Chris Revington from London, Ont., picked the second-place finisher in each of the last two races of the 12 races from Cal Expo en route to victory in Saturday's (Feb. 15) USTA qualifier for the World Harness Handicapping Championship.
Revington earned $7.00 in the last two races, giving him a $5.60 win over runner-up Rich Nilsen, who led after the first nine races of the contest before being shut out in the last three on the card.
The majority of Revington’s winning bankroll was earned when he maxed out at $64 ($42 to win and $22 to place) on 23-1 longshot No. 5 Majestic Lass in the seventh race. Although the winner’s actual mutuel payoffs were $47.40, $24.20, the contest limits win to 20-1 and place to 10-1.
Third-place finisher Gerald Duncan, $107, staged a furious rally by selecting the winners of the last four races in the contest to boost his earnings by $51.60, but was too far back of the top two. A total of 757 entered the contest, hosted at horsetourneys.com.
With his victory, Revington earned a free berth ($800 value) to the $60,000 World Harness Handicapping Championship (WHHC), which will be held at the Meadowlands on Saturday (April 19). He is the first Canadian resident to win a USTA qualifier in the two years since they started.
The next two contests in the series of 10 USTA Free, Online Qualifiers to the WHHC will take place with the first 12 races from Buffalo Raceway on Friday, Feb. 21 (first post - 6:40 p.m. EST) and Pompano Park on Saturday, Feb. 22 (first post – 7:05 p.m. EST). Contestants can enter free at horsetourneys.com prior to the start of the first race.
Following are the top 10 finishers in the sixth USTA online qualifier for the 2014 WHHC:
USTA Free, Online WHHC Qualifier 6 – Cal Expo on Feb. 15, 2014
(# - Name - Earnings)
1 - Chris Revington - $116.30
2 - Rich Nilsen - $110.70
3 - Gerald Duncan - $107.00
4 - Bill Wiechec - $106.70
5 - Robert Semeraro - $104.90
6 - Jeff Seegert - $103.40
7 - Kenneth Buck - $98.60
8 - Thomas Glasser - $97.80
T9 - Frank DeKoskie - $96.70
T9 - Tom Spellman - $96.70
Following is the schedule/results with featured racetracks for the 2014 USTA Free, Online WHHC Qualifying Series:
(Date - Track - Winner)
Thursday Jan. 30 - Northfield Park - Gerry Tuzzolino (Shoreview, Minn.)
Friday, Jan. 31 - Meadows - Jeffrey Arnold (Ft. Wayne, Ind.)
Friday, Feb. 7 - Meadowlands - Arthur Nigro (Tuckahoe, N.Y.)
Saturday, Feb. 8 - Yonkers - Rick Arbiter (Kingston, N.Y.)
Thursday, Feb. 13 - Dover Downs - Matt Minger (New Lenox, Ill.)
Saturday, Feb. 15 - Cal Expo - Chris Revington (London, Ont.)
Friday, Feb. 21 - Buffalo Raceway 6:40 p.m.
Saturday, Feb. 22 - Pompano Park 7:05 p.m.
Friday, Feb. 28 - Maywood Park 8:10 p.m.
Saturday, March 1 - Balmoral Park 8:10 p.m.
(USTA)