Shurman closing in on his second NHC Tour title

With a win in a Santa Anita $500 live-bankroll contest last weekend, National Horspelayers Championship Hall of Fame horseplayer Paul Shurman has inched closer to his latest goal of becoming the first two-time winner of the National Horseplayers Championship Tour. Just don’t try to tell him he’s a lock.

“I have a healthy lead,” said Shurman, “but there are a lot of good players out there and any one of them could put together a few good weeks and pass me.”

If you told Shurman after he won the Tour in 2011 that he’d be on the chase again seven years later, he wouldn’t have believed you.

“When I won, I swore I’d never do it again,” he said. “It was so draining and it came right down to the end, but the Tour chose me again.”

The last part of that quote references the famous, oftquoted Ross Gallo line about the Tour: You don’t choose it, it chooses you. Shurman’s story in 2018 is a typical example. It started innocently enough in early summer, when Shurman realized he was within spitting distance of finishing in the top five on the Tour for its first-half prizes. He accomplished that goal, winning his Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge seat in the process.

“At that point, I thought if I win something, maybe I’ll go for the Tour,” he said. “A week later, I won the Saratoga contest and now I’m stuck.”

A few weeks after that he accrued major points in the Del Mar online contest, finishing sixth among players who were registered for the Tour.

“Then I knew I was really stuck,” Shurman said.

True to the concept of the Tour, Shurman has now gotten points from coast to coast at such major venues as Saratoga, Del Mar, Keeneland, Monmouth, and Santa Anita.

“I don’t know what else I can do,” he said, “and if someone passes me, they’ll deserve to win.”

If he does get run down, it’s likely that his competition will do well in next weekend’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge. There’s only one player who can catch Shurman with a BCBC win alone, his nearest pursuer Karen Carey, a player he admires. Shurman will be firing away as well at the BCBC, and he doesn’t rule out the possibility of “laying up” for Tour points that might cement the win for him.

“It depends on where everyone is,” he said. “But it would be something to win that tournament.”

It wasn’t long ago when livebankroll events were considered a weakness in Shurman’s game. Over the last few years, as live-bank events have supplanted mythical-money contests nearly everywhere, he’s adjusted successfully.

He described the difference in how he plays: “I used to try to just pass through races looking to bet big in one of the last two. I’d try to keep as much money as I could by betting 4-5 shots to show. I’ve changed the strategy, especially when I have multiple entries. One entry I play as I would normally play at the races, trying to hit big. But I try to save one entry to have enough in the last race to come in first.”

Shurman has had success on what you might call his main tickets throughout live-bank contests.

“A few years ago in the Derby contest at Churchill, I played exactas, trifectas, and doubles,” he said. “Previously, I wouldn’t have made those plays so early because I would have been afraid to lose my bankroll. Now, I’m more apt to play as I would normally play – playing the horse who I like – and I’ll still always have something left at the end.”

For Shurman, the key difference between mythical play and live-bank play is the type of horses he’s looking for.

“In the mythical-money tournaments, you are looking for value,” he said. “You’re using your angles to find a 10-1 that should be 4-1 and avoiding horses who are 3-1 that should be 10-1.”

He added that he still believes you should play shorter prices when you have the overwhelming belief that they won’t lose. These types of “locks” become much more of his focus in livebank play.

“In live bankroll you’re looking for winners and then you’re looking for how to play those winners,” he said. “I’m not looking for medium-priced horses or high-priced horses in live bankroll tournaments, though I’ll take them if I see them. I’m looking for horses that I like and ways to hook them up with other horses to get the total I need.”

The adjustments have worked well for Shurman, who is looking to rewrite his own NHC Hall of Fame plaque.

◗ It’s a quiet weekend in the world of racing, but there are still qualifying opportunities for contest players on DRF Tournaments. Saturday’s featured game gives players a chance to win into the Del Mar Fall Challenge, and Sunday there are spots on offer for the Santa Anita Closing Day Challenge and the Horse Player World Series. Also, be on the lookout for feeders for next weekend’s Pegasus World Cup Betting Championship Qualifier. For all the information, go to tournaments.drf.com.