Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2001 | 10:25 a.m.
Jeff Haney's sports betting column appears Wednesday. Reach him at 259-4041 or [email protected]
The race and sports book at the MGM Grand this weekend promises to quiver with the type of horse racing electricity most often associated with the Breeders' Cup or Kentucky Derby day.
Some 204 of the world's most talented -- and luckiest -- horseplayers will be competing for $212,000 in prize money Friday and Saturday in the Daily Racing Form/NTRA National Handicapping Championship.
Luck plays a role due to the unique structure of the championship event's qualifying process. Organizers liken the tournament to golf's U.S. Open, in that just about anyone can make the big show as long as he does well in a regional qualifier.
Entrants advanced to the championship by way of 90 sanctioned handicapping tournaments conducted by 51 hosts -- usually racetracks or betting parlors -- throughout the nation.
The winner will be named "DRF/NTRA Handicapper of the Year," an honor that carries a grand prize of $100,000. With that kind of money at stake, you can make a strong case that some of the tournament's crucial races are the real most exciting two minutes in sports.
"It can get wild and crazy in there," said Dave Tuley, Las Vegas correspondent for the Daily Racing Form. "The rules say that certain races have to be bet on by everyone (in the contest), and those are the races that seem to get the whole place going crazy."
Representing Las Vegas in the championship will be 59-year-old Guy Vitale, manager of a local check-cashing store. Vitale became the final contestant to qualify when he placed second in the Del Mar Surfside tournament last Dec. 17.
Vitale, a longtime horseplayer, finished third in a major 1983 tournament held at Caesars Palace.
Another Nevadan competing for the title is Jim Roberts of Jackpot. He qualified through a tournament held by the American Quarter Horse Association.
The MGM held two qualifiers itself last year, highlighted by the $197,000 Surf & Turf III tournament in August, won by Massimo Reynaud of Milan, Italy. He's expected back for the national finals.
Tuley is one of five "players" on the Las Vegas team that will compete in the National Media Handicapping Championship for charity. The media contest runs concurrently with the main event.
The winning media team will earn $10,000 for charity, with half donated to NTRA Charities and the other half to the players' designated charity.
"Team Vegas" is captained by Lauren Stich, the Daily Racing Form's pedigree handicapping columnist who is based in Las Vegas, and also includes Tuley and local journalists Ralph Siraco, Rich Eng and Chuck DiRocco.
The Las Vegas squad will be going up against three other media teams featuring such prominent racing journalists as Steven Crist (Daily Racing Form editor and publisher) and Mike Watchmaker (DRF national columnist).
"It's good exposure, good for the charities, and hopefully I can pick some winners," Tuley said.
Now it appears President-elect George W. Bush's Attorney General-nominee, John Ashcroft, may have it in for gambling interests as well.
That's the kind of attitude veteran sports analyst Wayne Root wants to fight -- as a Republican member of Congress.
Root has announced a plan to run for the U.S. Senate or House of Representatives in Nevada in the next five years.
"My ultimate goal is to join John Ensign in the Senate representing Nevada and fighting for the gaming industry and in support of legalized sports wagering," Root said.
"Nevada and the gaming industry desperately need not only passionate and persuasive political spokespersons to fight on behalf of sports gambling, but Republican leaders who can successfully fight as part of the majority party in Washington."
Root also is against a ban on Internet gambling. He even suggests legalizing sports betting in states other than Nevada, and putting the tax revenue it generates toward the American education system.
Root believes that by attacking sports betting, Republicans are alienating one of their most loyal and reliable constituencies.
"Over a million sports bettors called me for my advice in the decade of the '90s ... No one understands sports bettors better than me," Root said. "And the vast majority are college-educated, professional or entrepreneurial males, risk-oriented, earning over $50,000 a year -- the very definition of Republican voters."
Intertops says it expects to accept more than 125,000 bets on the Jan. 29 Super Bowl -- an increase over the 100,000 it took on last year's Super Bowl. It also expects to take 350,000 individual wagers on this year's NCAA men's basketball tournament.
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