NHC Or Bust–A Decade Later

[Wandering Eyes]

The worst part about my debut at the National Horseplayers Championship in Las Vegas 11 years ago wasn't picking 30 straight losers and finishing dead last. The worst part was agreeing to document the trip for the TDN, so the entire Thoroughbred world got to watch my horseplaying nightmare.

Undeterred, I returned the following year to both the NHC and the pages of the TDN, redeeming myself with a 36th-place finish and collecting $11,200. Since then, I've posted two more in-the-money finishes in seven starts.

As I celebrate my 10th year as an NHC contestant, I'll share share how my approach to the tournament has evolved and why it remains one my favorite event of the year.

The Group Dynamic

When I first qualified for the National Horseplayers Championship, the routine was pretty simple: My best friend Brent Schraff and I would arrive in Vegas, dive into the past performances and start convincing ourselves that this was the year we had it figured out.

However, even with a wingman, the contest itself felt like a pretty solitary, results-obsessed exercise. Me against the past performances. Against the rest of the room. Against my fragile psyche. With prize money the only determinant of success.

A few years ago, my attitude toward the NHC started to change. I began to realize I could consider the trip a win before I even fired my first contest bullet, thanks to the group of friends who had become part of the experience.

With all due respect to 'The Hangover', I now have my own NHC “wolfpack” to share a table with. The group–pieced together by our outspoken friend Justin Dew–has been fueled by regular meet-ups at NHC Tour events and a group text where opinions fly about horses, politics, sports…even marital advice.

Brent is in it, no longer a wingman but a five-time qualifier. We've also got two of the best bettors I know of–last year's fifth-place finisher Dylan Donnelly and 2025 Kentucky Derby Betting Challenge winner Frank Mustari. Throw in NHC Hall of Famer Rich Nilsen and 2019 NHC fifth-place Steve Simonovic, and table talk sounds a lot smarter than what Brent and I were having 10 years ago.

The problem with surrounding yourself with great handicappers is that your own form is impossible to ignore. And I'm one of the coldest horseplayers in America right now.

Sneaking In At The Wire

Qualifying for this year's NHC was an exercise in frustration. I couldn't win a seat anywhere. By Christmas, I still hadn't punched my ticket to Vegas. The only path left was the NHC Tour, where the top 75 non-qualified point earners get an entry.

I was in 83rd and needed only one decent finish to move up. Every weekend, I tried and failed until Feb. 22, which was the last day to score points. I finished eighth of 130 entrants, earning enough points to vault me into the top 75.

And do you want to know how I found out about my accomplishment? The group text.

I was at a charity event that night and not following the results. My phone started blowing up with messages from the crew both celebrating the accomplishment while simultaneously (and rightfully) mocking the struggles I had getting qualified.

But that's the beautiful thing about the NHC: no matter how cold you've been leading up to it, once you sit down in that ballroom, the slate feels clean again.

The Puzzle and The Payoff

When Friday starts, I'm as live to the $800,000 top prize as NHC Tour Champion Dave Nichols, celebrity participants (who earned their way in) Eddie Olczyk and Dave Portnoy, or any of the first-time players experiencing what I wrote about 11 years ago.

The NHC reminds me why I fell in love with this game in the first place. For three days, the conversation isn't about the problems with horse racing, it's about the puzzle and the payoff.

 

• Handicapping races until you can't see straight despite blackjack and craps tables distracting you at every turn.
• Deciding whether the low-priced horse you think can't lose is easy money, or a sucker bet.
• Looking for that “cap horse” the rest of the room overlooked (a horse whose odds exceed the NHC points cap of 20-1 to win and 10-1 to place) and being the only one in the room cheering the longshot in deep stretch.

 

There's a lot of talk about what ails the industry and how to solve it. I hope industry leaders recognize the importance of the degenerate horseplayers who fill that ballroom and love it because of the unique gambling product that it is. Everything that hinders their experience–excessive takeout, short fields, or late odds changes–harms the sport's future.

Staying Balanced

The final key to a good NHC is finding balance and having a strong itinerary away from the tournament.

On Wednesday night, the crew will get together for dinner at Amaya at the Cosmopolitan, where the handicapping conversation will inevitably shift between brilliant insights, wildly overconfident predictions and uncontrollable laughter.

On Thursday we head to T-Mobile Arena to watch my hometown Penguins take on the Golden Knights–which means that we'll go from cheering hard checks on the ice to cursing jockeys for checking in traffic in under 24 hours (Edzo, you're invited).

But then it's back to the ballroom. Back to the PPs. Back to the mandatories and optionals. Back to the possibility that for one magical weekend everything clicks.

And if it doesn't? That's okay, too.

Because I've learned that the NHC isn't just about trying to win the whole thing. It's about the friends you see once a year, the stories that get a little better with each retelling and the eternal racing puzzle that keeps drawing us back.

And if I somehow manage to pick 30 consecutive losers again, at least this time Brent won't be the only one who has to hear about it.

Steve DeCaspers is an executive consultant in the fiber broadband industry and lives in Chicago with his wife Bethany and their dog Popeye. He was an assistant editor at the TDN from 1998 to 2001.

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