Racing Dudes Handicapping Challenge: Halterman vs. West vs. Gillham

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 back-to-back champ (Aaron West) and the Dudes. 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 or confidence level, 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 $53.20 – $27.00 – $25.60

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

This week’s contestants:

Three-Peat Champion: Aaron West

Aaron West started handicapping when he went to college and has been handicapping for 9 years now, particularly taking his game to a new level the last 5 years. Like so many of us, he learned how to read a form from my dad.

While he’s a fan of the Pick 3 and Pick 4 wagers, Aaron’s money maker is the Kentucky Derby Trifecta wager, hitting them in 3 of the last 4 years (2010: $2,337.40, 2012: $3,065.60, 2013: $6,925.60). He attends Oaklawn Park regularly and has been to the Breeders’ Cup twice and Kentucky Derby once. You can follow him on Twitter at @amwest85.

New Shooter: Zack Gillham

Zack Gillham was born and raised in Hot Springs, Arkansas (home of Oaklawn Park) and has lived there most of his life. His love for horse racing didn’t begin until about a month into Oaklawn’s 2013 meet. He loves to learn and to solve problems. He also loves competition and making money. Horse racing was a good fit! He’s found that horse racing is a learning process that continues everyday and a problem that can never be solved, but when solid handicapping and some luck go your way, its some of the most exciting 1-2 minutes you can have!

Like a lot of beginners, Zack started with Exactas, but from there went on to Trifectas and Superfectas. However, his recent task has been to conquer the Pick 4 wager. As he continues to grow as a handicapper, he’s expanding all the variables he likes to take into consideration, but he likes to take a combination of using how the race should unfold along with hot connections and track bias’s.

Other than horse racing, his other interests include golfing, poker, music, movies and generally anything outdoors. You can follow him on Twitter at @ZGillham.

Challenge races:

1 Fair Grounds Race 3 (2:26 CT)

2 Oaklawn Park Race 4 (2:52 CT)

3 Gulfstream Park Race 8 (3:34 CT)

4 Oaklawn Park Race 6 (3:46 CT)

5 Oaklawn Park Race 7 (4:14 CT)

6 Fair Grounds Race 7 (4:25 CT)

7 Oaklawn Park Race 8 (4:42 CT)

8 Gulfstream Park Race 11 (5:07 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!