A horseplayer battles back

When Sheldon Finkelstein qualified for the Jan. 27-28 NTRA-DRF National Handicapping Championship in mid-July his goal wasn't to win the $2 million contest but to live long enough to compete in it. Two months earlier, when diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, Finkelstein was told he would likely be dead in about a month. To make it all the way until late January seemed out of the question.

But one thing Finkelstein, 62, has learned during a lifetime spent playing the horses is that you should never count out a live long shot. And now he's living proof. The NHC begins in 52 days and Finkelstein is alive, isn't feeling that bad and is pretty sure he's going to make it.

"I'm still alive," he said. "I've got to make it to this tournament. The victory is making it to January. If I come in last, that's insignificant; it has nothing to do with it. If I make it to January and I am actually there that's the win."

Some 500 handicappers will gather at the end of the month and one will walk away with the first prize of $1 million. Finkelstein would love to win the money and says that if he did he would donate much of it to cancer research. But winning the contest has never been his focus. From the day he qualified at a contest in Del Mar, he penciled the dates of the finals on his calendar and simply decided he would make it to the contest. So far, his will is triumphing over his disease.

“

If I feel good when I wake up in the morning that's what I do, go play horses, play poker, hang out with my friends.

” -- Sheldon Finkelstein, NHC qualifier

Since the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, among the most deadly forms of the disease, Finkelstein has worked hard at having fun. Another goal was to go to Del Mar for opening day, which he did. Now a Nevada resident, he came back home to New York to visit old friends and to take in a Mets game, something he hadn't done for some 30 years.

"I keep myself busy doing what I like to do," he said. "If I feel good when I wake up in the morning that's what I do, go play horses, play poker, hang out with my friends."

While he still plays the horses and poker every chance he gets, the task of concentrating on a full racing card or a long poker game has grown more difficult.

"It's the medication. It makes me forget what I am doing half the time," he said. "Concentration is tough, also, staying alert for long periods of time. I'll be OK for a couple of hours, but then I get tired and lose interest. It's the same thing with poker tournaments. I can play for an hour or two, but if they go on for three or four hours I just want to go home."

He knows that he's going to be up against it at the NHC, where a handicapper has to be mentally sharp and focused for two straight days to have any chance. He said he would have people there to help him, including his oncologist, who will be in town for a medical conference.

Finkelstein says that his doctors are amazed that he is doing so well and has made it this far. But he holds out no hope that there will be a miracle. He fully expects that this will be his last NHC.

"I had the same operation that Steve Jobs had," he said. "Except that it's in my lymph nodes, which is worse. He had it in his liver, had a transplant and was OK for about seven years. Usually, the maximum amount of time is five years and that's without having it in your lymph nodes. I know I have a very limited amount of time. Anything is possible, but I don't see myself being here in a year."

But he does see himself being here in 52 days. If so, he'll be the NHC's biggest winner, no matter where he might finish.

Bill Finley is an award-winning racing writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, USA Today and Sports Illustrated. Contact him at wnfinley@aol.com.

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