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Roger Neubauer and "The Sheets" Take Down the Gold Cup Challenge
Track announcer Vic Stauffer would have referred to it as "A Whacker!". A thrilling stretch duel between two fierce competitors ended with Roger Neubauer edging out David Johnson to take down first place and $50,000 in the Gold Cup Handicapping Challenge. Johnson had a $7,000 plus lead going into the final day of the contest but Neubauer took the lead after the fourth race $27,142 to $22,991. For the next 5 races the two front runners alternated leads until Roger ended up with the winning total of $36,247 to David's $35,527.
Roger Neubauer, a partner in Graph Racing, attributed his success to using the Thorograph Sheets. David Johnson seemed to have a team of handicappers as part of his "team" including trainer Michael Machowsky. Both leaders showed a lot of class in both victory and defeat, and although they did not know each other before the contest became friends after their hard fought battle. David Johnson received $10,000 for his second place finish. The Mollicone brothers came in third with a final score of $18,300 which was good for an additional $5,000 in prize money.
There were other awards distributed including an unprecedented 10 spots in the DRF/NTRA National Handicapping Championship. Two players in the top ten already qualified for the NHC so an elated Robert Brendler who actually ended up 12th took down the 10th spot and Chris Larmey, a handicapper from Emerald Downs, who qualified for this contest through the $200 West Coast Handicapping Challenge took down the 9th spot. Both will join 8 others in Vegas with a chance to win half a million dollars.
Below is a list of the top twelve finishers and their scores:
Neaubauer, R $36,247.00;
Johnson, D $33,527.00;
Mollicone, M $18,300.00;
Hartshorn, S $12,812.60;
Fisher, C $11,279.00;
Matties, D $11,001.90;
Scholtz, R $10,857.20;
Rich, J $10,455.00;
Benjamin, O $10,440.00;
Larmey, C $10,235.50;
Bambacigno, D $10,078.40;
Brendler, R $ 8,871.60
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