Friday, January 28, 2005
RICHARD ENG: Handicapping tournament out of gate quickly
Michael Gaughan
Chairman of Coast Casinos, which is holding Horseplayer World Series
Coast Casinos chairman Michael Gaughan has 768 new best friends in The Orleans this week for the first Horseplayer World Series.
An ambitious project, the HWS has raised the bar for big money horse handicapping tournaments. The 768 represent the number of players who either qualified or bought in for the $1,000 entry fee. The prize pool is $769,000; first place is worth $384,000.
"We're really pleased," Coast race book director Bob Gregorka said. "A couple months ago we started to have our doubts, but it picked up a lot in the last six weeks."
The goal was to have 1,000 horseplayers at $1,000 apiece to create a prize pool of $1 million for the inaugural HWS. The recruitment of horseplayers began in April, and while that might sound like enough time, Coast was behind the eight ball.
"No excuses," Gregorka said. "We had a group that was going to bring in 200 to 300 players from South America and Europe, but that didn't happen. I think we would have made our goal otherwise."
No player is going to hold Gregorka's feet to the fire because the prize money is less than $1 million. Day 1 of the three-day tournament, which concludes on Saturday, ran smooth. There were plenty of long-shot winners making the scores high.
"Everyone's telling me we're going to make 1,000 entries next year," Gregorka said
The HWS has gotten the Coast name worldwide publicity.
"It enhanced everything we do at The Orleans and our three other properties," Gregorka said. "I can see the numbers making sense, and we're going to make it even better."
The HWS followed the National Handicapping Championship last week at Bally's.
"The weekend before the Super Bowl turned out to be a good time to have this," Gregorka said. "We filled hotel rooms for the company, so this looks like the best weekend to have it next year, too."
The big question is, will there be a HWS II?
"Yes, absolutely," Gregorka said. "Right now this looks to be the best tournament we've ever thrown."
