LOUISVILLE — Merv Huber may be too young to legally bet on horse races, but he's not too young to pick a winner and make some money in the process.

        Merv, 15, launched his own Web-based tipsheet last month, and for $10.95 a month, subscribers get his picks for Saturday and Sunday races in the Kentucky circuit, as well as his favorites for this year's Kentucky Derby and Oaks.

        The math whiz and freshman at Trinity High School is known to listeners of ESPN radio as a boy wonder and “world-famous handicapping prodigy.”

        He earned that title by outscoring 12,000 opponents last year in Churchill Downs' Fantasy Stable competition. Merv was disqualified after staffers discovered his age. They consoled him with tickets to this year's Derby.

        Merv is giving his tickets to Kids to the Cup, a group that helps young racing fans attend big racing events. Last year, he and his dad, Marvin, were guests at the Santa Anita Derby in California, courtesy of Kids to the Cup. “It was great. I want another kid to have the experience I did,” Merv said.

        The savvy handicapper hopes to raise enough money from his Web site to pay for college, where he wants to study horsemanship and become a trainer.

        Merv has done no advertising but has 15 subscribers from as far away as Wisconsin, Florida and California.

        Merv says he doesn't have a set system for picking winners, other than studying horses' past performances in the Daily Racing Form. He also studies bloodlines and spends time observing the horses at Churchill Downs.

        He spends two to three hours a day on handicapping or reading about horses. He says he is attracted to horse racing not by the idea of someday winning $1 million in a Pick Six, but rather by “a love for the horse.”

        Merv started handicapping when he was 12. There's a saying in the horse business — “Everyone has an uncle” — and it's true for Merv, too. His passion began when his uncle, Jerry Bloom, threw a 1997 Derby party and Merv picked Silver Charm to win “because he was a gray horse,” he said.

        “He won, and I thought that was coolest,” he said. “I read up on it a bit. It's a bug that bit me.”
       

Wedded bliss amid political mess
Lawyer claims Henry made innocent billing mistakes
Prisoner will die Tuesday - maybe
Lebanon may drop effort to save city's oldest home
Civil War flag lands in a place of honor
Church groups sharing 'Jesus' - and popcorn
Easter fund-raiser a chance to parade pets
Ex-Lebanon official strikes deal
Hamilton cop arrests 2 in holdup
Illegal OxyContin trade proves hard to wipe out
MCNUTT: Good business
Needy kids get computer aid
Place to tour: Madison on national list
Police: DNA points to convicted killer
Report issued on shooting
Teen touts ponies
Young artists draw prize winners
Tristate A.M. Report