The month of December began with a bang last Friday for several HorseTourneys players—especially Eric Brothers.

Brothers (4 firsts, 2 seconds) had the day’s biggest winner, Conspiracy Fact ($16.80, $6.60) in the 6th at Tampa…but he did almost as well with one of his runners up, getting a capped $22.00 place payoff with 31-1 Flawless Bourbon in race 7 at the Oldsmar oval.

It all added up to a victory worth $8,004 in Friday’s $15,000 Guaranteed Pick & Pray, an HT Tour event that closed with a purse of $17,788.

The same selections also earned Brothers a $1,500 berth in the Santa Anita Opening Day Challenge later this month.

Here, there was room for a second grand prize winner and that other spot went to Gregory Lewis (5 wins, 2 places). Both Lewis and Brothers had Aqueduct race 6 winner My Man Matty ($15.00, $7.80) on their scorecards.

There weren’t many bombs during the week, which meant some highly competitive featured tourneys with seemingly countless paths to victory. The only multiple winners besides Brothers were Kevin Willett and Temecula, Calif., car dealer Michael Caposio.

Willett (5 wins, 1 place) and Jeffrey Amster (3W, 1P) got the $1,500 entries in Saturday’s Santa Anita Opening Day Challenge qualifier. They both enjoyed the performance of Better Than Gold ($21.40, $6.00) in the 6th at Del Mar.

Willett’s final score was even better in Saturday’s play-in to the Pegasus World Cup Betting Championship.

Here, Willett turned his place collection into a sixth winner, and he got the lucrative $6,500 Pegasus package.

The next day, it was Caposio’s turn to win a pair of top prizes.

Caposio drove off with a Santa Anita Opening Weekend seat after capturing Sunday’s qualifier to the December 26th contest. His best choice among 3 firsts and 2 seconds was Choose Joy ($15.40, $7.00) in the 10th at Gulfstream. Finishing second and also grabbing a $1,500 entry was Karl Barth (4W, 4P).

Caposio also got a good deal in Sunday’s qualifier to the $250,000 Gtd. Flo-Cal Faceoff here on January 20-21.

A third-place finish by Caposio here performed like a runaway winner since there were enough entries to award three spots. The two who finished in front of him were Michael Solakis (3 wins, 3 places) and NHC Hall of Famer Paul Shurman (3W, 2P). The top two both had the day’s biggest price, Rastaman Vibe ($20.60, $6.80) in the opener at Del Mar.

Caposio did his best work on Sunday, but the featured-tourney week began on Wednesday—and that was also a good day for Italians.

R. Paul Capone (1 win, 4 places) made off with the cash—$2,612 to be precise—in Wednesday’s $5,000 Guaranteed tourney, which was ultimately worth a total of $5,806. Capone’s guns were really blazing at the end of race 8 at Parx when Johnnyslittlegirl won and paid $48.60 to win and $19.60 to place.

Meanwhile, Wednesday’s Flo-Cal Faceoff play-in went to Joe Petrella (1 first, 3 seconds).

Like Capone, Petrella had just one winner, but it, too, was a big one—Cugine ($48.00, $14.80) in the 8th at Mahoning Valley. 

There was just one marquee game on the Thursday schedule, our $6,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which had a takeout to players of 2.6%.

Due to a paucity of afternoon tracks open and available to us, this tourney was run at night on the Penn National and Charles Town cards. There were only two double-digit  winners between the two tracks—and Daniel Zaretsky ended November on a high note by nailing them both. One paid $10.20 and the other was a whopper—Danny’s Winkster ($87.00, $19.60) in the final contest race, the 9th at Charles Town. We don’t know whether the “name factor” played any role in Zaretsky’s final-race selection, but, in any event, his big hit at the end resulted in a $2,700 payday.

Moving on to Friday tourneys that were not won by Eric Brothers…there were three $1,500 seat earners in the day’s Flo-Cal Faceoff qualifier.

Congratulations to Evan Trommer (3 wins, 2 places), Peter Rogers (3W, 3P) and Dan Horvat (4W, 2P). Trommer’s best return came via the max $22.00 place payoff provided by Flawless Bourbon. (All of his winners paid $8.20 or less.)

Friday’s $75 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers awarded two seats…but, really, there were four winners.

