Handicapping Contest Update

Published: September 22, 2014 11:43 am EDT

With Ray Cotolo’s $1,250 profit on Little Brown Jug Day, it looked very much like he would cruise home to victory this week in HANA Harness’ Grand Circuit Shoot-Out Handicapping Contest.

However, by the end the week’s handicapping action in Quebec, Cotolo was indeed the weekly winner, but his lead had shrunk from $588 to only $105.20 over Dennis O’Hara, as these two handicappers were the only ones to finish the week in the black.

While the finish for weekly honours was tight, Bob Zanakis retains a comfortable lead of $1,039.35 to maintain the overall lead ($2,949.35) over second-place Mark McKelvie ($1,910.00) through 34 legs of the contest. Brandon Valvo ($1,715.00) trails closely behind in third, which rounds out the top three positions where donations are to be made to Standardbred horse rescues on the victors’ behalf.

Jugette Day (Wednesday, September 17) at the Delaware County Fair had Dennis O’Hara lead the handicappers with his daily net profit of $589.80 thanks to his $6 base Superfecta ($240 total) on the Buckette coming in, paying $829.90 which was his sole wager for the day. Second best on Thursday was Josi Verlingieri, whose $410 profit was attributable to a $100 Win ticket on the American-National for two-year-old colt trotters at Balmoral Park which paid a $660 dividend.

Jug Day (Thursday, September 18) saw Cotolo collect the previously mentioned $1,250 return which was earned on a do-or-die $250 win ticket on the second division of the Jug paying a generous $1,500. Sally Hinckley was the only other player with a positive return Thursday ($632) thanks to her $4 trifecta box ($24 total) in the Old Oaken Bucket which returned $882.

With a day off, the contest resumed Saturday night with a septet of races at Hoosier Park plus the Milton Stakes at Mohawk Racetrack. Needless to say, the defeat of Sebastian K took most of the handicappers down, but at the end of day, a lone handicapper had a positive return. Dennis O’Hara led the group with a net profit of $135 for Friday thanks to his $300 investment in $25 Superfectas in the second division of the Kentuckiana Stallion Management stakes for two-year-old pacing fillies which paid $507.50.

To conclude the weekend’s activity, the team of handicappers did battle with the return of the Prix d’Ete at Hippodrome 3R. By the time the curtain came down on Sunday’s action, only two handicappers had a positive return, led by Derick Giwner who had a positive return of $225 thanks to his $150 win wager on Sunfire Blue Chip, who returned $375. The other handicapper with a positive return was Verlingieri, whose $125 profit was attributable to her own $150 win ticket.

The current standings after the completion of the weekend’s activity are:

This week, the racing action is concentrated at the Red Mile with various divisions of the Bluegrass being contested Thursday through Sunday. The only deviation from an all-Lexington weekend comes Saturday with the $200,000 Jim Ert Memorial Invitational at Scioto Downs for pacers four year old and up.

(HANA)

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