$50,000 grand prize

The National Harness Handicapping Contest takes place at the Meadowlands Saturday night, and Gordon Waterstone of The Horseman And Fair World will be playing for the magazine, and reporting on the contest for both the magazine and the TVG network. Gordon caught a plane out of Lexington on Friday but before he left he filed the following report:

“As I head off to the Meadowlands today I can safely say the happiest person on the planet has to be my boss, Kathy Parker, who got so tired of me writing the headline “Gordon Waterstone Wins National Harness Handicapping Championship” this past week she said she was about to handle me the same way CBS handled Don Imus.

It all started on Monday when we put together this week’s magazine. Every story we edited somehow—and I’m not exactly sure how this happened—came out with the same headline: “Gordon Waterstone Wins National Harness Handicapping Championship.”

The contest is tomorrow night at the Big M, so it’s definitely time to put my game face on, but in saying that I still remember Bobby Knight’s press conference a few years ago when he did all those facial contortions in trying to explain what a “game face” actually was.

Truthfully, I had to really switch gears and turn my attention away from trying to hone my Thoroughbred handicapping skills and focus on harness. I qualified for a free Thoroughbred contest last week at Keeneland after finishing eighth of about 140 in an earlier contest, but with only one 10-1 winner from the seven races I didn’t fare so well. It’s time to turn things around and get back to my harness roots.

I guess I can call myself a professional harness handicapper because while working in my previous life as publicity director at Hazel Park, I had my picks published in the local newspaper, and also sold them at the track on the world-famous “Blue Sheet.” I actually did quite well—in my humble opinion—especially that night when I touted a horse that won at odds of 50-1.

So I’m off today to the Big M (see proof of me at the airport in the picture above that this trip is actually taking place and we’re not trying a Capricorn One on anybody) for Saturday’s contest. And if you need further proof that I am really there, watch the in-house TV or TVG Friday night as I’m slated to do interviews. My whirlwind publicity tour was put together by my colleague, Greg Schuler, who is acting as my agent and handling the overwhelming requests for my time—although I think he’s doing it believing he’s going to get 10 percent of my $50,000 first-place prize.

I hope Kathy wasn’t too discouraged about my chances when I told her yesterday that I had checked Saturday’s entries and noticed that of the three horses I had circled to keep an eye on this weekend in the contest, two had drawn the 10 hole and the other the seven. Not a good omen. Maybe those 10 holes will lead to a bigger price—if I stay with my choices.

I thought about asking for help from anyone who had any horses they liked Saturday, but I decided that would have been like that proverbial racetrack tout who goes around the track and gives a different horse to different people, guaranteeing himself a winner. I’d probably get the word on 10 horses in a 10-horse race, and all that would do is confuse me—not that I need any more help to be confused.

That said, I’ve looked at the Meadowlands program and at the mandatory races from The Meadows, Balmoral Park and Cal Expo, and I’ll look all Saturday afternoon in the hopes of finding some “hot” picks. After all, let us all remember there is a guaranteed FIFTY-THOUSAND DOLLARS FIRST PRIZE at stake. And then I’ll let Kathy write her own original headline next week: `Gordon Waterstone Wins National Harness Handicapping Championship.’”

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