The Nationwide Horseplayers Championship (NHC) is the richest and most prestigious annual handicapping match of all. It’s the end result of the NHC Tour, a year-long collection of NTRA-sanctioned contests and tournaments held throughout the US and Canada at racetracks, racebooks, ADW web sites, and match qualifying web sites that ship their prime finishers to the nationwide finals in Las Vegas the place they compete for a prize cash and awards valued in extra of $4 million. The NHC winner can be honored with an Eclipse Award as Handicapper of the 12 months.
Listed below are some information issues each handicapper ought to know in regards to the Nationwide Horseplayers Championship and the NHC Tour.
1) The place and When
The twenty seventh annual NTRA Nationwide Horseplayers Championship will happen on March 13-15, 2026, on the Horseshoe Las Vegas within the middle of the Strip. The venue is the Horseshoe’s 40,000 square-foot Occasions Heart, which serves as host for the seventh straight yr relationship again to when the property was often known as Bally’s. Beforehand the NHC has been held at a number of different Las Vegas areas in its historical past, together with MGM Grand, the Purple Rock, and Treasure Island.
2) How one can qualify
You can not purchase an entry into the NHC. You will need to earn a qualifying berth with a win or excessive end in a contest or contests on the NHC Tour, or accumulate sufficient factors on the NHC Tour to earn a spot. Step one is to grow to be a member of the NHC Tour by going to www.NTRA.com/NHC and signing up. The price of an annual membership is $50 and that entitles you to take part in as many qualifying contests as you want all year long. Many racetracks host handicapping tournaments, however the majority of qualifying now takes place on-line on match web sites reminiscent of HorsePlayers.com and HorseTourneys.com.
3) What occurs while you qualify?
NHC Tour members can earn as much as two seats within the NHC Finals. The variety of NHC Tour members is within the 1000’s however solely roughly 600 particular person gamers accounting for over 800 entries will comprise the sector for the NHC finals in Las Vegas. The NHC finals is an in-person-only occasion and gamers can’t take part remotely, so all of these 600 finalists must make their strategy to Las Vegas annually. As a perk to all qualifiers, each participant receives a complementary lodge room on the host property all through the match and qualifying areas and web sites present their winners with journey allowances to pay for flights. The NHC lodge and journey awards a part of the prize pool at the moment exceeds $1 million.
4) Is it too late to take part within the 2026 NHC?
The subsequent finals of the NHC are quick approaching on March 13-15, but it surely’s nonetheless not too late to qualify. NHC Tour memberships could be bought year-round and tournaments are regularly being hosted on-line that may get you certified for the upcoming NHC till March 6. Racetracks together with Gulfstream Park, Monmouth Park, Santa Anita Park, Laurel Park, Lone Star Park, Sam Houston Race Park, Oaklawn Park, and Tampa Bay Downs will host last-chance tournaments. Event entry charges can go as excessive as $1,000 or extra, however extra economical alternatives nonetheless exist to play for a qualifying spot for as little as $75.
When you nonetheless haven’t made it into the sector when the NHC rolls round, you continue to may have one last mega probability to get into the finals by taking part in within the NHC Final Probability/First Probability Contest on the eve of the NHC, dwell at Horseshoe Las Vegas. The NHC Final Probability/First Probability on March 12 prices $600 to enter and will likely be one of many largest handicapping tournaments of the yr in its personal proper with as many as 1,000 entries anticipated to compete for money prizes in addition to an estimated 45 last out there qualifying berths into both the 2026 or 2027 finals of the NHC.
5) NHC purse and prize construction
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The NHC is famend for its large purse construction and massive payouts to a lot of gamers annually. The purse of the 2026 NHC once more will exceed $4 million, together with prize cash paid to the highest finishers on the NHC Tour. With prize cash like that being provided at a handicapping match, plus an Eclipse Award, it’s no marvel why so many horseplayers assign a lot precedence to qualifying into the NHC yr after yr after yr.
The NHC is a three-day occasion held from Friday by Sunday. The highest 10% of gamers within the NHC finals after the primary two days of the match will make the minimize and advance to play within the Sunday morning spherical that cuts the sector down once more to the ultimate 10. Each participant nonetheless taking part in on Sunday is assured not less than a $10,000 money prize that will increase on a sliding scale with extra money paid out for every larger putting all the best way as much as $50,000 for eleventh place.
Eventually yr’s 2025 finals of the NHC, the whole subject was barely greater than 800 entries, so the highest 80 scorers all made the minimize and earned not less than $10,000 apiece. The highest 10 scorers advance to the Remaining Desk to battle it out for the actually massive bucks. First place in 2025 paid $825,000, with $250,000 for second, $200,000 for third, $150,000 for fourth, $125,000 for fifth, $90,000 for sixth, $85,000 for seventh, $80,000 for eighth, $75,000 for ninth, and $65,000 for tenth. All gamers that don’t make the minimize advance to a separate Sunday start-over match with a $100,000 purse.
6) The principles of the sport
The NHC is a conventional legendary money-style handicapping match. Entrants try to accumulate the very best pari-mutuel winnings by making a combination of 15-18 day by day optionally available and obligatory $2 win-and-place bets a day on the races from a number of of the season’s prime racetracks reminiscent of Aqueduct, Honest Grounds, Gulfstream Park, Oaklawn Park, Santa Anita, and extra. It’s common for NHC gamers to search out themselves handicapping 70 or 80 races a day to search out their performs. Most of the most profitable gamers within the historical past of the NHC make use of a method of selecting primarily longshots.
7) The NHC scene
The Nationwide Horseplayers Championship is greater than only a handicapping match. It’s an annual occasion that brings collectively critical horseplayers from throughout North America for a weekend of having fun with our favourite pastime. It’s a probability for horseplayers to immerse themselves in an electrical setting surrounded by individuals who share their ardour for horse racing and playing, the place handicappers renew friendships and acquaintances and benefit from the camaraderie of people that share the identical pastime. The match room is a hive of kinetic exercise surrounded by large screens devoted solely to horse racing from tracks all around the nation.
The match itself is the centerpiece of an occasion that encompasses far more than simply taking part in the races. Finalists are handled to a welcome cocktail social gathering on Thursday night time and the entire occasion wraps up with an awards banquet dinner on Sunday. In between, gamers get pleasure from complimentary breakfasts and lunches Friday by Sunday, free Each day Racing Types and different handicapping supplies, and various swag from the NTRA as part of their welcome packet. Gamers can browse the newest choices of a number of exhibitors and sponsors of the occasion, together with Racetrack Tv Community (TRN), Equibase Race Lens, the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance, and extra. Nationwide horse racing media can be readily available together with dwell feeds and taped segments from Steve Byk On the Races and the group at America’s Greatest Racing.
The Nationwide Horseplayers Championship is without doubt one of the nice showpieces concerned within the sport of horse racing. Whether or not you set it in your annual calendar or in your bucket listing, you’ve received to be in it so as to win it. In case you are a horseplayer and you aren’t on the NHC, you’re lacking out on a really particular annual occasion.
