With almost all of last week’s featured tourneys being Pick & Prays, there was plenty of successful multi-tabling on display. Certain players, however, just seemed like they couldn’t be stopped at any point—especially Peter Rinato and Dr. Ronald Tang. 

Rinato was the first of several last week who used the same picks to win more than one event in a given day. On Wednesday, his four-win effort got him a $1,500 seat (along with Ronald Tang) in the day’s Santa Anita Opening Day Challenge qualifier and also the $2,861 top prize in Wednesday’s $5,000 guaranteed cash game, which closed with a purse of $6,359.

Rinato came back strong on Thursday, and he picked up a seat to the $250,000 Gtd. Flo-Cal Faceoff.

Rinato (2 wins, 3 places) made collections in each of the first 4 contest races, including one with Winter Princess ($21.00, $9.60) in the 5th at Gulfstream to help secure his Thursday triumph.

On Friday, the Amazon Prime truck arrived yet again at the Rinato residence.

This time, the driver was bearing the same gift as on Thursday—a $1,500 Flo-Cal Faceoff entry. Mo Vanishing ($24.20, $9.80) in the 5th at Gulfstream was one of Rinato’s four Friday winners. In all Rinato won four tourneys in three days. Impressive!

Let’s not forget about Ben Gibson and Dane Moore. They each got Flo-Cal berths as well in this one, even though they just picked one winner each—cap horse Off the Meds ($154.20, $29.80) in race 6 at Tampa Bay Downs.

We mentioned earlier that Dr. Ronald Tang earned a Santa Anita seat on Wednesday for finishing second to Rinato. As was the case with Rinato, that Wednesday Santa Anita seat was far from the end of Tang’s weekly winnings.

Tang (4 firsts, 1 second) got himself a second Santa Anita spot on Thursday, thanks in part to his selection of Mobil Chic ($19.20, $8.00) in the 8th at Mahoning Valley.

Tang’s third Christmas-week victory was his best one.

Four winners—topped by Double Crown ($22.20, $6.00) in the 8th at Laurel—earned Tang a $10,000 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge entry for next November in Saturday’s $179 Pick & Pray at HorsePlayers.

It’s not often that someone wins on three different days in a five-day featured-tourney week. Recording victories on two days is pretty rare—though two players managed to accomplish that last week.

The one Thursday tourney that didn’t go to Peter Rinato or Ronald Tang went the way of Ronald “Winter” Cote, who defeated Rinato and 108 others in Thursday’s $6,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which finished up with a pot of $7,603. Cote had Winter Princess among his 5 firsts and 1 second, and he came away with the up-top money of $3,421.

Forty-eight hours later, Cote was one of four to land $1,500 seats to the Flo-Cal Faceoff.

The other three to snag spots in the $250,000 Guaranteed two-day tourney next month were 1st-place finisher Jim Colbert (5 wins, 2 places), runner up Mark Wilgard (3W, 1P), and 4th-place finisher Adam Lewis (4W, 3P). The top two both came up with 10-1 Laurel race 8 victor Double Crown.

It’s appropriate that Wilgard had Double Crown—because Saturday was something of a Double Crown day for him.

Terrence Frank led the way in Saturday’s $165 NHC Pick & Pray at HorsePlayers, but he was already double qualified and, thus, playing for NHC Tour points. That left the March 2024 seats to Wilgard (3 wins, 1 place) and 2005 NHC champion Jamie Michelson (5 wins, 4 places). 

Another player who won on two different days last week was Evan Trommer. Actually, that’s only half the story—because Trommer captured two grand prizes on each day.

Trommer racked up 2 firsts and 3 seconds—led by Souper Blessing ($26.20, $9.40) in Saturday’s final contest race, the 11th at Gulfstream. That got Trommer $8,549 in Saturday’s $7,000 Gtd. Big Bucks Pick & Pray, which ultimately paid out a total of $12,213. It also got him 4th-place—good for a $1,500 seat—in Saturday’s Santa Anita Opening Day Challenge play-in. The three in front of Trommer were fellow seat earners Chris Bahr (2 wins, 4 places), Blake Courtney (3W, 2P) and Mark Hackworth (4W, 2P).

On Sunday, Trommer (4 firsts, 2 seconds) made it a clean sweep of the weekend Big Bucks tourneys.

