Nurse scores big at Belmont

Justify wasn’t the only one who made history last Saturday. The moment the white-faced chestnut crossed the finish line to win the Belmont Stakes, Karen Carey became the first woman to hit for six figures in a live-bankroll handicapping tournament with her win in the Belmont Stakes Challenge.

“Every year, I travel to the Belmont Stakes with my sons, and to have this experience during the Triple Crown will definitely go down as one for the ages for us,” she said.

Other women have had success in major tournaments. Judy Wagner won the National Handicapping Championship in 2001, and Cheryl McIntyre won the NHC Tour in 2016.

Carey, 62, is a nurse who lives on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. She qualified for the Belmont contest via the $500 Gotham Stakes Challenge, earning her $10,000 buy-in.

“I am still on cloud nine about the contest,” she said. “It truly has been an incredible tourney series.”

She was introduced to racing as a kid through visits to Monmouth Park with her dad, and she stepped up her involvement when she purchased a home in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., in 2008.

“I have been an avid handicapper since then, and my interest in contests has evolved over the last few years,” she said. “I have to say the enthusiasm for contests on the DRF podcast is why I wanted to get more involved. The information provided there has really helped me getting onboard.”

Carey is a regular on DRF Tournaments and used the platform to qualify for the 2017 Saratoga contest. That whet her appetite for more.

“I had been planning to get really involved starting this year, and what a year it has been!” she said.

In addition to winning the Gotham tournament, she was seventh in the Wood Memorial contest, and now her contest winnings have soared to more than $120,000 on the year.

Carey showed up at Big Sandy with a plan.

“Heading into the tournament, my strategy was to stay in striking distance to try and get to the Met Mile for my biggest play,” she said. “It worked out well as I was able to get to the race with $10,000 and played a large wager through Bee Jersey and Mind Your Biscuits.”

She hit a $110 trifecta that sent her to the lead with about $38,000. She missed in the Manhattan, but so did the rest of the field, and she went to the last race with a tenuous lead. She figured it would take about $70,000 to win, and she was content to finish near the top. She wasn’t going to press to get the top prize.

Carey played trifectas keying Justify and Hofburg. She used second-place finisher Gronkowski, but only as a saver.

“The backup tri got me my money back,” she said. “I was very surprised to see my name on top of the final leaderboard.”

Carey got an assist from two longshots–Spring Quality and Gronkowski. Had Sadler’s Joy won the Manhattan or had the trifecta in the Belmont included a more likely runner in second, it’s extremely likely that someone would have overtaken her for the lead. Last year’s winning total was $100,000 from Faron McCubbins, who was among the many players chasing Carey for the top spot.

Given Carey’s goals, she played brilliantly, and to snag the win outright was icing on the cake. Her tally of $36,571.50 was almost $12,000 ahead of second place. It might have been a lower winning score than expected, but that didn’t make the victory any less impressive – or historic.