, all!

Neil

[ronnie h]

count me in

[tomcat]

Me too, but only I win. If I don't, I don't play!

Just kiddin'.

[Bruce]

Depends on how much I'll be owing after the football season. (I know I shouldn't.)


bruce

[Dr.Larry]

I'm In.

[Glen]

Canuck,
Massa like Squirtle Squirt for similiar reasons....His son was a big fan of the Pokeymon character...

[Dr.Larry]

Ken, can we play two horses to win in a given race (using 2 of our 10 bets ?)

We will be posting our selections early, often before we know the
Scratches. We will need rules for alternates in case of scratches.

Some of the possibilities might be:
a) If my horse is scratched I may choose to select an alternate horse in
the same race. Or I may no longer want to play this race and would

b) wish to select an alternate horse in another race, i.e. Race pick #11.
Under this type of plan a player could enter i.e. 15 races, 1-15. If there
are no scratches then races 1-10 are his entries. If two of his 1-10 horses
were scratched then he would have entries through race 12.

c) To keep it from getting too complicated, we may insist that when choosing
2 win bets in a given race, that the player select 2 alternates for same race-
as we are doing in the current B&B contest.

Just some early thoughts.

Best Wishes...Larry

[Ken Massa]

Glen: yes we loved Pokemon (Squirtle) - but its all forgotten with Harry Pothead. Next BC will be picking horses with names like "magic..." "witchcraft..." etc.

Doc Larry: good questions about the contest rules.

1) yes - bet as many horses in the same race as you want
2) if horse is scratched - we will allow alternate picks for the day; plays #11, 12 etc will be used in case of scratch and in the order provided. If no alternates chosen, bet is lost.

After we have concluded the contest is a "go" with 20 or more entries - then we will finalize the rules. But we want to keep em simple.

One thing to vote on: 'cap' ($40, $50 max) or 'no cap' (allow full price to be computed).

Thanks for interest everyone. Looks like we are close to our quota of 20 to run the contest. I thought about holding it sooner, but with 4 weekends needed, it would have run through holidays. Better to have the event in January when the top tracks are running too.

[tommyc]

I'm IN for 2 entries !

tommyc

[Val]

Hey--
Is there still room in the contest? Just got home from a business trip and learned of the upcoming event.
Would love to play.
Val:p

[Rick]

Yes, plenty of room.

Look for more info about the 1st of December.

Looks like it will start the 2nd weekend in Jan.

[hurrikane]

I vote no cap.

[MikeDee]

Looks like all the big hitters are lining up for this one I better pratice up!!

[Donnie]

Yeah Mike,
Now that TommyC is involved maybe I need to protect my investment by splitting my entry with someone...??:D

Really looking forward to this...should be a lot of fun!!

[Larry2]

never mind

[canuck]

Is that you rbh?

[Larry2]

never mind

[MAYO]

I am in the contest for 2 entries.

[Bernie]

Ricks and Ken,

I have a suggestion for the consistency part of the contest. It's really not a measure of handicapping ability in picking the most winners if you show a loss in doing so. Using only number of winners as the contest criteria, the inclination would be to pick the lowest MLO horses for the day with perhaps a small amount of filtering. How about factoring in more handicapping ability by multiplying the win percentage by the ROI. IMO this would be a better measure of true consistency and success at handicapping.

[Ken Massa]

Good suggestion Bernie;
I'm all ears on a revised format for the consistency prize. I saw one contest where the points went as follows.

win price___ pts
$1- 5 .......... 1
6 - 10 .......... 2
11 - 16......... 3
17 + ............. 4

This format does not overstate large longshots in the score but still allows for more credit when a better price is hit. If you pick enough low priced horses though, you could still win.

[Carl]

I'll go in if format turns out to be $$ won, picking winners per se is not something anything I do. No way that I pick horses is designed to do that, they are all designed to "make money", which for me is the goal of this game.

Rick,

Don't know if you have http://www.paypal.com yet, but if not it is a real easy way to transfer money on line (re entry fees in contest). There is little or no charge (maybe a $1 on one end) and a lot of books and buyers/sellers at e-bay use it.

Works good.

[Glen]

I would suggest that perhaps we could change the deadline for posting. Maybe to something like 15 minutes before the first race on the card so we can check for all scratches.