Eric Moomey
Eric Moomey, a 42-year-old lieutenant colonel in the United States Air Force, won one of the final brick-and-mortar National Handicapping Championship (NHC) qualifier of the year at Monmouth Park on Dec. 27 to clinch the title of 2014 Daily Racing Form NHC Tour Champion and the $75,000 first-place prize. Should Moomey go on to win the 16th Daily Racing Form/NTRA National Handicapping Championship Television Network, Sovereign Stable and Treasure Island Las Vegas, set for Jan. 23-25 at Treasure Island, he will receive a $2 million bonus in addition to that event's first prize of at least $750,000 (the complete purse breakdown will be announced prior to NHC 16). "I've got as good of a chance as anyone," Moomey said. "The one thing I have going for me is that I tend to run on hot streaks of about six to eight weeks." With a background in mechanical and astronomical engineering, Moomey has an insatiable appetite for data and knows what to do with it. His win in the NHC Tour comes less than three years after he played in his first handicapping contest. "When I got started I did some homegrown data analysis and looked for trends that are not obvious," he said. "There are various programs out there that help provide me with the data I use but generally I'm looking for anything that's unique or different." Moomey's success is only the latest in a line of NHC and NHC Tour winners whose methods go well beyond the basic angles and adages that guide casual handicappers. "I've always been good at math and I find it intellectually stimulating. So I can sit there with data and crunch it all day long. It turns out I have a hobby that pays me money. Other people like to go golfing or watch sports; I like to manipulate data. I'm looking for inefficiencies in the marketplace. It's hard to find in the stock market but there are opportunities within horseracing.