The free challenge, which began May 6 with 1,738 players, requires a participant to choose one horse each racing day – in six designated races - at least 10 minutes prior to the first race. The selected horse must finish first, second or third for a player to continue.
Two Southern Californians – Mark Niemerow of Thousand Oaks and Rogers Bond of Solana Beach – are among the survivors heading into the 17th day of the contest. The others still playing are Giovanni Oldano of Weston, Fl., Dan Pavlik (Mount Prospect, Il.), Ken Egan (Princeton, N.J.) and Ted Chankin (Hewlett, N.Y.).