This Saturday lacks a Kentucky Derby prep race but Canterbury’s Road to Kentucky Handicapping Contest, with $850 in weekly prize money and $25,000 overall, continues nonetheless using Gulfstream Park’s 12-race program. Post time in Florida, and thus the contest entry deadline, is 11am. There will be no double-point prep bonus race but the mythical $20 WPS scoring system remains intact.
Last Saturday featured Fair Grounds with its split Risen Star and the added El Camino Real from Golden Gate. Points were ample and the winning score was again huge. Roger Reigstad amassed 3,017 points to win $300 in prize money.
With just five weeks of results thus far it is too early to get excited about the overall scores but do keep in mind that to determine the top players’ accumulated scores, the lowest three weekly numbers will be deducted. A bad week or two does end the dream. There is cash for the top 30 overall and the best eight earn a coveted spot in the Grand Prize contest that will send a player to the $2.5 million National Handicapping Championship in 2021.
Horse Player World Series Satellite Results
With a total of 53 entries in last Saturday’s HPWS Satellite, two players won a trip to Las Vegas in March to play in the Horse Player World Series at The Orleans Hotel Casino. Ron Hafner finished first with Rick Dahl second. Each will play in this three-day handicapping event where the top prize is in the neighborhood of $300,000. Over the years, several local players have cashed in the HPWS. Canterbury has long been involved in sending players to HPWS; in fact the first Road to Kentucky contest, which pre dates the NHC, offered the winner an entry
Odds and Ends…..
Weekly $10 super satellite handicapping contests continue Thursday through Saturday with weekly winners earning entry to the April 11 satellite…… complementary soda is available in the Racebook via a dispensing machine located on the north end of the floor near the Homestretch Diner…..live racing fans may have noticed a story in last weekend’s Daily Racing Form where owner Danny Caldwell states that he plans to send his stable, trained by Frederico Villafranco, to Shakopee this meet. Caldwell has won several top owner titles at Oaklawn, Prairie Meadows and Remington.
