NEW VLT MACHINES ARE HERE! Check out our new VLT machines in the Clubwest Gaming Lounge. Open daily from 10 a.m. through 1 a.m.

Entry fee: $25. Bankroll: $60. Place 10 ($2 WPS) wagers on any North American harness or thoroughbred race that takes place on the contest day. You must have a Manitoba HPI account to participate. Deadline to enter is 4 p.m. the Friday before the tournament. For complete list of 2023 handicapping tournaments click here.

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The Club West Dining Room and Lounge is open daily at 10 a.m. until 1 a.m. for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and beverages. Our menu includes favourites such as chicken wings, pizza, chipotle mozza burger (pictured), steak sandwich or bacon and eggs plus much more! See the full menu here.

FRIDAY STEAK SPECIAL - $24.95 - 8 oz. top Sirloin charbroiled and seasoned with our smoky dry rub. Served with vegetables and choice of mashed potatoes or french fries. Served from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.

PRIME RIB SATURDAY SPECIAL - $29.95 - Our signature Certified Angus Prime Rib (8 oz.) served with vegetables and choice of mashed potatoes or french fries, horseradish and Yorkshire pudding au jus. Served from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.

“I went home and told my wife I blew it,” said newly crowned Handicapper of the Year Ralph Gelardi.

"I didn’t think I was going to win," continued Gelardi, who went into the final Player's Choice tourney of the year with only a three-point lead. "I thought I could go in and play some favourites and if I could get to the $90 mark I’d have a shot, but my first horse ran second and my next two horses finished out of the money.

"I only had two seconds and a third on the day. I needed four or five others to falter in order to win and I didn’t think that would happen, so I was surprised when the results came out on Monday. It feels great!”

Gelardi finished the year with 252 points to top the Handicapper of the Year Standings and take home the $3,500 first prize, a trophy and bragging rights forever. His total was based on his top seven tournament scores from the year. Stan Stewin finished second in the standings, only three points back, with a final score of 249, to win $500, and James Werry finished third with 243 points to win $250. Darcy Penner and Geoffrey Metcalf finished in a dead-heat for fourth and fifth with 242 points.

The 55-year-old Gelardi is a semi-retired business owner who used to own and operate the temporary labour office that was once owned by the late cigar-chomping Harvey Lockshin, who many will remember campaigned horses here with trainer Red Johnson.

Gelardi is also a former horse owner at the Downs. His Bald Guy Stable had some excellent years with trainer Jared Brown, with horses that included former claimer turned stakes winner Alpine Luck and classy allowance/high claiming horse Joint Tenant.

Gelardi was first introduced to Assiniboia Downs by an uncle while still a teenager, and he’s been coming back ever since. He’s also a self-taught handicapper.

“I just picked it up over time,” said Gelardi. “My first few years I did terrible, but I figured out a system that just works for me. It uses most of the things the good handicappers here use.

“I’m a big trip handicapper and a Beyer figure fan, but it’s a lot of things, not just one thing, and I adjust my strategies based on the race. Sometimes you look at jockey changes, etc., but my basic strategy always goes back to Beyer figures, and not just one number but a consistent set of figures.”

Gelardi plans to play in the handicapping tournaments again next year, not only because he’s a consistent winner that has a new championship to his credit, but because, “I love the competition.”

Gelardi didn’t have one of his better handicapping days last Saturday, but his consistency in all the tournaments over the course of the year was enough to get him home on top.

“I never finished better than third this year, so I was kind of surprised at how well I did," said Gelardi. "I didn’t think I could gain on the field with a mediocre placing. I think Geoffrey Metcalf was the player that scared me. I thought he was going to win the tournament and pass me.”

He didn’t.

And Gelardi now has his winter vacation money.

Semi-retired hardwood lumber salesman Brad Kinnear won last Saturday’s Player’s Choice Handicapping Tournament with a better-than-average bankroll, but the winning feeling might have been more important than the $1,000 he won as the tournament champ.

Kinnear built his bankroll to $143.30 to best second-place finisher Alan Twerdochlib by $27.90. Twerdochlib finished the day with a solid $115.40, a score which is often good enough to win, but Kinnear’s two longshots on the day got him home. Myron Fedoruk finished third with $103.00 followed by Doug Evans and Barry Mymko, who dead-heated for fourth and fifth spot with $97.60.

“It's been a while,” said Kinnear. “I’ve won probably won three times and been second or third a few times over the years. I can see a couple of old glass trophies here. But not in the last couple years, and this year I was doing horrible.”

Kinnear normally limits his play to the New York tracks, and occasionally Churchill Downs and Woodbine, but last Saturday he decided to take a look at Laurel and it paid off.

He found a horse named Raise Your Game in the sixth race at Laurel that won and paid $35.60. The angle?

The horse had stumbled at the break in his previous start and unseated a top rider at the track. That jockey was at Aqueduct on Saturday, so the horse had a different rider who was actually even better. But it wasn’t really noticeable at Laurel, only in the jockey’s overall record for the year, which showed over 240 wins. The horse was also cutting back to a distance he had previously run well at in better company.

Around the same time, Kinnear’s pick of the day, Diamond Crush in the sixth race at Woodbine, won and paid $22.50.

“He was 12-1 on the morning line,” said Kinnear. “But at the first click of the odds he was 9/2, so someone liked him. He’d come out of post 11 in his previous race and he had a better post on Saturday. When they turned for home, he opened up five lengths and walked on them. Those were my two big ones and they happened right away. After that I was able to play horses at lower odds and hit a 3-1 shot at Churchill and a 4-1 shot at Woodbine, plus I had a few horses that ran third.”

Kinnear was happy to score with some early winners on tournament day, because it changes your game plan.

“You need to hit something relatively decent early,” said Kinnear. “That allows you to play those 3-1 shots after that, and they’re easier to pick. You have to be lucky. Once you’ve lost on your first four or five picks and you’re sitting at zero, you’re betting on horses that are 10-1 or higher, and the odds of hitting are less.”

Kinnear first went to the track with his father Bob, who was also a handicapper and a horse owner, in 1966.

“I remember me and Larry Reid going as kids,” said Kinnear. “His dad would drive us out there with a couple dollars each in our pocket and we’d bet on a horse like Glorious Pete to place. If it came in and paid $3.20, we’d win 60 cents each and we’d be happier than hell.”

Kinnear still enjoys the camaraderie of going to the track with friends, and it’s carried over to his handicapping.

“I like the human side of the game,” said Kinnear. “I don’t buy into the pace numbers and that sort of thing. I look at every race for what it is, figure out how the race will run and try to find a horse that is going to run his best race that day. I look at the trainer and the jockey and if you get to know them well you can adjust. For example, if a horse is getting a switch to Luis Saez, you know the horse is going to be hustled early.”

Kinnear obviously plays the races and the tournaments to win money, but it’s more than that. “When you pick a winner, it feels like you’ve done something, like you’ve accomplished something,” said Kinnear.

“It feels good.”

Four of the five horses entered in the Dec. 17 Los Alamitos Futurity (G2) are eligible for a non-winners of two and the fifth is a maiden, but their potential is limitless. Three come from the powerful Bob Baffert barn, and Arabian Lion is one of Baffert's top young prospects. More from the BloodHorse here.

Jennifer Stein was, at least outwardly, far less restrained than those standing behind her, and the jockey aboard the eye-catching chestnut colt. Standing in the owner’s box in the Woodbine grandstand for the first race on November 27, the trainer of Thebackstretchdude, a son of Old Forester, watched intently as the gates opened on a rainy afternoon at the Toronto oval. More from Susan Stafford-Pooley at the Canadian Thoroughbred here.