Day 3 - Pick the Ponies & the Winner IS:

 "Pick the Ponies" horse handicapping tournament at the Las Vegas Hilton completed day 2 on Friday with another day of relatively short odds.  Average Day 3 winning total is $10,552 with today's winner only reaching $6,895 which again is a new record LOW (old record low was $ 7,470) for Day 3 of the 16 contests that I have participated in the past 11 years.

The overall 3 day tournament total was close to the average over the past 11 years of $18,440.  This years top 3 finishers were:

# 148 Mandanrino $ 17,835
#   49 Minton          $ 15,070
#   47 Panaggio       $ 13,980

The 30th and final money prize went to:

#15  Chin $8,935

Given that each entry was given $ 9,000 in hypothetical money at the beginning of the 3 day contest, two people earned prize money for not even breaking even on their contest bets.  First time in my 11 years that this has occurred.

HRT411 earned only ~$2,000 on Friday for a 3 day total of $7,000 to finish in the top 70 but out of the money.

As usual, it was a great contest hosted at the Hilton by Rosemary, Jay and their staff.

Thanks and see everyone next May !!!!

Day 2 - Pick the Ponies

RETURN to "Normal"

 "Pick the Ponies" horse handicapping tournament at the Las Vegas Hilton completed day 2 on Thursday with a more "normal" contest day after a record chalk day 1.  A number of long shots were scored including a 36-1 horse at Churchill in the slop.

The 3 Daily Price winners were:

#51  - $9,650
#131 - $9,545
#136 - $8,825

Average for Day 2 over the past 10 years has been $8,577.

Cumulative leader after day 2 is #148 with a total of $12,305

HRT411 collected just over $4,000 to move into the top 100.  Need a big day on Friday to get in the money.


Day 3 of Pick the Ponies is always exciting as contestants "swing for the fences" on long shots in an effort to catch the leaders.


Pick the Ponies XLIV Friday session includes the 5 races from the Breeders Cup  (schedule HERE) from Churchill Downs.

DAY 1 - Pick The Ponies - Las Vegas Hilton – November 2-4, 2011

Chalk Rules !!! 

Day One is in the books (or trash depending on your perspective!!!)

Today's tracks of CD, DEL, HAW, LRL were the chalkiest of all tracks that I have seen in my 10+ years at Pick the Ponies.  The longest pay I saw was 21.00 to win.

Stats for day 1 were:

1st   $ 4,820

2nd  $ 4,440

3rd  $  4.060

To provide some context, the 14 contest that I have entered over the past 10 years and have stats for the AVG day 1 #s were:

1st  $ 8,407

2nd $ 7,273

3rd  $ 7,040

So nearly 50% of the normal totals of day 1.  Remember that Pick the Ponies is a $100 WPS contest, so every contestant wagered  $3,000 in the 10 races they bet.

Congrats to the daily prize winners contest #s of 49, 5, 148 who won $2,500, 1,500 and 1,000 respectively.

Good Luck to the other 165 contestants who have a chance in Days 2 & 3.  (Even the 25 entries who were shut out on Day 1)

BTW - HRT411 had less than $500 in day one but is ready for day 2 !!! Longshot systems do not always work :-(

BTW 2 - Rule 3 in Prep - Mindset - had a great time with Magic and Mona tonight !!!