SANTA ANITA WILL ALSO BE HOSTING A SERIES OF FOUR LIVE-MONEY CONTESTS BEGINNING MARCH 1 & 2, THESE OFFERINGS ARE IN ADDITION TO THE TRACK’S $40 HANDICAPPING CONTESTS EACH WEEKEND

ARCADIA, Calif. (Jan. 30, 2014)–Regular Santa Anita attendee Jose Arias, a 36-year-old environmental safety engineer who resides in nearby Bell Gardens, topped a field of 500 of America’s best handicappers to win the Daily Racing Form/NTRA National Handicapping Championship (NHC) held this past weekend at Treasure Island, Las Vegas and will share his handicapping expertise via live television from Santa Anita on Saturday.

Arias will be the special guest of Santa Anita VIP Player Concierge, Tom Quigley, beginning at 11:20 a.m. in the East Paddock Gardens. The 40-minute seminar is open to the public and will be broadcast live via Santa Anita’s simulcast feed, available at Santaanita.com and at CalRacing.com. Santa Anita will also host a party for Arias and his family and friends in the track’s exclusive Eddie Logan Suite throughout the afternoon.

“We want to congratulate Jose on his big win and we’re looking forward to having him join us here at Santa Anita this Saturday,” said Nate Newby, Santa Anita Vice President, Marketing. “Jose is a young guy who like so many of our customers, is passionate about our sport and motivated by its interactive nature. We’re hoping to be able to get his story out and we’re excited that he’s going to be presenting the trophy for this Saturday’s Grade I Las Virgenes Stakes.

“Our players are the backbone of our industry and Jose is a guy that has lots to offer–not only in terms of his ability to handicap races, but in his ability to share ideas and concepts that will help us grow this great sport and hopefully develop many thousands of players like him.

“With that in mind, we intend to host many more handicapping contests and NHC qualifiers in the future and we want tournament players everywhere to know they are welcome anytime here at Santa Anita.”

Newby also noted that in addition to the track’s $40 buy-in contests each weekend, Santa Anita will soon announce details on a series of four live-money handicapping contests beginning March 1 & 2.

More than 3,200 NHC Tour members participated in the 2013 qualifiers, hoping to win a coveted spot in the NHC Finals.