Hochstetler takes week; No Change in top two

(November 16, 2017) – Rusty Nash maintains his lead for the sixth straight week going into the harness racing penultimate leg of the 2017 Hambletonian Society Grand Circuit Handicapping Challenge with Gordon Waterstone in hot pursuit. However, the top handicapper for the week was last year's champion, Jay Hochstetler, who correctly selected three winners out of the four races on the Matron Stakes card contested on Thursday, November 16.

With his three winners for the day, Hochstetler had a daily net profit of $21.40, $9.20 ahead of Matt Rose who had two winners on the card. Finishing third for the day was Dennis O'Hara, who had a net profit of $1.40.

As Nash and Waterstone came up with the same horses this week, Nash maintains his 23.7 point advantage over Waterstone. While next week has eight races scheduled for the contest slate, it appears the two leaders are competing for gold and silver positions while the next five handicappers (Anne Stepien, Megan Maccario, Sally Hinckley, Rose, and O'Hara) will be competing for the final pay-off position over the final two contest legs.