This time, his Big Bucks haul came to $4,986 and his second “daily double-up” was completed by a victory over at HorsePlayers in the Low Ratio Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge qualifier. Trommer used the same picks in each tourney, including Star Kanoo ($20.20, $9.00) in race 5 at Tampa Bay Downs.

Anthony “ATM” Mattera had a daily double-up of his own. It occurred on Saturday, and his victories were two very nice ones.

Mattera compiled 4 winners and 1 runner up to bag $15,800 in Saturday’s $25,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray (an HT Tour event), which was ultimately worth a total of $35,112, and he also garnered a $6,500 package to the January 27th Pegasus World Cup Betting Championship, narrowly running down Ronald Tang at the end.

Rewinding back to the start of the featured-tourney week on Wednesday, we see that Rafael Lopez (2 wins, 1 place) and Bryan Ingram (2W, 2P) added their names to the list of participants for the Jan. 20-21 Flo-Cal Faceoff.

Lopez’s big horse was Boca Royalty ($45.80, $16.20) in the 8th at Parx. Ingram’s was Runaway Diva ($33.40, $12.00) in race 8 at Tampa.

The Friday HT Tour event winner was Sean O’Malley.

O’Malley had the day’s two biggest prices—Off the Meds ($154.20, $29.80) in the 6th at Tampa and Mo Vanishing ($24.20, $9.80) in race 8 at Gulfstream. Those two winners plus a place collection earned O’Malley the highest score of the day…and $9,800 in Friday’s $15,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which wound up with $21,778 in the kitty.

Turner West (2 wins, 1 place) and Tyler Hoffman (also 2W, 1P) got the $1,500 ducats in Friday’s play-in to the Santa Anita Opening Day Challenge.

West went deep with Tampa 76-1 shot Off the Meds. Hoffman’s most potent prescription was Mo Vanishing, an 11-1 winner of the 8th at Gulfstream.

Going (with) Off the Meds worked out well for Derek Dickson (2 wins, 0 places) and Greg Knepper (4W, 2P) on Friday.

They were the two winners of cut-rate NHC seats in Friday’s $75 qualifier at HorsePlayers.

Saturday was the day of last week’s lone qualifier to the January 27th Houston Racing Festival Handicapping Contest.

Kerry Bassore and Justin Zadnichek were the two to earn $1,000 HRFHC bankrolls in this one. They each finished with 5-win, 1-place scorecards that included Gulfstream race 11 winner Souper Blessing ($26.20, $9.40).

Kip Ginsburg’s four Saturday winners all paid double digits.

Ginsburg earn the seat in Thursday’s $210 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers. This battle was restricted to those who had yet to secure a 2024 seat.

Three people punched their tickets to Vegas on Sunday.

Michael Guadagno (5 wins, 2 places) and Tom O’Connor (3W, 3P) did so in Sunday’s “regular,” $165 Pick & Pray here at HorseTourneys. They both profited by picking Star Kanoo ($20.20, $9.00) in race 5 at Tampa.

Shad Walton (5 wins, 2 places) got his NHC berth in Sunday’s $500 Low Ratio play-in at HorsePlayers.

Walton, too, had Star Kanoo.

Star Kanoo was among three straight winners for Brian O’Keefe at the outset of Sunday’s HT Tour event, our $20,000 Guaranteed Pick & Pray, which ended up with a Christmas Eve pot of $21,778.

O’Keefe finished with 5 firsts and 2 seconds, and $11,812 wound up in his stocking.

Stephen Gravina also finished with 5 firsts and 2 seconds…though he took, largely, the opposite approach of O’Keefe’s.

Gravina’s 5 winners came in the final five contest races of Sunday’s Pegasus World Cup Betting Championship qualifier.

The same picks also got Gravina a Christmas Eve seat to the Santa Anita Opening Day Challenge.

Gravina finished in between fellow “SAODC” contestants Matthew Vagvolgyi (6W, 1P) and Brooks “Was Here” Schuler (4W, 2P).

Last but not least, four players won their way into the $250,000 Guaranteed Flo-Cal Faceoff here on Jan. 20-21.

Congratulations to Pete Algero (4 wins, 2 places), Robin Buser (3W, 1P), Hubert Gaffney (3W, 4P) and Robert Grace (4W, 4P).

Thanks to all of you for spending a portion of your Christmas week with us. We hope it was a nice one for you and yours. This week, we’ll count down to the end of the year with five final days of 2023 featured-tourney action. Hope to see you then…