P.A. Downs: R2D Handicapping Challenge 2009 ***RULES***

[PaceAdvantage]

Sponsor: Racing2Day
Contest Dates: Saturday, October 3, 2009 - Saturday, November 7, 2009
Contest Goal: Amass as much vCash as possible by making mythical $20 win bets on selected race cards every Saturday.

FIRST PLACE: $650 ($325 non-R2D-members)
SECOND PLACE: $200 ($100 non-R2D-members)
THIRD PLACE: $100 ($50 non-R2D-members)
FOURTH PLACE: $50 ($25 non-R2D-members)

OFFICIAL R2D HANDICAPPING CHALLENGE RULES

• Contest is free and open to all registered members of PaceAdvantage.Com. Registration at PaceAdvantage.com is FREE. In order to use the P.A. Downs wagering system, you must be a registered member in good standing. If at any time during the contest you are banned from the PaceAdvantage.com message board, you forfeit any claim to prize money you may have earned.
  
  
• A complete race card will be chosen for each Saturday. In most cases, the races will be open for wagering the night before they are scheduled to run (in all cases, they will be up by early morning of the race). You can find the current contest races in the P.A. Downs forum, or click the P.A. Downs link on the menu bar to directly access the contest platform.
  
  
• Using your vCash (all registered users will receive $1000 vCash points for the contest), you will place mythical $20 WIN BETS on the horse you think will win each and every contest race on the card. Every wager made will count as a $20 wager only. Please be aware that if you enter MORE or LESS than $20 as a bet for any horse and you submit that wager into the system, it will AUTOMATICALLY be entered as a $20 wager, no questions asked. You may bet more than one horse in each race if you wish.
  
  
• Each week, I will post a poll containing a list of tracks that Racing2day.com is taking that Saturday, and the track receiving the most votes that week will become the contest card. No track can be played more than once during the contest, with the exception of Santa Anita, as they are hosting the Breeders' Cup, which will of course be the contest track on the last Saturday of the contest. You will risk eligibility for any cash prizes if you do not wager on EVERY contest race on the chosen card. If a contestant does NOT wager on every contest race and happens to finish the entire contest with a vCash total higher than someone who has wagered on every contest race, then the person with the lower vCash (but the higher number of races wagered) will win the prize money for the entire contest. For this rule to be enforced, the number of "missed" wagers must materially impact the standings. For instance, if a contestant has a vCash total of 2000 but missed 10 races, and another contestant has a vCash total of 1900 but wagered on every race, $200 vCash will be subtracted from the contestant with 2000, bringing his total down to 1800, and thus moving him below the contestant with 1900 vCash in the standings.
  
  
• The contestant with the highest vCash balance at the end of the contest (and the most contest races wagered) wins first prize of a $650 credit to their Racing2day.com wagering account. Second place will receive a $200 credit. Third place will receive a $100 credit and fourth place will receive a $50 credit. In order to be eligible for the full prize payout, a contestant must be an account holder at Racing2day.com before the contest begins on Saturday, October 3, 2009. Any prize finalist who is not a member of Racing2day.com by the time the contest begins will receive 50% of the prize values listed above ($325, $100, $50 & $25 respectively) in the form of a check from Racing2day.com.
  
  
• In the event that an entire contest race card is cancelled by the host track, there will be NO makeup card offered for that particular Saturday. The contest will simply be extended one week to compensate for the lost card. Partial card cancellations will not be made up.
  
  
• Winning wagers will be paid off using official track prices as reported by Equibase.com. While wagering is open on a race, the odds that you see on the wagering interface are MORNING LINE ODDS and will not change until the race in question is closed. It is at that time that the odds will be updated to reflect the official closing odds and the winner(s) paid.
  
  
• Virtual wagering for each race will close on the nearest five-minute mark before listed post time that also includes at least a five minute cushion. For reference, we will be using the post times listed on the Equibase.com entries page for each particular contest track. Thus, if a race is designated to go off at 5:30pm, contest wagering will close at 5:25pm. A 5:27pm post time will close at 5:20pm. Why doesn't the 5:27 race close at 5:25? Because that would leave less than a five minute cushion. The races will be clearly marked when wagering closes. If any disputes arise as to when a race actually starts versus when it closes on P.A. Downs, the official 'OFF' time taken from the Equibase.com race charts will be the final word. If it turns out that the Equibase 'OFF' time is BEFORE the close of a P.A. Downs contest race, that contest race will be deemed 'VOID' and all mythical wagers on that race will be refunded.
  
  
• Although the contest is FREE and open to all registered members of PaceAdvantage.com, the following qualification applies to anyone who registers a user name on PaceAdvantage.Com AFTER Monday September 28, 2009 @ 12:15am ET:
  
  
  1. At the conclusion of the contest, only players with a post-count of at least 100 posts will be eligible for prize money.
     
     
  2. Potential winners will have their posts reviewed carefully. Posts in the SELECTIONS forum and the OFF-TOPIC forums will NOT count towards your 100 post minimum. If a majority of your posts contain nothing more than one or two sentences such as "I agree" or "Great post!" or posts of that sort, they will not be counted towards your 100 minimum, no matter in what section they are posted. These requirements are in place to discourage folks from playing multiple entries under multiple user names.
     
     
  3. If you registered on PaceAdvantage.Com BEFORE 9/28/2009 @ 12:15am ET and have less than 100 posts, you don't have to worry about the above requirements, as you are QUALIFED. The 100 post minimum is only enforced for those registering AFTER 9/28/2009 @ 12:15am ET (the date and time the contest was being announced).
     
