The National Horseplayers Championship (NHC) is the richest and most prestigious annual handicapping tournament of all. It is the culmination of the NHC Tour, a year-long series of NTRA-sanctioned contests and tournaments held across the United States and Canada at racetracks, race books, off-track betting locations, and horse racing and handicapping websites and ADWs that each send their top finishers to the national finals in Las Vegas where they compete for a purse in excess of $3 million. The NHC winner is also honored with an Eclipse Award as Handicapper of the Year.

Here are 10 things every handicapper should know about the National Horseplayers Championship and the NHC Tour.

1. Where and When

The 26^th annual NTRA National Horseplayers Championship will take place on March 14-16, 2025, at the Horseshoe Las Vegas, smack dab in the center of the Las Vegas Strip. The Venue is the Horseshoe’s 40,000 square-foot Events Center, which serves as the fifth host location in the history of the NHC. The first NHC was held in the MGM Grand race and sports book in January 2000, when 160 finalists competed for $200,000 in prize money. Since then, the event has continually grown as the Bally’s race and sports book, the Red Rock resort and casino, Treasure Island, and finally the Horseshoe have all taken their turns as host properties down through the years. The NHC has been at its current home at the Horseshoe (formerly Bally’s) since 2020.

An exuberant Mike Gillum wins the 2024 NHC. (NTRA photo)

2. How to qualify

You cannot buy an entry into the NHC. You must earn a qualifying berth with a win or high finish in a contest on the NHC Tour, or accumulate enough points on the NHC Tour to earn a spot. The first step is to become a member of the NHC Tour by going to www.NTRA.com/NHC and signing up. The cost of an annual membership is $50 and that entitles you to participate in as many contests as you like throughout the year including several free online contests. Many racetracks host handicapping tournaments, but the majority of qualifying now takes place online on tournament websites such as HorsePlayers.com and HorseTourneys.com.

3. What happens when you qualify?

NHC Tour members can earn up to two seats in the NHC Finals. The number of NHC Tour members is in the thousands, but only approximately 600 individual players accounting for nearly 800 entries will comprise the field for the NHC finals in Las Vegas. The NHC finals is an in-person-only event and players cannot participate remotely, so all of those 600 finalists need to make their way to Las Vegas each year. As a perk to all qualifiers, every player receives a complementary hotel room at the host property for the duration of the tournament, and qualifying locations and websites provide their winners with travel allowances to pay for their flights. The NHC hotel and travel awards part of the prize pool currently exceeds $1 million.

4. Is it too late to participate in the 2025 NHC?

The next finals of the NHC are fast approaching on March 14-16, but it’s still not too late to qualify. NHC Tour memberships can be purchased year-round and tournaments are continually being hosted online that can get you qualified for the upcoming NHC until the end of February. Racetracks including Sam Houston Race Park, Gulfstream Park, Monmouth Park, Santa Anita Park, Hawthorne Race Course, and Tampa Bay Downs will all host last chance tournaments. Tournament entry fees can go as high as $1,000 or more, but more economical opportunities still exist to play for a qualifying spot for as little as $75.

If you still haven’t made it into the field when March rolls around, you will have one final “mega chance” to get into the finals by playing in the NHC Last Chance/First Chance handicapping tournament on the eve of the NHC live at Horseshoe Las Vegas. The NHC Last Chance/First Chance on March 13 costs $500 to enter and in its own right will be one of the biggest handicapping tournaments of the year with more than 800 entries expected to compete for cash prizes as well as more than 30 final available qualifying berths into the NHC.

5. NHC purse and prize structure

The NHC is renowned for its huge purse structure and big payouts to a large number of players each year. The purse of the 2025 NHC is again expected to exceed $3 million, plus another $345,000 will be paid in prize money to the top 20 highest point earners on the NHC Tour.

The top 10% of players in the NHC finals after the first two days of the tournament will make the cut and advance to play in the final round on Sunday. Every player that makes the cut is guaranteed at least a $10,000 cash prize on a sliding scale with more money paid out for each higher placing. At the 2024 finals of the NHC, the total field was approximately 770 entries, so the top 77 entries all made the cut and earned at least $10,000 in prize money that ranged all the way up to $50,000 for 11^th place. The top 10 finishers in the Sunday morning session advance to the Final Table to battle it out for the really big bucks. First place in 2024 paid $800,000, with $250,000 for second, $200,000 for third, $150,000 for fourth, $125,000 for fifth, $85,000 for sixth, $80,000 for seventh, $75,000 for eighth, $70,000 for ninth, and $65,000 for tenth.

All players who don’t make the cut advance to a separate Sunday start-over tournament with a $100,000 purse. With prize money like that on the line at a handicapping tournament, plus an Eclipse Award, it’s no wonder why so many horseplayers assign so much priority to qualifying into this tournament year after year after year.

Celebrating a win among friends. (NTRA photo)

6. The rules of the game

The NHC is a traditional mythical money-style handicapping tournament. Entrants attempt to accumulate the highest pari-mutuel winnings by making a mixture of 15 optional and mandatory $2 win-and-place bets a day on the races from several of the season’s top racetracks like Aqueduct, Gulfstream Park, Oaklawn Park, Santa Anita Park, and many more. It’s not unusual for NHC players to find themselves handicapping 70 or 80 races a day just to narrow down their plays to their best 15 races. Most, but not all, of the most successful players in the history of the NHC employ a strategy of picking mostly longshots and overlays on the tote board.

7. The NHC scene

The National Horseplayers Championship is more than just a handicapping tournament. It is an annual event that brings together serious horseplayers from all over North America for a weekend of enjoying our favorite pastime. It is a time for handicappers to renew friendships and acquaintances and enjoy the camaraderie of people that share the same hobby and passion for horse racing and gambling. The tournament room is a hive of kinetic activity surrounded by giant screens dedicated exclusively to horse racing from tracks all over the country.

The tournament itself is at the forefront of an event that actually encompasses so much more than playing the races. Finalists are treated to a welcome cocktail party on Thursday night and the whole event wraps up with an awards banquet dinner on Sunday. In between, players all enjoy complimentary breakfasts and lunches every day from Friday through Sunday, receive free Daily

Racing Forms, assorted swag from the NTRA as a part of their welcome packet, and can browse the offerings of other exhibitors and sponsors of the event including Racetrack Television Network (TRN), Equibase Race Lens, Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance and others. National horse racing media is also on hand including live feeds and taped segments from Steve Byk At the Races and the team at America’s Best Racing.

The National Horseracing Championship is one of the truly great annual events surrounding the sport of horse racing. Don’t miss it!