Paul Matties beat a field of 629 entries to take home first-place prize of $800,000, as well as the Eclipse Award as Horseplayer of the Year, during the weekend's 17th annual Daily Racing Form/NTRA National Handicapping Championship in Las Vegas. Matties amassed a winning score of $399.50 over the three-day tournament from 53 mythical $2 Win and Place bets. The 46-year-old assumed the lead during the semifinals round with a $47 winner, R B Rainbow Dash, in the sixth race from Tampa Bay Downs. Coupled with the $17.20 place money, the $59.20 added to his bankroll boosted Matties from third to first. Matties maintained his lead throughout the Final Table round. In the seven mandatory races that made up the Final Table, he cashed in two of them–Risetotheoccasion ($17.60 to win, $5.40 to place) in Oaklawn's seventh and Sevens ($8.40 to place) in Gulfstream Park's 12th.
“Horseplayers always think they're smarter and better than everybody else, so to beat all the smartest people in the world, what an honor,” Matties joked.
Matties's brother Duke finished fourth in the contest, while brother Gregg is a New York-based trainer and father Chick was a racing enthusiast who won the inaugural Horse Player World Series handicapping contest.
Matties has made handicapping his career, first calculating speed figures for Andy Beyer Associates and later in a key role with NHPlay, a boutique account wagering platform and horseplayer service company.
The NHC 17 finals awarded cash to the top 63 finishers from a total purse of $2,304,760. An additional $50,000 went to the top 20 in Saturday's Consolation Tournament. Including $250,000 paid out to top finishers in the year-long NHC Tour, a $100 TI casino chip for every entrant, NHC Tour travel awards, RTN subscriptions and the $10,000 charity tournament prize, plus $30,000 worth of Breeders' Cup Betting Challenge entries, NHC cash and prizes for the weekend totaled a record $2,778,760.
Matt Bernier, Daily Racing Form Player Development Handicapper, won the second annual NHC Charity Challenge with a final mythical bankroll of $54.30, besting runner-up Tom LaMarra of Blood-Horse, who checked in second with $47.60. Bernier picked three winners during the seven-race contest and scored in five of the seven contest races.
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