     
• SCRATCHES: Scratches will be refunded, but only after the race is official. Once the race is official, any money wagered on a scratched horse will be returned. You can tell if a horse was scratched by its odds -- any horse with odds of 1/10000 is a scratched horse. If you a bet a horse and it is scratched, that race WILL COUNT towards the "bet every race" requirement in order to qualify for prize money. If you bet a horse that is part of an entry, your horse scratches, and the other half of the entry runs and wins, your bet will be treated as a SCRATCH and you will have your vCash refunded. If you bet a horse that is part of an entry, but the other half wins, you will be paid off as a winner (provided your part of the entry was not scratched).
  
  
• All players are encouraged to keep track of their own wagers and payoffs. If you feel an error has occurred, please don't hesitate to email your concerns to the forum administrator.
  
  
• Please make sure that your TIME ZONE is correctly set in your USER CONTROL PANEL (UserCP link on the menu bar, or select EDIT OPTIONS on the Quick Links drop down menu, also on the menu bar at the top of every forum page). If your time zone is set incorrectly, the closing time of each contest race may appear odd to you, even though it is technically the correct time based on the time zone currently selected in your personal time zone settings.
  
  
• Although the administrator will be playing in this contest, neither he nor any member of his immediate or not-so-immediate family will be eligible for any cash prizes.
  
  
• If the administrator of the contest has any reason to believe a user is playing in this contest under multiple screen names, that user (and all suspected screen names) will be disqualified from any prize money.
  
  
• The administrator of the contest reserves the right to amend the official rules if the situation warrants.
  
  
• All rulings by the administrator will be considered final.
  
  
• PaceAdvantage.Com and the administrator reserve the right to cancel this contest at any time due to technical or other unforeseen issues.

[PaceAdvantage]

I would like to emphasize that in order to be eligible for the full prize payouts of this contest, you have to have opened an account at Racing2day.com prior to the start of the contest this coming Saturday (October 3, 2009).

So you only have about five days to open an account if you haven't already done so...otherwise, you only get half the payout.

Any other questions or comments about the upcoming contest should go in this thread. That includes questions about the rules, the prize payouts, etc. etc.

[TurfRuler]

Am I eligible to register with Race2D being a North Carolina resident?

[PaceAdvantage]

Not sure...best to consult them, or perhaps they will read this thread and answer your question.

Obviously there is an incentive in this contest to be a member of R2D. Not a requirement, but an incentive.

[TurfRuler]

Thanks for your response, pace. I'll check their website.....[B]again[/B], and await to see if someone responds.

[andicap]

I'm sure I'm missing something but what does this mean?

The contestant with the highest vCash balance at the end of the contest (and the most contest races wagered)


Is there some kind of formula to determine the optimum cash won and contests wagered? Or just a minimum number of races you have to bet?
How will this be determined?
I can understand not wanting to have someone win who just made five bets, won them all and sits on his lead, but are there any more guidelines than that?

[Ted Craven]

Although it does not state so on their website, Canadians cannot open an account with Racing2Day (ask me how I know...)

Ted

[TurfRuler]

What I found on the web site is this:

Restrictions:
You must be at least 21 years of age and a resident of a state where the Racing2Day wagering system is available. Racing2Day reserves the right to deny the request to open an account or to close an account for any reason.

It does not specifically answer my questions but I know that North Carolina is one of the states that does not allow Account Wagering. So that exclude's me from joining and puts me in a position to be denied a request to open an account or have it closed.

Darn Attorney Generals, darn this purgatory I'm living, darn darn darn.

[PaceAdvantage]

This contest is running under the same exact rules as last year's (with the exception that this year, you can wager on more than one horse per race, and the bet is now $20 instead of $2), which was sponsored by Premier Turf Club, and also included an incentive whereby if you were a member of PTC, you received a higher payout in the form of an account credit.

You can check out the final standings of last year's contest, which might help you understand the scoring system better:

http://www.paceadvantage.com/PTC_Leaderboard.html

[PaceAdvantage]

Originally Posted by TurfRuler

So that exclude's me from joining and puts me in a position to be denied a request to open an account or have it closed.

Yes, but you can still play in the free contest and be eligible for prize money. Just like last year.

[TurfRuler]

I'm playing.....if I can paper race for fun, I can play this contest, like year, for a few duckets, any amount will do the trick for me.

[RockHardTen1985]

I'm in.

[PaceAdvantage]

No need to reply to this thread in order to play.

All you have to do is watch the P.A. Downs forum (you're here already if you're reading this) for the posts that contain the actual races. There will be one post for each race, and when you click on the post, you will be able to place your mythical wagers.

You can also get a list of all open races (open meaning, still able to wager on) by clicking on the P.A. Downs link in the green menu bar.

I'm going to put up a practice card tomorrow and Friday so that people can get used to the process.

[RockHardTen1985]

Originally Posted by PaceAdvantage

No need to reply to this thread in order to play.

All you have to do is watch the P.A. Downs forum (you're here already if you're reading this) for the posts that contain the actual races. There will be one post for each race, and when you click on the post, you will be able to place your mythical wagers.

You can also get a list of all open races (open meaning, still able to wager on) by clicking on the P.A. Downs link in the green menu bar.

I'm going to put up a practice card tomorrow and Friday so that people can get used to the process.

I read everything this morning and this sounds great... Im really excited to take part in this. My only question is, I think Im only eligible for half of the prize pool... How does that work? Just play as normal and it will be taken care of at the end?

[PaceAdvantage]

Yup...just like last year:

http://www.paceadvantage.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=51061