from HANA Harness

This past weekend, legs 12 and 13 of HANA Harness’ The Pen vs. The Chip Handicapping Challenge, sponsored by the Hambletonian Society, Meadowlands, Tioga Downs and Vernon Downs were contested. When the racing action at Tioga Downs concluded Sunday, handicapper Mark McKelvie extended his overall lead to maintain a .05 advantage in the all-important Win ROI.

On Saturday night’s (June 16) card at Mohawk Racetrack, which included the Pepsi North America Cup as well as other stakes, the Chip handicappers had their most impressive performance to date, taking the top three positions for the evening with Pandy taking top honors with a Win ROI of 1.82 followed by Trackmaster’s Chatsworth Consortium (1.42) and Ray’s Robot (0.98) taking the show spot. When it came to exactas, Pen handicapper Mark McKelvie continued to impress with an exacta ROI of 2.00 with his closest opponent far back with an ROI of 0.79.

Sunday afternoon’s (June 17) card at Tioga Downs, where the Historic Stakes were contested for the first time, saw the Pen handicappers return the favor to the Chips by grabbing the top three positions led by Mr. Trifecta with a 2.10 Win ROI followed by Mark McKelvie with a 1.25 and Bobby Z with a 1.00 ROI. Success with exactas was somewhat elusive in leg 13 as Mark McKelvie had the session’s high with a 0.93 ROI.

Through the first 13 legs of the Handicapping Challenge, the overall standings are:

Position-Name-$ Won-ROI
1. Mark McKelvie (P)-$337.70-1.01
2. TM Chatsworth Consortium (C)-$320.90-0.96
3. Mr. Trifecta (P)-$295.70-0.88
4. Ray’s Robot (C)-$284.60-0.85
5. Bobby Z (P)-$282.00-0.84
6. Pandy (C)-$242.70-0.72
7. Earl The Pearl (C)-$223.60-0.67
8. Scott Alberg (P)-$223.10-0.66

This week there is only one card on the calendar as the Handicapping Challenge hits the quarter pole with leg 14 being contested Saturday evening (June 23) in Northeast Pennsylvania when the contest visits Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs for the $500,000 Earl Beal Memorial in addition to eliminations for the Ben Franklin, Max C. Hempt Memorial and James M. Lynch Memorial. Selections will be posted on the contest website by Saturday morning.

As always, contest dates, handicapper selections, and additional statistical information are available at the contest website (http://hanaharnesscontest.blogspot.com).