Any Seattle-area readers that are interested in attempting to secure a spot in Vegas for the National Handicapping Tournament AND who like to play in live contests, you are in luck.

Emerald Downs will be hosting six one-day tournaments over the next two weeks (Sept. 2nd - Sept. 17th) with the top 5 from each tournament to play in a one-day contest on Sept. 24th.  The winner of the final contest will be off to Las Vegas for the DRF/NTRA National Handicapping Tournament.

Link: Press Release from Emerald Downs

DRF/NTRA National Handicapping Contesst XII Final Standings

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The first mandatory scoring race for today's National Handicapping Contest  takes place at Aqeuduct with race 7 (3:17/12:17  post time).  Below are the mandatory races and the tracks selected for the today's seven optional plays, as provided by the Daily Racing Form (post times are Pacific):

$20+ winners at optional play tracks

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This Friday and Saturday the Red Rock Casino in Las Vegas will host the 12th DRF/NTRA National Handicapping Championship where over 300 horseplayers will compete for total purses of over $1 million with the winner taking home $500,000.  

The contest involves 30 $2 Win/Place wagers over two days - 15 on Friday and 15 on Saturday.  Eight races each day will be mandatory plays with the other seven involving option plays on any of the contest tracks.  Traditionally, the mandatory plays involve races at Aqueduct, Gulfstream, Tampa, Santa Anita and Oaklawn, with races at Golden Gate, Laruel and the Fair Grounds sprinkled in.

Unlike the World Series of Poker, which anyone can play as long as they pay the required buy-in, the NHC is contested solely by players that won a sanctioned qualifying contest throughout the 2010 racing season.  As a result, it's a fairly exclusive tournament.  

Next year's NHC will receive a huge boost in purses next year when first place will be worth $1 million and the total purse is expected to top $2 million.  

The Daily Racing Form will provide coverage of NHC XII, including videos from the Red Rock and updates on their Twitter feed - @DRFInsidePost.  

UPDATE #1: Aqueduct cancels the rest of their card after only three races due to cold weather.  AQU 8 was supposed to be the 3rd mandatory race today at the NHC.  Don't know if they will find a replacement race or just add an optional play.  

UPDATE #2: Official word is one more optional play in place of AQU 8.

UPDATE #3: First leaderboard update and the the gap has closed on the top spot from day 1.

UPDATE #4: Final leaderboard at the NHC is in and day one leader, Brian Troop, holds on to win.  He now holds the title of "DRF/NTRA Handicapper of the Year".  He also just won $500,000.  The title is nice...the cash kicks ass.

There are a bunch of different events taking place in the world of horse racing this Saturday, including a rare graded stake race from Texas.  The Grade 3 - John Connally Turf at Sam Houston is our lone graded stake of the day, and it looks like it could be a pretty good betting race.  A field of twelve will go 1 1/8 miles on the grass led by the 10-Orientate Express, the 4/1 morning line favorite.  

An interesting price play in this spot could be the 11-Pool Play, a Woodbine shipper making just his third start on turf.  Pool Play has been running primarily on the synthetics up in Canada but he appears to fit in with this group and has been displaying some nice form in his last few efforts.  Pool Play is 8/1 on the ML.

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I'm going to use this post to follow the tracks and races involved in the first day of the NHC in Las Vegas.  In addition to the eight mandatory plays, players can play seven optional plays from the same tracks (Aqueduct, Gulfstream, Laurel, Fair Grounds, Santa Anita, and Golden Gate).

So far, the weather looks good at all the tracks; fast and firm.

UPDATE #1: The mandatory plays for Saturday were just released, featuring a turf sprint at Gulfstream, along with two races from the Sunshine Millions - the Filly and Mare Sprint and the Classic.

UPDATE #2: Link to the leaderboard.

UPDATE #3: The first day leader, Brian Troop, finished with a score of $232.60, a single day record at the NHC.  He's about $80 ahead of the the 2nd place player.

The NHC kicks off tomorrow morning in Vegas, which means today is the day that 301 handicappers from around the country check into their hotel rooms and handicap a smörgåsbord of tracks all night long.  Or you hit the craps tables and just wing it in the morning.  I suppose that either way will do.

The tournament has released the list of mandatory races for the 1st day which I have summarized in the table below:  

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