Racing Dudes Handicapping Challenge: Oaklawn Park

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 (Aaron West) and the Dudes. Everyone will get a shot! And now, we’ve decided to add even one more challenger each week!

The rules are simple. 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, 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.

The Dudes will be in attendance at Oaklawn all weekend, so in tribute to that, we will feature an all-Oaklawn challenge this week!

Let’s look at past results:

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

Week 2: Paul Mazur defeats Aaron Halterman $25.00 – $17.80

Week 3: Aaron West defeats Aaron Halterman and Paul Mazur  $31.30 – $28.80 – $8.00

Alright, let’s meet this week’s contestants:

Resident 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: Oaklawn Wizard (100% real)

Occupation: The Seer of Numbers and Knowledge of the Horse 

Current Residence: The Bowels of Oaklawn’s Backstretch

Favorite Pastime: Teaching others knowledge of the game

Favorite Foods: Oaklawn Staples – Corn Beef Sandwich and Oysters from the Oyster Bar

Favorite Bets: Pick 4’s

Memberships:

Horse Racing Wizards of North America

The Southern Order of Wizards

P.O.N.Y

Saddle Up Club

Becoming a Wizard:

The journey to become a Wizard is both a treacherous and long path. The beginnings involved the teaching of the Racing Form hieroglyphs for many moons through late evenings. A Seer guided me on the journey explaining the numbers and strange types of words such as “furlong”. As the knowledge was gained, a quest to show off such knowledge was needed. A mystic place known as “Oaklawn” was told as a place of magic creatures where mounds of gold could be obtained using this knowledge. Several times as I learned the ways, a band of merry men with another elder wizard traveled to this place. I was allowed to see such wonders as an apprentice wizard. There – at this place – a great dragon lived which guarded a treasure of gold. Through the many caverns and wonderous taverns, the merry men would see this beast. Throughout the day, the dragon continued to use his cunning ways of ale and food to make sure the men’s guard was down. Every twenty minutes, they would battle with this dragon to obtain his gold. The elder wizard warned the men to protect their gold, but the dragon knew the secrets to defeating the men. Each time at the end of the day, the dragon would take what he wanted and threw the men out after he showed them the treasure they desired. I learned this tale and was allowed to lead others on their quest of their own.  Even to this day, men still request my guidance in seeking the path to this gold.

Today’s challenge races:

1  Oaklawn Park  Race 1 (1:30 CT)

2  Oaklawn Park  Race 2 (1:57 CT)

3  Oaklawn Park  Race 3 (2:25 CT)

4  Oaklawn Park  Race 4 (2:52 CT)

5  Oaklawn Park  Race 5 (3:19 CT)

6  Oaklawn Park  Race 6 (3:46 CT)

7  Oaklawn Park  Race 7 (4:14 CT)

8  Oaklawn Park  Race 8 (4:42 CT)

9  Oaklawn Park  Race 9 (5:10 CT)

The 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!