The Horseplayers Association of North America’s (HANA) harness racing division, in association with the Hambletonian Society, Meadowlands Racetrack, Tioga Downs, and Vernon Downs, is pleased to announce 'The Pen vs. The Chip – The Road to the Breeders Crown Handicapping Challenge.'
This handicapping contest pits four ‘Pen’ (regular) handicappers against four ‘Chip’ (computer program) handicappers involving selected race cards of various tracks across North America. The contest will end with the Breeders Crown, this year held at Woodbine Racetrack.
“HANA Harness is pleased to be presenting The Pen vs. The Chip Challenge this year,” said HANA President Jeff Platt. “We’ve decided to have the competition feature [stakes] races which will be on the road to the Breeders Crown. Since many racetracks put together strong race cards to support these [stakes] races, racing fans should have quality competitive races to wager on. With many of these tracks having guaranteed pools, we hope our thoroughbred and quarter-horse members and others will take advantage of the opportunity to see some of the best harness racing available. I would also like to thank our main sponsor, the Hambletonian Society, Meadowlands Racetrack, Tioga Downs, Vernon Downs, and our associate sponsors who have committed to making donations to standardbred horse rescue groups as part of the challenge.”
The Hambletonian Society, Meadowlands Racetrack, Tioga Downs, and Vernon Downs are main sponsors, with associate sponsorships being provided thus far by the Delaware County Fair, Grand River Raceway, Harrington Raceway, Illinois Harness Horsemen’s Association, Indiana Downs, and Woodbine Entertainment. Additional sponsors may be announced at a later date.
"The Hambletonian Society is happy to co-sponsor this HANA contest, as it includes several important Grand Circuit events that lead up to the $6-million Breeders Crown at Woodbine,” said Moira Fanning, director of publicity for the Hambletonian Society. “We may also finally settle the question as to whether handicapping is an art or a science, and benefit retired standardbreds as well.”
Representing the ‘Pen’ handicappers are professional handicapper Scott Alberg; Matt Keller, otherwise known as Mr. Trifecta; Mark McKelvie, son of WEG Standardbred Race Secretary Scott McKelvie, who has participated in numerous handicapping contests; and Bob Zanakis, who also handicaps many tracks.
Representing the ‘Chip’ handicappers are Bob 'Pandy' Pandolfo who uses the Diamond System Computer Handicapping System and offers his selections here; Earl Paulson, also known as 'Earl the Pearl,' a former handicapper for Sports Eye who developed a computer program he has been tweaking over the last 20 years. Paulson runs an online harness racing group at [email protected]; Ray Schell, who posts his selections daily here as 'Rays Robots;' Trackmaster’s Chatsworth Consortium which is available here.
The winner of the competition will have a donation made in their name to a standardbred rescue group of their choice. Some tracks will be making donations in the name of the overall winner of the dates at their track to a local standardbred rescue group.
The challenge kicks-off on April 28 at Yonkers Raceway when the final of the George Morton Levy Memorial Series is contested. The contest will continue on with additional stops at Balmoral Park, Delaware County Fair, Flamboro Downs, Freehold Raceway, Georgian Downs, Grand River Raceway, Harrah’s Chester Downs, Harrington Raceway, Hazel Park, Indiana Downs, Meadowlands, The Meadows, Mohawk Racetrack, Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs, Northfield Park, The Raceway at Western Fair District, The Red Mile, Red Shores Charlottetown, Rideau Carleton, Tioga Downs, Vernon Downs, Woodbine Racetrack, and Yonkers Raceway.
A complete list of contest dates, rules, results and standings may be found here.
(HANA)