Getting hot for the National Harness Handicapping Championship

April 25, 2009

It's Saturday afternoon and just a few hours away from the beginning of the 2009 National Harness Handicapping Championship at the Meadowlands and hopefully what will turn out to be a big story on this website and The Horseman And Fair World with the headline "Gordon Waterstone Comes Up A Winner!"

The festivities actually began last night with a very nice cocktail party and thanks to contest co-commissioners Amy Silver and Rachel Ryan for their hospitality. But now the fun is over and the gloves are off as the 110 or so contestants will likely be coming out swinging in tonight's contest that has a $20,000 first-place prize up for grabs. We all paid a $400 entry fee and also another $400 to use for wagering, which is a minimum of $40 and a maximum of $100 on win or place or a combination on any eight of the 13 races at the Meadowlands and one mandatory race from Balmoral Park and Cal Expo.

The calendar may say the last weekend in April but the weather here in New Jersey is more like Hambletonian weekend in August. It's hot and humid--the high is expected to be a near-record 89 today--so it seems that front-end speed in the early races tonight should hold up well. I had lunch earlier with the "King of Crete" himself, Al Lorenz (an Illinois-native who now resides in Curacao) and we pretty much agreed on that likely scenario. We also talked betting strategy a bit and how we went about trying to find the five races at the Meadowlands we had to skip.

Also in town to play is TVG's Dave Weaver, co-host of the "Drive Time" show that feaures races from the Big M. Dave got in last night and told me he was really looking forward to finally putting his money where his mouth is. Dave's "Drive Time" co-host, Gary Seibel, put us both on the spot about making a charitable contribution if we should finish in the top 10, so hopefully we can both make good on that. Standardbred owner Gary Machiz is also playing in the contest, having qualified in the Big M's recent last-chance qualifier. And Amy Silver told me that only two of the previous four defending champions, Scott Alberg (1996) and Jim Famularo (2007) have entered this year's festivities.

So good luck to all the contestants. I've already received my good luck phone calls from the boss, Kathy Parker, and our advertising director Greg Schuler. I also got a go-get-em text message from Andrew Cohen, whose horse Share The Delight is in-to-go tonight. I texted Andrew back that STD's race is a race I'll likely be sitting out.

I'll be making a couple reports for TVG tonight so if you get a chance be sure to watch so you can find out how I'm doing as well as the rest of the field. The Meadowlands' announcer Sam McKee also asked if I'd come on the in-house TV show to handicap the Invitational Pace. That's one of the races I'm looking at passing as I expect Maltese Artist to be probably a 4-5 favorite. So many things to consider...and just a few more hours of homework to do.

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