When Bob Zanakis scored a net profit of $521.60 on Saturday night’s TVG FFA Series at Meadowlands Racing & Entertainment, followers of the 2014 HANA Harness Grand Circuit Handicapping Shoot-Out Contest may have thought this weekend was going to be more of the same with the usual leaders performing the best.
They would have been wrong.
For on Sunday, Josi Verlingieri, who was lingering near the bottom for most of the contest thus far, made a statement of ‘Not so fast, boys’ by scoring a net profit of $1,164.50 on Sunday’s card at Harrah’s Philadelphia thanks to a $2 Superfecta Box of four horses in the Betsy Ross FFA Mares Pace which paid $1,496.40.which brought her contest-to-date net profit to $267.80, moving her from 14th to sixth place.
In a week where the cards were shuffled on the standings, Brandon Valvo returned to the top of the leaderboard with the second and third place handicappers being within $50 of the leader.
Some of the big hits this weekend were by Sally Hinckley, $60 Show bet on Thinking Out Loud paying $120 in the TVG Series; Earl Paulson, $75 Place bet on Rocklamation in the Betsy Ross paying $240; Brandon Valvo, $250 Win on Sweet Lou in the TVG Series paying $425; Josi Verlingieri, $48 (total) in a Superfecta box tickets on the Betsy Ross paying $1,496.40; Bob Zanakis, $126 in Trifecta bets on the TVG Series race grossing $771.60.
The shuffling of the standings shows the contest standings as being:
This coming week, the contest stakes action picks up beginning with Friday night’s $150,000 Molson Invitational (The Raceway at Western Fair District), Saturday night’s $150,000 Somebeachsomewhere (Mohawk Racetrack), $150,000 Lismore and $300,000 Art Rooney Pace (Yonkers Raceway), and Sunday afternoon’s $200,000 Roll With Joe (Tioga Downs).
(With files from HANA)