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Columnist Jeff Haney: It's Post Time for Racing Form Handicapper

Several of the 16 entrants in the $10,000 single-elimination tournament are professional gamblers, but the contest also has included former NFL stars, talk radio hosts, even the occasional politician.

This week's matchup, though, carries with it a straightforward and visceral appeal: A handicapper versus a bookmaker.

The "bookie" is Bert Osborne, sports book director for Coast Resorts properties. And the handicapper is Dave Tuley, known to readers nationwide as the Las Vegas correspondent and sports betting analyst for the venerable Daily Racing Form.

Although Tuley regularly participates in public horse racing betting seminars, this will be his first time on stage at a gambling symposium involving two-legged athletes.

"I'm trying not to do anything different (in preparation)," said Tuley, who is based in Las Vegas. "But it's kind of impossible not to, because your reputation becomes more public, more on the line, in something like this."

Tuley said that while he knows he will be squaring off against one of the city's most prominent oddsmakers, he did not even try to make a mock betting line on the pairing.

"It's not like you can play defense in this," said Tuley, 35. "I'm mostly concentrating on what I have to do. If you have a winning record and lose, well, that's the way it goes."

That can certainly happen, given the format of the Stardust invitational. Each Friday night, two contestants choose seven football games against the point spread -- pro or college, sides or totals -- from the weekend's card. Each entrant designates one play as a best bet, which serves as a tiebreaker.

The man (or woman) with the better record advances. The season winner collects a $10,000 prize. Local handicapper and radio show host Dave Cokin is the defending champion.

As always, festivities get under way at 9 p.m. Friday in the Stardust race and sports book.

Tuley, who has a journalism degree from Northern Illinois and started writing for the Racing Form in 1993, handicaps pro and college football games for the 107-year-old daily.

"I haven't decided, but I might end up going with five pro and two college games," Tuley said. "I always take a lot of notes as I'm watching the games ... but this time I really found myself looking toward this week's schedule. You can't help it."

Tuley does enter Friday's competition on a bit of a hot streak. In a Breeders' Cup seminar at Bally's he predicted the long shot winner of the Juvenile Fillies race, Tempera, with David Flores aboard.

While she was Tuley's only winner in seven picks (one selection scratched), Tempera paid enough -- $25.80 -- to turn a healthy profit on what turned out to be a rough day for many horseplayers.

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