After hitting 42-1 cap horse Ticking in Saturday’s 10th race at Gulfstream Park, Michael Solakis of Toronto gained a lead he would never relinquish in the 5th annual Flo-Cal Faceoff held here at HorseTourneys on January 20-21.

Solakis earned $157,470 for finishing first overall and an additional $10,935 in bonus money for having the best Day 1 score on Saturday. The total purse for the two-day Flo-Cal Faceoff—which carries a $1,500 buy-in and requires contestants to make mythical $2.00 win-and-place selections on each race of the Gulfstream and Santa Anita Park cards—was $433,417.

With the victory, Solakis also received 100 points in the new HorseTourneys Grand Slam series, which will award seats to all four 2025 Grand Slam events to the top points earner. The 2024 series will continue with the April 6-7 Players Championship, followed by August’s Spa & Surf Showdown and the inaugural edition of the Pick & Pray® Classic on November 30-December 1. In each event, players earn 100 points for a first-place finish, 99 points for a second-place performance, 98 for third, right on down to 1 point for a 100th-place finish. (Only a player’s top score counts if he or she places two entries within the top 100 of a given tourney.)

Although big prices were in short supply during the two-day Flo-Cal Faceoff, Solakis’s triumph was hardly a case of a player just getting lucky with one big longshot.

At about 4:05 pm ET on Saturday, with approximately half of the Day 1 races in the books, here’s how the standings looked:

Steve Abelman and Joe Migliore were essentially alternating on the lead for a good portion of the early races. Sitting in third was Solakis. And not far behind those three was the 2020 (and first-ever) Flo-Cal Faceoff champion Tom Blosser.

Then came the Ticking race—a two-other-than allowance at 7 furlongs on the dirt. By then, Migliore and Solakis had each moved up one place in the standings to 1st and 2nd, respectively. Abelman had dropped back to 3rd. Here’s who they had as the starting gates sprang open for that 10th at Gulfstream.

And here’s how the standings looked when Ticking’s length-and-a-quarter victory was made official.

Solakis now had the lead, followed closely by Diane McClyment. Those two remained one-two heading into the final contest race of the day, the 9th at Santa Anita. As they race began and the HorseTourneys Flo-Cal page refreshed, it was revealed that Solakis—and four of the next seven in the standings—were all on 11-1 proposition Smooth Salute.

These guys are good.

Solakis had, thus, extended his lead to a formidable $42.20 over fellow Smooth Salute backer Tim Yohler, who was just 20 cents ahead of Dennis Tiernan. That 20-cent difference was significant, however, as it meant $6,561 in Day money for Yohler and $3,281 for Tiernan. The remaining $1,084 in Saturday bonus money went to Mark Stillmock, who finished Saturday in 4th place.

For the day, Solakis finished with 9 winners and 2 runners up from 20 races—good for the top Day-money bonus of $10,935.

His final seven Saturday collections were all winners.

As it turned out, Smooth Salute was the second-highest-returning winner of the whole tournament—which meant that Solakis had them both.

Sunday’s biggest payoff among 18 contest races (10 at Gulfstream and 8 at Santa Anita) came from Gav’s Dream Girl ($17.80, $6.40) early in the day in race 3 at Hallandale, Fla., oval. With nothing higher than 7-1 coming in on Sunday, it meant it was going to be very tough to catch Solakis—and no one did.

Solakis did dodge one potential “mini-bullet” near the end of Sunday.

With two races left, he had a $34.20 lead over Tim Yohler. The winner of the next race, race 7 at Santa Anita would turn out to be first-time starter Simply Enchanting ($14.80, $6.60)—a winner that wouldn’t vault anyone over Solakis, but one that would certainly change the dynamic going into the final race. When the runners broke from the gate, here’s who, among the leaders, was on Simply Enchanting:

Just Lawrence Kahlden way down in 20th place. So Solakis’s lead remained intact and whole heading into the nightcap.

The 8th and final at Santa Anita set up beautifully for Solakis. It was a seven-horse field, six of them went off at 8-1 or below, and the only other horse was 33-1 Vincero Grande…so Solakis protected himself by playing the longshot. Here’s how the leaderboard looked while the race was going on. 

And here’s how the result chart looked after the race was over.

You know it’s your day—and your weekend—when even the plays you make purely out of protection provide you with nice returns. After his blockbuster Day 1, Solakis chipped up with another 4 firsts and 4 seconds on Sunday. His Day 2 score was the 13th best of all of all 331 entries.

Based on those Day 2 tallies, Brett Wiener got the top Sunday Day money of $10,935; Christian Orscher pocketed $6,561; John Gaspar collected $3,281 and Jake Brown picked up $1,094.

On the overall leaderboard, the four players who rounded out the Top 5 after Solakis were Tim Yohler ($62,988), Mark Stillmock ($31,494), FOX Sports’ Chris “The Bear” Fallica ($23,620) and Stephan Gravina ($19,684). Here’s a list of all 28 who finished “in the money”:

And here’s who competed the Top 100:

Remember: If you finished in the Top 100, you earned Grand Slam points that can win you one of three series bonus prizes at the end of the series.

As for Michael Solakis, this was his first victory in a HorseTourneys “major”…but not his first profitable experience in one.

Thanks to all of you who braved the stiff competition (and the wet Santa Anita weather forecasts) to make the 2024 Flo-Cal Faceoff the fun event that it was.

Next up in the 2024 HorseTourneys Grand Slam series is what used to be Michael Solakis’s favorite tourney — the Players Championship on April 6-7.

The Players Championship is contested in All Optional Live format with players making 15 plays each day from 30 eligible contest races. So strategy and discretion figure to be particularly key in that one. Stay alert…Players Championship qualifiers will begin soon.