At the Races with Steve Byk

With $800,000 and the Horseplayer of the Year Eclipse Award to the winner, the official prize structure of this weekend's 25th National Horseplayers Championship in Las Vegas was posted in a Friday release by the host of the contest, the NTRA. At the conclusion of the Final Table on Sunday, total cash prizes offered over the three days come to $3,013,550. The top 77 are guaranteed money with that final finisher receiving $10,150. The top five payouts are: First Place--$800,000 Second Place--$250,000 Third Place--$200,000 Fourth Place--$150,000 Fifth Place--$125,000 Along with...

Steve Byk, who hosts Sirius XM radio magazine 'At the Races With Steve Byk', is once again teaming with the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) for the 'Beat Byk NHC Challenge,' offering a seat at the 2024 National Horseplayers' Championship. Running from July 15 through Sept. 4, Byk will select the weekend stakes races that comprise that week's promotion and announce them his show and on his Twitter page. During the initial promotional period, there will be 17 chances to qualify to the Beat Byk NHC Online Qualifier on September...

Two weeks ago, when I wrote the column "First Crops Yield Derby and Oaks Winners," I'd expected to write about Taiba (Gun Runner) and Secret Oath (Arrogate), the two I'd liked the most in the Gl Kentucky Derby and Gl Kentucky Oaks, respectively. I'd spoken mainly about those two on Steve Byk's popular SiriusXM program "At the Races," and my feeling was that Gun Runner in particular was on a trajectory to get a first-crop Classic winner. His start at stud had been exceptional with his first juveniles, and the...

Steve Byk, whose daily "At The Races With Steve Byk" radio show on Sirius XM Satellite is the sport's longest running Thoroughbred news magazine program, has been named the winner of the 2020 Bill Handleman Memorial Award for outstanding coverage of last year's GI TVG.com Haskell Invitational. Inaugurated in 2012, the Handleman Award honors outstanding media coverage of the Haskell. "Steve's dedication to the sport, his passion for it and his ability to popularize Thoroughbred racing on a national platform were reflected in his broadcasts of the 2019 Haskell," said...

Editor's Note: the following is part of the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation's weekly `Free-Data Friday' series. by Pat Cummings The federal indictments handed down on Monday, March 9 have rippled through the American racing industry, with every indication more are on the way. The results confirmed details which American horseplayers have accounted-for in their analysis over a long period. The veritable dean of those, Andy Beyer, used his platform in the Washington Post as the nation's horseplayer/columnist of record for decades to share his insights informed by observations and data. In...