Horse Sense

"THERE'S STRONG," as the ads say, "and then there's Army strong." So it's not surprising that Army sergeant Christopher Lavezza is one of the best horse-pickers in the world. While stationed in Afghanistan last spring, Lavezza, 32, an information technology specialist at the Joint Intelligence Operations Center at Camp Eggers in Kabul , found a way to deal with the rigors of his deployment. The native of Hanover , Pa., spent his free time on the Internet playing the ponies back in the U.S. Last spring, with the help of two long shots at Churchill Downs , he placed fourth in a qualifying competition for the National Handicapping Championship, earning a berth in this weekend's finals in Las Vegas . "I worked mostly on night shifts," says Lavezza, who will travel to Vegas from Stuttgart , Germany , where he's stationed with the 52nd Signal Battalion. "It gave me extra downtime." He'll be a long shot himself in Vegas, competing for the $500,000 first prize against 277 other plungers.