Racing Dudes Handicapping Challenge: Halterman vs. Lukas vs. Neulist

Welcome to another week of the Racing Dudes Handicapping Challenge! Each weekend we select 8 to 10 races from around the country and offer up a little handicapping challenge to anyone interested. We’ve received a massive amount of interest to take on the Dudes! So much so that we’ve had to resort to drawing randomly to see who gets to take on our defending champ Mr. Halterman (Dude #1). Everyone will get a shot! And now, we’re adding one more challenger each week!

Rules:

Fake $2 Win/Place wagers ($2 to Win and $2 to Place) and (1) mandatory $4 Win/Place wager will be made on the horse a player selects in each race. Only one horse may be selected per race. If a player’s horse wins, the player score is credited on both the Win and Place payouts. If the horse finishes second, the player score is credited only on the Place payout. And just so we’re clear, all wagers and payouts from races are NOT REAL and will be used for scoring purposes only.

In the event of a late scratch or change of track conditions, players may change picks provided given race has not started. If picks have already closed, the scratched horse will be replaced with the post-time favorite for that race.

Past results:

Week 1: Aaron Halterman (Dude #1) defeats Kelby Von Hemel $43.60 – $21.00

Week 2: Paul Mazur defeats Dude #1 $25.00 – $17.80

Week 3: Aaron West defeats Dude #1 and Paul Mazur $31.30 – $28.80 – $8.00

Week 4: West defeats Dude #1 and Oaklawn Wizard $53.30 – $27.00 – $25.60

Week 5: West defeats Dude #1 and Chance Moquett $42.40 – $37.40 – $22.20

Week 6: Dude #1 defeats West and Zack Gillham $68.00 – $49.80 – $35.40

This week’s challengers:

Brady Lukas

Brady Lukas, grandson of Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas, was born in Arcadia, California. He grew up on the backside of Santa Anita
making wagers ever since he was tall enough to reach the betting window. He resided in California until he received a football scholarship to the Air Force Academy. He currently resides at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Ms, and is moving to Yokota Air Base in Tokyo, Japan in June.

Brady doesn’t believe in picking the second or third best horse, so he lives and dies by the win wager. The longest shot he ever hit was in the 2005 Kentucky Derby placing a straight win wager on 50-1 Giacomo. He currently owes 4 more years to the Air Force, but plans to get into the horse racing industry management side of the house. You can follow him on Twitter at @bwaynelukas.

 Nicolle Neulist

Nicolle Neulist lives in Chicago, Illinois. They were exposed to Triple Crown races on television as a child, but never made it out to the races until a company outing to Arlington Park back in 2007. Over the last year or so, after many late nights of reading about racehorse pedigrees, horse racing has morphed from an occasional entertainment into a fiery passion. It’s just the perfect sport for someone who loves both trivia and numbers! Nowadays, Nicolle gets out to Hawthorne Race Course at least once a week, and the paddock there almost feels like a second home. They’re still relatively new to handicapping: even though the timid two-dollar show bets have given way to mostly exacta betting, cracking the nut of the multi-race wager is becoming more and more tempting by the day.

Away from the track, nicolle does computer security consulting, sings in a few choirs around Chicago, and plays a lot of pub quiz. They rant about horse racing (and a few other things, but mainly horse racing 140 characters at a time on Twitter at @rogueclown.  They also write in longer form about race picks, fantasy horse racing, and the on-track exploits of Curlin’s progeny at http://blinkersoffblog.wordpress.com.

Challenge races:

1  Keeneland Race 5 (2:09 CT)

2  Pimlico Race 7 (2:58 CT)

3  Oaklawn Park Race 5 (3:19 CT)

4  Keeneland Race 8 (3:42 CT)

5  Oaklawn Park  Race 6 (3:46 CT)

6  Keeneland Race 9 (4:13 CT)

7  Oaklawn Park Race 8 (4:42 CT)

8  Santa Anita Park Race 6 (5:00 CT)

9  Santa Anita Park  Race 7 (5:30 CT)

10  Santa Anita Park  Race 8 (6:00 CT)

Picks:

* Denotes player’s $4 Win/Place wager

You think you can hang with the big boys (or girls)? Want to take the winner? Shoot us an email by visiting our contact page and let us know you’re interested! We’ll even plug your website, blog, Twitter feed, handicapping skills, etc. And who knows… defend your title long enough and we may even throw in a prize!