Contests

[TGJB]

Well, our guys (and gals) didn\'t light up the NHC this year. The winner owns horses in partnership with one of ours, but as far as we know was not using our data in the contest.

We did better in the World Series. With only 20 competing out of around 700 (you didn\'t have to qualify for that one), two of ours finished in the top seven.

I\'m looking forward to hearing details about the upcoming tour. Especially if I can play without haing to leave my office.

[huck]

I want to thank all the guys at thorograph. You guys were awesome and very  generous. Sorry I wasn\'t able to have a better result, but as you know it is a grind and one mistake is enough to make the difference. Mine came in a sequence of about 10 mins.  late Saturday, sitting with $66 I was between 2 horses in the mandatory @GG and picked the wrong one. Then I missed the FG horse that was 14-1, he was a play but I was scared off by the track condition.{that cost me about $70 total}. Having said that I was not going to get much done on Sat.,so it probably didn\'t cost me much. The tournament was very well run and lots of fun. I am by no means making excuses, but not having SA and the weather all over the country made it tough on me. I don\'t ever play Tampa and that is where much of the action took place and the rest was kind of FG in the mud. Look forward to trying again next year. Thanks again.

Charlie

[Rick B.]

A big thanks to Jerry and everyone at TG. I found a horse at Laurel on the first day of the HWS that I wouldn\'t have played in a million years without TG, and somehow managed to be in 3rd place after Day 1. Nice check for $3600+ that I otherwise would not have received.  
 
I was befuddled on Day 2, and quite simply dropped the ball on Day 3, passing on two rather obvious horses at Aqueduct and a playable $40 horse at Laurel that is already keeping me up at night. I wouldn\'t have won the contest, but I should have finished much, much higher.

It was a fantastic edge to have all of the data I needed. I failed to take full advantage of it, that\'s all.

[elkurzhal]

Thanks Bill and Jerry for taking care of us in Vegas!  It was a great experience, and I\'ll be working hard to get back.  My day one was a washout with only one place horse.  Spent most of the day shooting from the hip with the cancellation of Oaklawn and everyone being off the turf.  A little better day two with the a 30-1 shot at Tampa getting me to a respectable mid-pack finish.

Kind of interested in the new \"tour\".  The point system should be out in a few weeks they said.  Tour score will be based on your best 5 point totals for the year, and the 3 NHC spots will go to the highest tour members not already qualified.

[gowand]

Could anyone give me some input on the best way to maximize your chances of qualifying for the NHC.  Obviously picking winners helps.  I was interested in peoples thoughts on the best qualifying contests and any experiences with trying to qualify on-line.  Any suggestions would be appreciated.  Don\'t worry, I am not a threat to actually win one of the spots but I thought it might be fun to try.

[elkurzhal]

I qualified in the twinspires.com contest.  The top 15 from that contest were sent the the NHC.  I think that was one of better % of entrants sent.  Emerald Downs, and Beulah have contest that send more then the standard 3. Other than that, play in as many as you can, and pick winners:)

[Mall]

I too would like to thank Tg for the contest sheets, which Bill did his usual good job of making sure everyone received in a timely manner. It was nice to see Bill in good health and in good spirits. Sign ups start on 2/15, and additional details on the Tour will indeed be available soon. Don\'t hold me to this, but in all liklihood JB and anyone else who wants to limit their participation to online contests will be able to do so. Finally, I can heartily endorse elkurzhal\'s advice regarding Emerald. In addition to nine qualifying spots, the winner receives a luxury high roller suite, casino chips, and an invitation to a high end Emerald \"Alumni\" Party. Not too shabby, as Adam Sandler might say.

[weekend warrior]

While I was way \"up the track\" in this year\'s NHC renewal I still had a great time.  It was nice to meet people like NC Tony. (Tony\'s a real pro and all would be impressed as he closed the book on the tournament by nailing exactas and trifectas at Meadowlands Harness on Saturday evening.)

Thorograph provided the usual excellent product that identified horses like Bailsby at Aqueduct and many more from around the country. What Thorograph couldn\'t do was impact the weather and stop this handicapper from making poor decisions.

Again I say thank you and congratulate all who competed admirably. See you all out on The Tour.
 Jamie

[dehere]

Thanks are certainly in order for free use  of the Sheets for the contest - thanks Jerry for the offer, Alan for the organization and, especially, Bill Spillane for your excellent work in making sure they were available to us when needed.

As far as contests to consider to get back to the Rock, I agree with elkurzhal for the contests he mentioned as EMD worked for me this year and Twin Spires worked for my wife. But never overlook NHCQualify - these every-other-month deals are a great way to inexpensively win a trip to the big event.

[Lost Cause]

I also want to thank TG for their hard work in getting those sheets to us.  I\'m still waiting for some of my contest selections to pass the finish line but it wasn\'t TG\'s fault just had to swing for the fences because I got too far behind.  

It was my first time there and what an eye opener it was..I walked in there with the TG Sheets and Brisnet past performances and everyone else had computer programs and sheets cranking out key plays for them.  I definitely learned a lot and can\'t wait to qualify again next year...but it looks like i\'m going to have to learn one of these computer programs to complement the TG sheets and form as their results have been too good to ignore the past couple of years.  If anyone has any suggestions of what programs works well in conjunction with the sheets please let me know as I don\'t have a clue about this stuff.

As far as qualifiers, I got in through NHC qualify\'s online contest last year.  It is an okay contest but the fact that there is an entrance fee but no prize money if you win and you still have to pay for your flight to Vegas leaves a bad taste in your mouth afterward.  Try to participate in as many contests as you can.  You just need it to be that one day where everything you touch turns to gold and you\'ll increase your chances of that happening if you play alot of contests.  I will mostly play the online contests as it\'s too tough to find time to spend at the track for a day.

Later

[TGJB]

What \"computer programs\" are you referring to?

[Lost Cause]

I saw alot of people using different ones but a couple of the Thorograph guys were talking about HTR and then the winner came on and mentioned HTR and then after research I saw that a couple of people placed pretty well in the contests using HTR...I have never even heard of HTR before so I was hoping it was something that would supplement TG in a contest environment or any program that would work well with TG in that environment.  I think what i\'m looking for is something to \"handicap\" and eliminate races in a contest that offer no value without me having to do that in the limited time I would have in a contest so that I could concentrate on those races that did offer value.

[TGJB]

I think you need to mention HTR a couple more times.

As far as I know that\'s a service that deals with pace. We have something interesting coming on that front in a month or so. As far as we know it has never been done before, but I could be wrong about that, not being a pace guy.

[Lost Cause]

LOL...Sorry Jerry,
Not trying to push their product as I don\'t even know what they are or how effective it is...
Can\'t wait to try out your new product.

[fkach]

Looking forward to the new product.