Wagner’s wagers could be worth $2.5 million

If you see 301 hyperactive horseplayers at Red Rock today and Saturday, don’t be alarmed. The jitters are real, as the contestants pursue a $500,000 first prize in the 11th annual $982,000 Daily Racing Form/NTRA National Handicapping Championship.

The player wearing the biggest bull’s-eye is Bryan Wagner. He already banked $100,000 for winning the NHC Tour and now is going for a $2.5 million payday — $500,000 for winning the NHC and a $2 million bonus for sweeping the Tour and NHC title.

It won’t be easy. The field includes seven defending champions: John Conte (2009), Richard Goodall (2008), Stanley Bavlish (2007), Ron Rippey (2006), Jamie Michelson Jr. (2005), Kent Meyer (2004) and Judy Wagner (2001), Bryan’s wife.

Local interest is high, too. Twelve Nevada residents qualified: Jodi Anderson; Bavlish; Ed De’Ath and his wife, Yu Min; Goodall and his wife, Sally; Dan Kaplan; Mark Kremen; Mike Markham; Mike Rosenthal; Robert Rowlands and Brian Schwade.

Daily online video coverage will be provided by reporter Jill Byrne at twinspires.com. She will be on-site giving periodic score updates and interviews. Online access to the NHC coverage is free.

Handicapping tournaments do a great service by turning the focus around to the most important people in racing, the horseplayers. Without fans betting on horse racing, there is no sport.

It was great seeing John Conte at the recent Eclipse Awards being named Handicapper of the Year. In reality, he symbolized all of the unsung heroes of racing.

Those who didn’t qualify for this year’s NHC won’t have to wait long to try again. On Sunday, Red Rock hosts the first qualifier for the 2011 NHC.

Also, The Orleans is hosting a Sunday qualifier for its Horseplayer World Series, scheduled for Feb. 18 to 20.

More than 120,000 people played in NHC qualifying tournaments trying to reach the final at Red Rock. It’s a positive signal that horseplayers around the country remain passionate about trying to get here.

• BIG SPENDER — During his last week hosting the “Tonight Show” on NBC, Conan O’Brien did a nightly skit in which he spent the network’s money and it couldn’t stop him. O’Brien claimed to have purchased 2009 Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird for $4.8 million. That seems like a bargain compared with the $45 million buyout NBC gave O’Brien.

Richard Eng’s horse racing column is published Friday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He can be reached at rich_eng@hotmail.com.