Anthony Spinazzola and Jeff Higgins finished 2nd and 3rd, respectively, but they were both already double qualified and, thus, playing just for NHC Tour points—of which they each got a lot. The two to earn Vegas spots from this one were 1st-place finisher Joshua Ochlech, who flew out of the gate like Pine Tree Lane with 4 straight winner on the way to 6 firsts and 2 seconds. Jeff Van Drie recorded 3 wins and a place to check in fourth and grab the other available seat. Both Ochlech and Van Drie connected with Conspiracy Fact ($16.80, $6.60) in the 6th at Tampa Bay Downs.

The richest tourney of the week was Saturday’s $25,000 Guaranteed No Limit game, an HT Tour competition.

Robert Hannan pocketed the hefty $13,305 winner’s share after posting 3 firsts and 2 seconds. His collections were topped by Zona Verde ($23.60, $9.20) in race 5 at Del Mar. The game closed with a final pot of $29,568.

Another Robert showed the way in Saturday’s open, $165 NHC qualifier here at HorseTourneys.

The happy Robert here was Robert “Bat” Masterton, who picked 6 winners plus a runner up. Andrew Weiss (5W, 1P) did almost as well, and he was also rewarded with a Vegas seat. The highest common denominator on their scoresheets was 9-1 Better Than Gold in the 6th at Del Mar.

In Saturday’s Flo-Cal Faceoff qualifier, Donal Lydon took control early and never let go.

Lydon picked five double-digit winners—all over the first seven contest races—to take this tourney in wire-to-wire fashion. Happily for Robert Zuer (4 wins, 2 places) and Tim Moline (5W, 2P), there were enough entries for us to award a total of three Flo-Cal seats.

Better Than Gold was the best of four winners selected by David Barnier.

Barnier earned $6,411 for taking Saturday’s $7,000 Gtd. Big Bucks Pick & Pray, which closed its doors with $9,159 in the kitty.

Saturday’s highest score (by 10 cents) was achieved at HorsePlayers by Robert Courtney.

Courtney (5 firsts, 2 seconds) came up with both of the day’s $20.00+ horses, and he was the victor in Saturday’s NHC qualifier that was restricted to non-winners of a 2024 seat.

The other Saturday feature at HorsePlayers was a $179 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge qualifier that went off as an overlay to the participants.

The beneficiary of the overlay opportunity was Guy “Condredge” Holloway who, like Robert Courtney, found his way to both of the $20 winners lurking among the 12 contest races.

On Sunday, there was a $7,000 Gtd. Big Bucks tourney that was certainly not a financial success here at HorseTourneys as only five players signed on, resulting in a 21.7% overlay to the players. It was also not much of an artistic success, given that the result was lopsided. Nevertheless, it may just have been the most noteworthy tourney of the week.

The winner of the $4,900 grand prize was John Fasola, whose 5 winners and 4 runners up gave him a score of $106.60. 

First of all, Fasola won by a whopping $60.10. Even more remarkable was that Fasola’s score in this five-player game was the highest Sunday score of the day. For all of you other Sunday winners, be glad that you didn’t take Fasola on in the Big Bucks tourney!

Fasola was the only Sunday player to crack triple figures. The only other two to exceed the $90 mark both did battle in the $210 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers.

And those two were both rewarded seats. Congrats to Jerome Linderman (6W, 0P) and Patrick Kennedy (5W, 2P). They both had the day’s biggest price—Rastaman Vibe ($20.60, $6.80) in the 1st at Del Mar.

The other marquee game at HorsePlayers on Sunday was a Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio play-in.

Last year’s NHC Tour champ Jay Johns picked 4 winners and another 4 runners up to emerge with the $10,000 seat. His best return came with 6-1 Choose Joy in the 10th at Gulfstream.

Howard Blumberg (5 firsts, 1 second) also chose Choose Joy.

Blumberg took top honors in Sunday’s HT Tour event, our $20,000 Guaranteed tourney, and he bagged $9,154.

Rick “I-65” Broth also took home a very nice Sunday prize.

Broth’s winners weren’t flashy. His best one was Sand and Sea ($11.60, $5.60) in race 9 at Gulfstream. In all, though, Broth accumulated 5 firsts plus a second to garner a $6,500 package in Sunday’s Pegasus World Cup Betting Championship qualifier.

Congratulations to all of last week’s winners. Before I depart, the HorseTourneys accounting staff asked me to mention that we have Big Bucks games every Sunday (and on Saturdays too). Operators are standing by to take your entries. These games are a lot of fun…even if they occasionally come up a bit tough.