Alert!

Sunday, January 30, 2011

John Doyle Wins NHC

Photo courtesy the NTRA Facebook page
John Doyle wins the NHC, and the big check, which is really a big check. Congratulations John!

Charlie Davis, a HANA board member, took his shot at the NHC prize this week too (he did great, finishing 33rd). He spoke with John both before and after the competition and found him a great guy. John offered up he was a HANA member and Charlie asked if we might mention that on the blog. He said "sure, and you can tell everyone I use your track ratings spreadsheet all the time too!"

Since we don't have much of a budget, it's nice to get an NHC champ to mention you, even on the blog :)

Charlie was pretty impressed with John's skill . In responding to a comment on a chat board about contests like this being luck, he said:

"I'll tell you what. John was not throwing darts. I spent a lot of time with him this weekend and he did his homework. He watched replays of every horse in the races he was playing, and was able to do things like identify a horse with the chart comment of "tired".  He's an excellent handicapper."

Charlie should have a write up soon here. He thoroughly enjoyed himself. He thought Steve Crist and Alex Waldrop's speeches were terrific and thanked them for being a part of this great weekend. It looks like the purse for next year might be up again, with a long-term vision of growing even more. That is great news for horseplayers, whether you play on the tourney circuit or not.

Congrats again John and if any other members would like to share their experiences at the NHC please do below or via email.

2 comments:

Tom Atwater said...

I was there, and had a great time too. Met up with Charlie and his beautiful wife, Charlie is a great guy.

My first NHC experience. Finished 91st. Would have been 31st if hadn't changed last race pick at last minute. (Yeah, everybody's gotta story ;-)

Great camaraderie, exciting atmosphere, proud just to be there.
I agree Waldrop and Crist are great guys. Ron Geary too, owner of the most horseplayer-friendly track in the world in ElP.

I even blogged about it - nhcxii.blogspot.com - will be providing detailed posts shortly. Took photos too.

Next year!

Picking up Women said...

I'll tell you what. John was not throwing darts. I spent a lot of time with him this weekend and he did his homework.