Columnist Ralph Siraco: World’s best handicappers to battle for title at MGM

Ralph Siraco

Monday, Jan. 3, 2000 | 10:06 a.m.

Ralph Siraco's horse racing column appears Monday, and his Southern California selections run Tuesday through Friday on the scoreboard page. Write to him c/o Las Vegas Sun, 800 S. Valley View, Las Vegas, NV 89107.

When it comes to gaming, Las Vegas is always looked upon as the benchmark for the best, the biggest, the most and the greatest of anything in the business. It has always been the place for innovation and re-invention of the industry.

Horse racing has utilized Las Vegas as a proving ground for many of its innovations throughout the years. If it's right in the gaming capital of the world, they say, then it will work anywhere. Las Vegas, after all, is the Broadway of Gaming.

It was back in the early 1980s that this gaming town became the first real off-track betting center of racing with the advent of satellite television. Simulcasts soon went from "entertainment only" bookmaking signals to co-mingled wagering programs featured on giant video screens. Las Vegas quickly became a wagering pot of gold for racetracks around the country that beamed their product into the city's expanding race books. Soon, handicapping tournaments sprouted up to attract horseplayers from around the world to this desert simulcast smorgasbord. And again, Las Vegas paved the way for a multitude of tournaments throughout the country.

From the early days of Mike Lavine's World Handicapping confabs to the largest handicapping tournament in the world, now held twice a year at The Orleans hotel-casino under the direction of Coast Resorts race book director Robert "Muggsy" Muniz, handicapping tournaments have become a staple on the racing terrain.

When the National Thoroughbred Racing Association was launched two years ago, one of its missions was to expand customer-interactive activities that would create a larger fan base and provide a wide range of participation throughout its member tracks.

A goal was to bring people from all over the country together in competition -- like the Las Vegas tournaments do.

That mission will be realized by sunset Saturday when the first Daily Racing Form/NTRA National Handicapping Championship is completed at the MGM Grand race and sports book.

The inaugural Daily Racing Form National Handicapping Championship will culminate a season-long series of sanctioned events in the most ambitious horseplayers tournament ever conducted. And the winner of the two-day finals competition will be crowned the "Daily Racing Form/NTRA Handicapper of the Year" with a trophy presentation at thoroughbred racing's annual Eclipse Awards dinner on January 17 at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif.

The field for the competition has been whittled down to 160 finalists from more than 45,000 participants who contested in 58 sanctioned qualifiers over 40 sites in the United States and Canada spanning May through December of 1999.

The events were conducted by racetracks, off-track betting centers, casino race books -- including two in Las Vegas -- and a handicapping website.

And the cross-section of players is as diverse as the places they competed to get here.

If there is such a thing as the creme de la creme of thoroughbred racing horseplayers, then it will be at the MGM Friday and Saturday as they vie for the total prize monies of $200,000. The field runs the gamut from top professional horseplayers and tournament veterans to weekend handicappers and novice fans.

The unique cross section of participants includes a 27-year-old housewife from California and a 68-year-old woman who is a retired preschool teacher from Massachusetts. More than 20 of the finalists are women, including eight who won their qualifying tournaments. The event will also feature a 65-year-old blind man who, with his son, won at Canterbury Park in Minnesota in the very first tournament he played.

Las Vegas will also be represented by the winners of the two qualifiers held in the Silver State. The team of players who won the "Surf & Turf" contest at the host book MGM is comprised of Ed Basch, who lives in Las Vegas, Craig Kaufman, Ross Long and Terry Nolan. Three of the four who won their way into the field from the free contest at The Orleans race book are Las Vegas residents. They are Norma Carroll, Frank Lafemina and Pedro Mazza, who join the other Orleans qualifier Solomon Feingold.

But there are two other Las Vegans who will have rooting sections when they saddle up for the showdown.

Raymond Tannahill migrated from Colt's Neck, N.J., where Delaware Park was his "home" track for years. So, taking years of handicapping the mid-Atlantic circuit as an edge, Ray flew back to that track's qualifier and came back home a winner.

The Orleans race and sports book will be flying the flag for its own Michael Markham. It seems the property's sports book supervisor is an avid racing fan. In order to try his handicapping hand, Mike drove five hours to the Southern California qualifier at Fairplex Park, in Pomona, Calif., after working his 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift just in time to participate and qualify for the chance to win the $100,000 first-place prize.

In addition to the winners, three other qualifiers from the 40 tournament sites comprise the field of 160 and will be playing not only for the individual honor but also in a separate team competition with the top finishing foursome splitting a first prize of $20,000.

The rules are simple and you can't buy your way into the tournament. You must have qualified to play. Each individual must place a mythical $2 win and $2 place bet on 20 races each day. Ten mandatory races are selected by the Daily Racing Form panel and 10 are selected by the player from the eligible tournament race tracks. The winner will be determined by total pari-mutuel payoff amounts.

Race fans in town can stop by the MGM race and sports book to watch and cheer the players.

In true Las Vegas style, for those who don't make the cut this weekend there will be another tournament right around the corner. The Orleans National Handicapping Challenge will be held March 9-12 at The Orleans. Entry is $500 for a chance at a $100,000 or more first-place prize. And in true Las Vegas style, there will be a diverse and eclectic field of competition. Maybe even a turf writer-radio host-producer-lifelong racing fan-horseplayer -- and all around sick sports nut.