Home of the Arlington Million
JOE KRISTUFEK
Joe Kristufek is a self proclaimed "horse racing ambassador." He currently serves as the racing writer for the Daily Herald newspaper in Chicago where he has been the area's leading published handicapper for seven of the last eight seasons. He also plies his trade as Arlington Park’s morning-line maker and program comments writer, and is involved in several educational projects within the Chicago horse racing industry. Kristufek serves as the content coordinator for horseplayerpro.com and is a regular column and blog contributor for ntra.com.
Under the umbrella of his company DAK Productions, Inc., Kristufek built Horsin’ Around TV (2003-2005), a horse racing magazine show, from scratch. The program aired on Fox Sports Chicago in 2003 and 2004 and on Comcast SportsNet Chicago in 2005, and he served as the program’s producer and host. Kristufek was also employed by The Racing Network as an on-air host and content coordinator (2000 and 2001), and he has done just about every publicity-related job imaginable during his 16 years in the industry. He takes great pride in educating potential horse racing fans, while keeping current enthusiasts interested and informed. RON UCHMAN
Ron Uchman has been one of the country’s top public handicappers for the last several years. In the past he has enjoyed stints at several publications, including the Daily Racing Form, The Minneapolis Star and
Tribune, as well as a number of “tip sheets” and was one of the original handicappers for Great Britain’s “At The Races” betting network. Currently he writes comments and does selections for the Chicago area’s Thoroughbred racetracks.
MARCUS HERSH
Marcus Hersh has been a correspondent and handicapper for the Daily Racing Form for eight years. He has covered the race meets in Chicago and New Orleans, and travelled to major racing events around the country and across the world. He lives in Chicago with his wife and daughter.
M. SCOTT MCMANNIS
M. Scott McMannis attended Rockford College, the University of Illinois, and Northern Illinois University, majoring and earning degrees in Economics, Business Administration, Finance, and Business Education. He was a Professor of Economics and Business before becoming an Academic Affairs Dean.
In 1982 McMannis left higher ed and designed, implemented, and operated the horseracing industry’s first full-service Handicappers’ Information Center at Arlington Park. In his 26 years in the racing industry McMannis has taught thousands of fans the enjoyment of handicapping.
McMannis has been a writer and handicapper for most major racing publications including the Daily Racing Form, the Racing Times, American Turf Monthly, Illinois Racing News, HorsePlayer Magazine, and the Chicago Sun-Times. He has also been a presenter at the national Handicapping Expos.
McMannis has been featured in numerous other publications including the Chicago Tribune, the Daily Herald, the Northwest Herald, the Hammond Times, the Milwaukee Journal, the Rockford Register-Star, and Crain’s Chicago Business. He has also been highlighted in major books by James Quinn, William Quirin, and Steve Davidowitz who, in his most recent book, The Best and Worst of Thoroughbred Racing, identified McMannis as one of the nine best handicappers in the country.
STEVEN CRIST
Steven Crist has been playing the races and writing about them since a chance trip to Wonderland Greyhound Park in 1976 put a quick end to studying 18th-century English literature. He was the horse-racing columnist for The New York Times from 1981 through 1990; founding editor-in-chief of The Racing Times in 1991-92; a New York racetrack executive from 1994 to 1997; and in 1998 assembled an investment group that purchased Daily Racing Form, where he served as the chief executive until 2002 and remains as the chairman and publisher. Crist is the author of the books Offtrack, The Horse Traders, Betting on Myself and Exotic Betting, and co-author of Bet With the Best and the recently released Bet With the Best 2: Longshots.
MIKE WATCHMAKER
Mike Watchmaker has been National Handicapper for Daily Racing Form since 1998. This is his second stint with the newspaper. He first served with the Form from 1980 to 1991, primarily as New York columnist. After that, Watchmaker was the New York reporter and handicapper for The Racing Times, and then provided speed figures for the New York Racing Association's past performance program before joining NYRA as morning line maker and program handicapper. He is a co-author of the DRF Press title Bet With the Best as well as the recently released follow-up Bet With the Best 2: Longshots.
STEVE DAVIDOWITZ
Steve Davidowitz, author of The Best and Worst of Thoroughbred Racing, and contributing author to Bet with The Best-2 (longshots), has been a professional handicapper, reporter, editor, columnist and consultant to newspapers, magazines and Internet websites for more than three decades. . .He also is the author of the influential and best-selling handicapping book, Betting Thoroughbreds, (Dutton/Plume), now in its 12th printing.
An active horseplayer who manages a successful pick-six wagering syndicate, Steve has contributed several op-ed columns and investigative reports for The New York Times; was a featured columnist and Executive Editor of Turf and Sport Digest Magazine and helped design and reconfigure racing pages for the Star Tribune of Minneapolis, The Oakland Tribune, The Philadelphia Journal, The Racing Times, St. Petersburg Times and Houston Post. Steve also has written hundreds of features about the game's greatest stars and a like number of hard hitting columns about racing issues from the player's perspective.
Best known for his revolutionary handicapping ideas, Steve brought to the racing lexicon ‘Track Bias', ‘Key Races' and ‘Trainer Patterns', all of which have become fundamental handicapping concepts. In public forums, Davidowitz' most outstanding handicapping achievements include 13 straight Best Bet winners and 20 out of 22 during one red hot month chronicled in Sports Illustrated; nine difficult to achieve winning seasons in various media; the exact 1-2-3 order of finish in the 1978 Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes; plus, the cold 1-2-3 Trifectas in 10 other Triple Crown races, including the 1997 Kentucky Derby, the 2007 Preakness and eight different runnings of the Belmont stakes!
Today, Davidowitz continues to write regular columns for Daily Racing Form's Simulcast Weekly and the drf.com web site; TrackMaster.com and Bodoglife.com, as well as other Internet outlets. He lives in Las Vegas, Nevada and can be reached at davidwtz@aol.com.