There were not a light of giant prices last week, which means you had to piece together multiple winners in order to have a successful featured-tourney day.

Our “main-event” schedule began (as usual) on Wednesday last week. One notable thing about the day was that it contained the week’s highest-priced winner—Papa Funny ($31.00, $12.20) in the 5th at Tampa Bay Downs.

Christian Orscher came up with the whimsical father—plus three other winners—and he laughed all the way home with a $1,500 seat to the $250,000 Gtd. Flo-Cal Faceoff in his pocket.

Joe Perry (5 firsts, 2 seconds) missed Papa Funny, but he did nail two victors that paid exactly $22.00 in the win hole.

One of the 10-1 shots came in the final contest race—Bahamian Moon ($22.00, $10.20) in the 9th at Tampa. That one got Perry up for the victory in Wednesday’s $5,000 Guaranteed tourney that closed with a final purse of $5,530. Perry got half of that—$2,765.

Michael Somich (3 wins, 2 places) also hit Bahamian Moon at the end.

Somich thereby earned a $1,500 spot in the December 26 Santa Anita Opening Day Challenge.

Bryan Ingram had the two biggest winners ($13.80 and $14.00) on Thursday.

All together, Ingram racked up 5 winners and 1 runner up to claim the $3,235 top prize in Friday’s lone marquee game—our $6,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which ultimately paid out a total of $7,189.

Friday—at least here at HorseTourneys—belonged to “Battlin’” William Smith.

Smith picked 4 winners—topped by Samburu ($17.80, $5.40) in the 9th at Gulfstream—plus 3 runners up to capture Friday’s HT Tour competition, our $15,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which finished up with a pot of $17,123. Smith’s winner’s share came to $7,705.

Smith also used the same 10 selections in the day’s Santa Anita Opening Day Challenge qualifier.

He won again here and added that $1,500 seat to his Friday haul.

Smith wasn’t done grabbing $1,500 seats, however.

Smith finished second in Friday’s Flo-Cal Faceoff qualifier, which had enough entries to distribute three berths. The other two happy players were winner Rick “I-65” Broth (4 wins, 2 places) and 3rd-place finisher—and 2022 NHC Tour champ—Jay Johns (3W, 3P). Unlike Smith, Broth and Johns both nailed the day’s highest-priced winner, Simplify ($21.80, $7.60) in the 8th at Gulfstream.

Marvin Streeter (3 wins, 4 places) and 2017 NHC champion Ray Arsenault (3W, 3P) got the Vegas seats in Friday’s $75 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers.

They, too, both connected with 9-1 Simplify in race 8 at the Hallandale Beach, Fla., oval.

Saturday was our busiest day of the week with nine featured events. Two of the nine were won by Karl Barth.

Barth had both of the day’s $20+ winners—Twenty Four Mamba ($22.60, $8.80) in the 7th at Aqueduct and April Fools Andy ($23.00, $11.00) in race 8 at Tampa—to win the $1,500 spot in the Santa Anita Opening Day Challenge qualifier.

The same picks also worked nicely for Barth in Saturday’s $165 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers.

Finishing nearest to Barth—and also snagging a Vegas berth like Barth—was Steve The Admiral” Nemetz (4 firsts, 0 seconds). Nemetz also scored direct hits on both Twenty Four Mamba and April Fools Andy.

Zach Hinkle (3 firsts, 2 seconds) also had both of the day’s $20.00+ winners.

Hinkle earned $13,167 for taking Saturday’s HT Tour event, our $25,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which closed with a pot of $29,260.

Sunday’s Pegasus World Cup Betting Championship qualifier didn’t fill…but Saturday’s attracted enough entries that we could award a pair of $6,500 packages.

The Pegasus package prevailers were Dr. Ron Tang (4 wins, including both $20 winners and 1 place) and the final champion (in 2019) of the Horse Players World Series, Loyal Sprague (5W, 2P). 

