Handicapping tournament enthusiasts are always on the lookout for new opportunities to qualify for the National Horseplayers Championship (NHC). It’s especially exciting when new contests are announced that won’t cost you an arm and a leg while also giving you a chance to play in a contest with a favorable ratio of qualifiers in relation to entrants.

Race Lens "Race to the NHC."

One of those new and highly-sought-after NHC contest opportunities offering good value for horseplayers at all bankroll levels has recently been announced and is going on now. Equibase and the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) unveiled a new NHC qualifying contest series called “The Race to the NHC.”

The Race to the NHC is a series of 25 free handicapping contests that will be hosted on a weekly basis at Horseplayers.com, the official online qualifying website of the NHC. The free weekly contests began on Sept. 7 and will continue through Feb. 15, 2025. The top two contestants from each weekly contest will qualify for the “Race Lens Final 50” NHC qualifier to be held on Feb. 22, and the top two finishers from the Race Lens Final 50 will both earn qualifying berths into the 2025 National Horseplayers Championship along with hotel accommodations and a $500 travel voucher.

Now in its 26^th year, the NHC is the largest and most lucrative handicapping tournament for horseplayers in existence. The purse of the event has grown over the years to a handicapping tournament now with roughly $4.5 million awarded in annual cash and prizes. The winner also receives an Eclipse Award and is recognized as the Horseplayer of the Year. The NHC is open only to those players who qualify, and the only way to qualify is through NHC sanctioned qualifying events like this one. The next NHC will be held at the Horseshoe Las Vegas March 14-16, 2025.

Calling all horseplayers! (NTRA)

The weekly free contests and the Race Lens Final 50 are open exclusively to subscribers of Race Lens, Equibase’s exclusive interactive past performance product. Only Race Lens customers who hold an unlimited monthly, quarterly, or annual subscription are eligible to enter a qualifying contest, and your subscription must be current at the time of the Final 50 contest to play in the Feb. 22 qualifier. Players also need to be members of the NHC Tour to participate.

Race Lens includes access to traditional Equibase PPs and TrackMaster PPs and allows you to customize the past performances to display the personalized information you want. It provides summarized trainer, jockey, and breeding records that can be filtered into situational categories relevant to the race you’re handicapping. It also creates handicapping angles, provides true odds predictive analysis, and much more.

“[Race Lens] is a neat little tool,” NHC qualifier Ciaran Thornton said. “If I’m looking for longshots it will help me zero in on the horses.”

If you are not a current Race Lens subscriber, it’s not too late to go online and sign-up for a plan and start playing in the weekly Race to the NHC contests at Horseplayers.com.

Race Lens subscription rates are greatly discounted in conjunction with this contest series. A monthly unlimited subscription (regularly $129) is only $50 with promo code NHCRACE50. A quarterly subscription (regularly $299) is only $99 with promo code NHCRACE99, and an annual plan (regularly $999) is now just $599 with promo code NHCRACE599. Copy www.equibase.com/content/NHC/index.cfm into your browser for all the information about Race Lens and the Road to the NHC contest.

NHC Tour.

“The NTRA has been great to work with over the years and we are excited to partner on this exciting opportunity for our Race Lens customers,” Equibase President and Chief Operating Officer Kyle McDoniel said. “We hope that people who have never tried Race Lens or currently aren’t active subscribers will take advantage of this opportunity.”

In addition to the top two finishers of the Race Lens Final 50 earning qualifying berths into the NHC, the third through seventh-place finishers will win $500 entries into the NHC Last Chance/First Chance contest to be held prior to the NHC also at the Horseshoe Las Vegas.

“We are thrilled to partner with Equibase on this exciting contest series to engage Race Lens customers in NHC contest play,” NTRA President and CEO Tom Rooney said. “The NTRA is always looking to provide horseplayers with additional avenues to qualify for the NHC. Together with Race Lens we hope that new and experienced horseplayers will take advantage of this opportunity to potentially win a seat to NHC 2025 in Las Vegas.”