We entered the new Grade One Racing Saratoga Del Mar 2010 handicapping contest, run over the weekend of July 31 – August 1.
We finished 2nd out of 166 participants – and won the $750 prize for finishing second!
(click the Top 50 Handicappers tab on the above page to see Tom’s login tomath2o with his handsome photo 😉
This contest was offered to publicize the excellent new Grade One Racing website, and had no entry fee, with $5000 total cash prizes.
Tom signed up for our one login, and 8 different viewers ARVed the 10 races, with all races having 2 ARV sessions done for them. Tom judged all 20 races, in addition to the viewers’ self-judging. Tom did no logical handicapping for this contest – there wasn’t any time to do so if he had wanted to, what with administration and judging 20 sessions.
Tom did his usual Preparation, which he knows was a key to his successful judgings.
Our biggest win was in the 3rd contest race, Sat. July 31, 7th at Saratoga, won by ARCODORO at a huge 44-1 (capped at 30-1 in the contest). Joanie Sullivan and Patsy Posey viewed this race, with Tom judging Joanie’s the best match (and Patsy’s had matches to it too). A tremendous victory! (And this was Joanie’s 2nd 44-1 winner in a week, amazingly enough!)
We also had a win in the 4th contest race, Sat. 8th at Saratoga, PROVISO at 2-1. Joanie again had the winner on top of her self-judging, Patsy had her ranked 2nd, so it was a no-brained for Tom to judge Proviso on top.
Finally, in Sunday’s contest finale, the 8th at Del Mar (the Bing Crosby Handicap), we had the winner, SMILING TIGER at nearly 8-1. Loraine Connon had the winner on top, Joanie ranked 2nd, while Joanie’s top pick Loraine ranked 2nd, and Tom agreed with all of their judgings. So it was a tough call for Tom making the final prediction – so he followed his intuition, and we all came up with the winner!
Transcripts and winning photosites to follow in a separate post; full contest details are in the G1R SarDmr 2010 document.