Hey scores big in DRF tournament

This weekend’s biggest winner on DRF Tournaments was Ernest Hey Jr. He won seats to each day of the Saratoga Betting Challenge, plus a travel bonus, for a total prize worth $3,500 on Saturday. Hey tallied four collections in the 10-race event, which utilized the live format, with the critical one being Sheer Flattery ($58.40) in Santa Anita’s seventh.

Sheer Flattery was no mere stab, though the manner of his victory was a little surprising. Sent off at a huge price of 28-1 off a morning line of just 8-1, the Flatter colt was sent out by the white-hot Jerry Hollendorfer. In previous races, the laterunner had been compromised by various factors, including a tardy start, slow paces, and/ or speed-favoring tracks. This time around he was into the race from the get-go, prevailed in a duel, and drew off for the victory. Four of the 14 players in the qualifier used the horse, but Hey ended up with the win based on his total score of $86.60.

Saturday’s other big qualifier was a nine-runner all-in contest in which a $3,000 seat to the Keeneland Challenge was on the line. No one in that group had Sheer Flattery and as a result the scores were significantly lower. In the end, Cory Hodskins won the seat with a total of $49.10. He needed the $5.50 he got back in Belmont’s 10th to secure the victory over an unlucky Gregg Kingma, who ended up second.

On Sunday on DRFT, Marc Racenstein won his way into Belmont’s Stars and Stripes Challenge. He posted a score of $79.20 in the 10-race contest and was hot throughout, cashing six times. His biggest winners came back to back at Belmont, with Kreesie ($22) and Highland Sky ($23.10) in the sixth and seventh races.

Out at Santa Anita this weekend, there were a trio of contests that attracted fields of players from around the country. Saturday’s event had the biggest buy-in and was won by professional horseplayer Jim Benes, who has turned Santa Anita into his own personal playground since shifting his action to the Great Race Place at the start of this year. Benes’s 2018 contest wins include the Ultimate Betting Challenge, which he won from Santa Anita, the televised Hawthorne Invitational, and now this event, for which he’ll receive more than $45,000 in cash and prizes, including a $12,000 seat to next year’s Pegasus World Cup Betting Championship.

Friday’s $700 contest was won by Timothy Yohler, who got back more than $20,000 in cash and prizes, and Sunday’s $1,500 test went to “The Terminator,” Tony Zhou. Zhou walked away with more than $22,000 all told, but perhaps more importantly, this was Zhou’s first outright win in a live-bank event after many, many close calls, including a deep run at the World Horseplayers’ Tour/Santa Anita Preakness event.

For more information about the Santa Anita contests, including full leaderboards and prizes, go to http://www.santaanita. com/handicapping-contests.

Tournament action returns to DRFT on Wednesday. To see what games are available and to sign up to play, go to tournaments.drf.com.