Red Rock Welcomes the Return of NHC
The Red Rock Casino and Resort is located in Las Vegas. The picturesque mountains create an atmosphere for relaxation, privacy and entertainment. The resort offers guests luxurious activities such as spa treatments and pool side cabanas, and for the restless guests looking for action, there is gambling, white water rafting and the NTRA National Handicapping Championship.
The Daily Racing Form/NTRA National Handicapping Championship took place at Red Rock Casino and Resort on the 25th and 26th of January 2008. It was an extraordinary success and the NTRA have already confirmed that the tenth Daily Racing Form/NTRA National Handicapping Championship will return to the Red Rock Casino on the 23rd and the 24th of January 2009. With two hundred and seventy-eight handicappers that took part in this year’s NTRA National Handicapping Championship, it is estimated the approximately a hundred thousand racing enthusiasts will be trying to qualify for the 2009 event.
The National Handicapping Championship is an event that takes place over the time period of a year. Racecourses, off-track betting establishments, handicapping websites, horse racing websites and casino racebooks host local tournaments that have been sanctioned by the NTRA. The top three qualifiers of each establishment are then sent to partake in the national finals at Red Rock.
The qualifiers vary from long time horse racing bettors, weekend handicappers, tournament regulars, professional gamblers and lucky novice punters. The winner of the tournament not only receives the title of “DRF/NTRA Handicapper of the Year”, but goes home with $500 000. The total prize money that is offered by the NTRA for the National Handicapping Championship is estimated at $1 million. The tournament requires handicappers to make fifteen $2 place wagers a day, and one $2 winning wager. Players are allowed to select seven races of their choice from the tracks deemed eligible for the tournament and eight races are selected by officials. All payoffs are capped and wagers made are only permitted to be placing wagers and winning wagers. That means that only one horse may be selected per race. All wagers must be placed by post time, and if a selected horse is scratched, handicappers must select another horse from that race. The champion handicapper is determined by the combined mutuel payoff amount that is received from the thirty wagers placed across the two day championship. If there is a tie, the player who selected the most winning horses throughout the duration of the championship is declared the winner.
Red Rock Casino hopes that next year’s National Handicapping Championship will be even more successful than this year. It is where the best of the best will come together again to face off on a national level.
