This has nothing to do with BD’s question, but I left Las Vegas Sunday thinking handicapping contests are unlike just about everything else in racing, in that they continue to gain in popularity. If you go by what Steve Crist said at the Eclipse awards, this year represented a record number of players and at 120,000, a record number of entries. Those numbers don't include Wednesday's last chance contest, which had more than 150 entries, making it the largest ever. And on Sunday, there were more than 280 different players in the Red Rock Shoot Out, as well as 280 plus entries at a World Series contest taking place at the same time at one of the Coast casinos.
More to the point, although many factors were considered when the Tour was formed, two of our most important goals are directly related to BD’s question: (1) to give already qualified players a reason and incentive to continue to compete; and (2) to thereby expand the chances of qualifying to a greater and even more diverse group of players.
Because of the Tour, for the first time last year players could qualify on points by finishing in the top six if they had not otherwise qualified. Depending on the contests, a single top ten and two top twenty finishes would have been enough this year, and next year the number of Tour members who will qualify on points has been expanded to 10. This expansion, along with the additional spots and online contests, was designed to make joining the 2010 Tour an easy decision for anyone who already has even the slightest interest in qualifying, as well as anyone who is thinking about giving contests a try.
Another more immediate way the Tour has improved the average player’s chances of qualifying is by being “bumped up” because of a top finish by an already qualified Tour player. That happened numerous times this past year, just two examples being when a sixth place finish was enough to qualify at the three spot Kentucky Downs contest and a tenth place finish was enough to get the job done in the last contest of the year at Surfside.
However, the best example is this year’s NHC itself, because neither of the top two finishers would have even been there if it wasn’t for the Tour. Brian Troop qualified last year on points, and this year got bumped up after finishing fourth at Turfway because the first and second place finishers were Tour members who had already qualified. As Brian pointed out at the dinner, he had never won a handicapping contest before and was very happy that he broke his maiden at the NHC.
Second place finisher Bob Gregory is a relative contest newcomer, and only made it to the NHC after finishing sixteenth and being bumped up a spot in the big Twinspires contest. Also, it’s worth noting that although Eric Wing described Bob’s hometown of Durango as a “hotbed” of racing, his accomplishment demonstrates the value of joining the Tour just to participate in the expanded number of online contests, which are open to all Tour players, including those who reside in states which don’t have racing and/or impose idiotic restrictions on ADWs. In other words, you don’t have to travel to qualify, and given the changes to the Tour, I won’t be at all surprised when we crown a Tour Champ who only competed in online contests.
The gentleman who rounded out the tri is Tim Simmons of Lexington, and the fact that Tim qualified in one of the free TVG contests illustrates another important point. Despite what is often claimed on bulletin boards, the reality reflected in actual data in the link below demonstrates that there many more spots awarded in free contests than in “high end” contests.
Although I think it’s fair to say that we’ve accomplished the two goals noted above, the Tour was not financially self-sustaining the first two years, and the changes are designed to both change that and give the players what they’ve said they want. I hope most of you knew about and were among the more than 3,000 players who completed our survey. The results of the survey and the power point presentation which was made to a standing room only crowd Thursday before the cocktail party are available on links at: [
www.ntra.com]
Lest there be any confusion on the matter, dues from Level 1 players will not be used to support the Level 2 cash prize, but will rather cover the cost of the spots, and anything over and above that amount will go directly into next year’s NHC purse.
With one exception, I think that the survey results and power point presentation should answer just about any question you have about the Tour and Levels 1 and 2. However, it’s worth mentioning one factor which isn’t spelled out in any of the materials and I know from questions that some savvy players are already considering.
As the survey results indicate, the most important Tour benefit for the vast majority is that membership dramatically improves your chances of qualifying. One of the benefits of Level 2 membership is a three spot contest limited to just Level 2 members, and it wasn’t until four or five players asked me when that contest would take place that the reason they were asking the question finally dawned on me.
The thinking is that if the contest in question is scheduled to take place late in the year, which it is, it’s entirely possible that more than half of the Level 2 players will already be qualified, so depending on how many Level 2 players sign up, the bottom line is that there’s a good chance the extra $400 to join Level 2 represents a relatively inexpensive way to purchase an entry into a contest with the kind of favorable spots to entry ratio which is more typical in contests with much higher entry fees.
Makes sense to me.