The big Saturday horse for Kevin Harrell was April Fools Andy.

The triumphant Tampa turf horse was one of 3 winners Harrell selected (along with a runner up) en route to a victory worth $8,540 in Saturday’s $7,000 Gtd. Big Bucks tourney, which obviously blew past its guarantee and paid out a total of $$12,213.

Stephen Lerma’s best pick on Saturday was also April Fools Andy.

Lerma (2 firsts, 4 seconds) bagged the $1,000 bankroll for use in the Houston Racing Festival Handicapping Contest on January 27th at Sam Houston…where entries will be limited to 100 and four NHC seats will be bestowed.

Another April Fools Andy fan was Ed Reidy.

April Fools Andy was one of five winners chosen by the victorious Reidy in Saturday’s $179 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Pick & Pray at HorsePlayers. 

Four players on Saturday earned $1,500 spots in the $250,000 Guaranteed Flo-Cal Faceoff. 

Congratulations to Chris Bertolucci (3 wins, 3 places), Michael Caposio (3W, 1P), Joseph Zuer (6W, 2P) and Robert Pennell (also 6W, 2P). Pennell got that fourth and final seat via tiebreaker over Jeff Bussan. Pennell won the tiebreaker because he picked six winners compared to Bussan’s three.

Three Saturday winners didn’t get it done for Bussan, but it worked just fine for Jack Schwartz.

Schwartz got the NHC seat in a $500 Low Ratio play-in at HorsePlayers.

There was also an NHC Low Ratio qualifier at HorsePlayers on Sunday—though this one was restricted to those who had yet to earn a 2024 seat.

Iowan Jeff Hartz was spotted playing in an NHC qualifier at Monmouth Park on Saturday. He did his best work, however, at HorsePlayers on Sunday. On the chalkiest (and wettest) day of the week, Hartz, perhaps playing from 30,000 feet, smoked out both of the day’s double-digit winners (top price: $14.20) to add his name to the 2024 NHC field.

There was also a Sunday NHC qualifier here at HorseTourneys that was open to all.

Samuel Robertson (6 wins, 4 places) and Michael Ryan (5W, 1P) got the Vegas packages in this one. Robertson chipped up repeatedly, while Ryan nailed the two top winners—Quality Chic ($14.20, $4.40) in the 7th at Aqueduct and Macanga ($11.80, $6.60) in race 8 at Gulfstream.

Macanga was the heavy lifter on Sunday for Mike Thomas.

The Gulfstream grass winner was one of nine collections (6 wins, 3 places) for Thomas on his way to pocketing $10,926 in Sunday’s HT Tour game, our $20,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which closed its doors with $24,281 in the kitty.

The other cash-game feature on Sunday was our $7,000 Gtd. Big Bucks tourney. It had a final pot of $10,177.

The winner was 2022 HT Tour champion Travis Pearson, who counted Quality Chic among his 6 firsts and 1 second.

Todd Faro also liked Quality Chic.

Faro (4 wins, 4 places) got the $1,500 seat in Sunday’s play-in to the December 26 Santa Anita Opening Day Challenge—a contest that can be played on-track or at Xpressbet.

David Barnier (2 wins, 3 places) hit both of the available double-digit winners to lead the way in Sunday’s qualifier to the Flo-Cal Faceoff. 

There were enough entries signed on for 2nd-place finisher Dustin “People’s” Korth (2W, 4P) and 3rd-place finisher Wendy Long (3W, 2P) to also get $1,500 Flo-Cal seats. The highest yielder for both Korth and Long was Macanga.

Last but not least, Edward “Baseball” Diamond was the star in the field of the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio Pick & Pray on Sunday at HorsePlayers.

Diamond picked Macanga plus 4 other winners and 3 runners up to come away with the $10,000 seat for next November.

Thanks to all of you for contributing to what was a highly competitive week of featured-tourney play. We should have more where that came from starting on Wednesday. Hope to see you then!