Scott Anderson Romps in Player’s Choice
HBPA President and longtime owner has been playing horses for three decades
By G.S. Thompson
Third-generation horseplayer and Manitoba HBPA president Scott Anderson won the Player’s Choice Handicapping Tournament last Saturday by a huge margin, and he didn’t even need his final pick to win.
Even more impressive was that he went winless on his first six selections.
It was the second win in the tourney for Anderson, who built his bankroll to $125.90 to take home the trophy and $1,000. Anderson’s total was $31.20 more than his nearest rival, runner-up Alex Chubinski ($94.70), followed by Bryan Metcalfe ($82.20), Janet Gray ($81.80), and Glen Gray ($76.40), in what turned out to be another tough tournament day for longshots.
Anderson secured his victory with back-to-back longshots in races eight and nine at Gulfstream Park. He hit Little Vic ($18.30, $9.60, $5.00) in the eighth race and Dashman ($39.10, $17.90, $10.00) in the ninth, later discovering he still had one bet left to make – though he didn’t need it. No one was closing in on him.
Six picks into the tournament, the 54-year-old livestock dealer from Lorette, Manitoba hadn’t found a winner. “I just went swinging for the fences,” said Anderson, and his company-line analysis of Little Vic proved perfect. “He just got beat by White Abarrio in his previous race. So I thought, that’s a pretty nice horse, and these horses aren’t as good as that.” And they weren’t.
When Dashman loaded into the gate at 35-1, Anderson had second thoughts. “I thought I must be a fool to be betting a 35-1 shot.” But he trusted the connections of trainer Brian Lynch and jockey Florent Geroux, the price dropped to 19-1 by post time, and Anderson’s faith was rewarded when Dashman got a perfect trip, laying off two duelers before taking command in the stretch.
Horse racing runs deep in Anderson’s blood. His father Barry serves on the Manitoba Jockey Club board, and their family has campaigned horses for three generations in Manitoba. Old photographs in the family collection show their runners winning at Whittier Park and Polo Park.
Anderson learned to handicap as a teenager, making two-dollar bets with handicapping friends Bob Pistawka and Randy Smith. Like many young racing fans in the 1980s, he scoured the grounds at the track looking for discarded tickets. “My biggest win was $2,250 on a Pick-4 ticket that I found,” he said. “I found it after the first leg, and it was actually two live tickets. I got beat in a photo or I would have had it twice.”
Anderson’s tournament success comes from a straightforward philosophy: “Go with your heart,” he said. “Don’t watch the odds. And don’t be sucked into betting favourites.” He relies mainly on high percentage trainers, good riders, and trip handicapping. “If there’s lots of speed in the race and you’ve got a closer, especially if it’s a bit of a longshot, that’s probably the right play.”
While browsing his collection of handicapping books, Anderson recently found wisdom in an unexpected source, a 1958 volume called “Handicapping to Win” by Herbert Stone. “There were no speed figures back then,” said Anderson. “Just chapters on class, turn of foot, things like that.” The timeless importance of turn of foot – a horse’s ability to accelerate quickly – remains as crucial to winning today as it was 65 years ago.
This wasn’t Anderson’s first big score in tournament play. Twenty-five years ago, he was in contention during a two-day tournament at Assiniboia Downs when duty called. “I had to go play hockey, so I left my father-in-law in charge to make my bets,” he said. “He played a horse named Keeper Hill, who went off at 99-1, with all the money I had left in my account.” The horse won Anderson the tournament, and the first prize included a trip to the Florida Derby.
These days, Anderson operates Winnipeg Livestock Sales in Rosser, just down the road from the track. He has campaigned horses at the Downs for decades, including hard-knocking runners like Stevie Mack and the enigmatic Orange Theory, who never won at Assiniboia Downs, but was victorious in a $50,000 stakes race in Alberta and also placed second in a $100,000 stakes race there. He’ll have two horses at the Downs this year with his partners.
Anderson has been playing in the latest rendition of the handicapping tournament, which takes place online using an HPIBet.com account, for the past three years. Tournament coordinator Sheri Glendinning earns high praise from Anderson for providing all the necessary past performances and program information. “She does an exceptional job,” he said. “One hundred percent.”
The next Player’s Choice Handicapping Tournament is scheduled for February 22nd. As for the $1,000 winner’s share from Saturday’s tournament? “It’s already in my top drawer,” Anderson laughed. “I’ll just keep chiseling away at it until it’s gone.” Or until he wins…
Again.