It was a busy week with 34 featured tourneys, and Michael Caposio and Jeff VanDrie combined to finish first in six of them.

For Temecula, Calif., car dealer Caposio, the big day was Wednesday.

Caposio drove off with a $3,500 Keeneland Grade One Gamble entry thanks to 4 wins and 1 place. His best pick was Hotpot—an 18-1 winner of race 10 at Parx.

Those same selections also got Caposio behind the wheel of a $2,000 Players Championship entry.

Riding shotgun with Caposio in this one was Jim “Never” Settle, who had 4 firsts (including Hotpot) and 2 seconds to finish second and earn the other available spot in the $350,000 Guaranteed second leg of the 2024 HorseTourneys Grand Slam here on April 6-7.

In Wednesday’s $5,000 Guaranteed tourney, Caposio got a cash-back incentive of $3,266.

Unlike Wednesday’s Keeneland and Players Championship qualifiers, the cash feature (which closed with a purse of $7,258) was a Live-format game. As is often the case with Caposio, however, he played his Live entry as though it were a Pick & Pray. Over the years, this has worked well for him. In fact, a few years ago he won a bunch of Live-format tourneys on Super Bowl Sunday, having put all of his selections in ahead of time—because he was attending the Super Bowl. So perhaps more good things are in store for him this coming Sunday.

Even if that proves not to be the case, another good thing was in store for Caposio on Friday.

He got his second Players Championship seat of the week for running second to Ilan Cuellar (3 wins, 2 places). Michael Somich also got a $2,000 berth for completing the trifecta. All three had longshot Lightning Clouds ($48.60, $15.00) in the 7th at Gulfstream.

On Sunday, it was Jeff VanDrie who recorded a three-bagger.

Like Caposio on Wednesday, VanDrie checked in with 4 winners and 1 runner up on his big day. (All of VanDrie’s victors paid double digits in the win hole.) And also like Caposio, two of his victories came in Players Championship and Keeneland Grade One Gamble qualifiers. (Last year’s HT Tour champ Ed Peters and Geoffrey Schutt also got Players Championship spots for finishing closest to VanDrie.)

VanDrie’s other win came in Sunday’s NHC Last Chance/First Chance qualifier.

VanDrie led a group of 10 (10!) winners in this popular get together. The other nine were Chris “Hoss” Inman, Pete Acocella, Tyler Smith, Tom O’Connor, Kirk Tesar, Mike McIntyre, Nick “529” Fazzolari, Michael Bailey and Dave “Gambling Actuary” Nichols.

In all there were 58 (58!) NHC Last Chance/First Chance seats won here last week. The first five of those came in Wednesday’s Gulfstream-only, full-card play-in—a game in which Mark Richards put forth a remarkable performance.

Richards was like the kid in high school who gets the questions to the test ahead of time and intentionally gets one a little bit wrong just to make it look good. Out of 9 races, he picked 8 winners and 1 runner up. Happily for Brett Wiener, James Henry, Robert Courtney and Michael Ray, this was a five-seater and not a one-seater. 

In Wednesday’s multi-track NHC Last Chance/First Chance play-in, David Nelson didn’t have all the answers…but 5 firsts, including Hotpot, and a second allowed him to pass the test with flying colors.

Joining Nelson in the NHC Eve convention will be the five players who finished closest to him—Michael Odoriso, Karen Richards, Wayne Collier, Mark Rudy and Francis Drew.

The NHC Last Chance/First Chance contest is clearly a high priority for the extended Richards family. On Thursday, Mark’s sister in law Traci took top honors by getting Political.

Political ($60.40, $25.20) was the winner of race 5 at Mahoning Valley (once mistakenly referred to as Mahogany Valley by a former high-ranking racing official). Richards had Political plus one other winner and a runner up to finish first. There were three other $500 seat winners in this competition—G.T. Nixon, Dave Cichy and—via tiebreaker—Karl Barth, who had four winners compared to Paul “Morning” Kloeker’s three. Drilling a bit farther down the leaderboard, this reporter notes that William “23” Sadoo went all out, playing three entries with the same 10 horses on all of his tickets. Sadoo earned three breakage refunds.

Four players got their pre-NHC action paid up in Thursday’s Gulfstream-only NHC Last Chance/First Chance qualifier.

Wendy Long got 6 out of 9 exactly right to lead the way here. Charley Witt finished second. And for the second straight day, Robert Courtney and Brett Wiener picked up $500 entries.

Thursday’s cash-game feature was our $6,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray. It closed with a pot of $7,742.

Luciano Iorfida counted Political among his 3 firsts and 1 second. He earned $3,483 for the triumph.

On Friday, Matthew Bickey reeled off 5 winners in a row and augmented that run with a pair of placings.

Bickey collected $8,977 in Friday’s HT Tour event, our $15,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which ultimately paid out a total of $19,950. His best return came with Lightning Clouds ($48.60, $15.00) in race 7 at Gulfstream.

For the third straight day, Brett Wiener grabbed an NHC Last Chance/First Chance seat.

Wiener ran 2nd to Cheryl Knepper (3 wins, 1 place) in Friday’s multi-track play-in. Seven other also snagged $500 seat for NHC Eve—Michael Somich, G.T. Nixon (for a 2nd consecutive day), Mike McIntyre, “The Commissioner” Tim Smith, Jimmie O’Nail, Jerome Linderman and Evan Trommer.

Wiener also added a $1,000 Tampa seat to his Friday haul.

Lightning Clouds was the best of Wiener’s four winners on the day.

Jimmie O’Nail and Traci Richards earned their second NHC Last Chance/First Chance seats of the week in Friday’s Gulfstream-only test.

Also prospering here were the 3rd- and 4th-place finishers Gregory Lewis and Mark Heider.

In Friday’s $75 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers, the already-double-qualified Dylan Donnelly and Michael Marlaire finished 3rd and 4th. That meant that the three available seats went to the 1st-, 2nd- and 5th-place contestants.

The victor—with 5 winners that included Lightning Clouds—was Duke Matties. For you pedigree enthusiasts out there, Duke is a full brother to 2016 NHC Champ Paul Matties Jr. Stephen Thompson laid the rest of the field to rest to get the second available spot and Sarah Wiener checked in a somewhat fortuitous fifth (given that the third NHC seat wasn’t officially guaranteed until late morning on Friday).

We’ve already established that Michael Caposio won two Players Championship seats last week—one on Wednesday and one on Friday. Perhaps Mark Stillmock is now scoffing at Caposio for having to put in so much time and effort to earn two seats. 

Stillmock had 6 winners on one entry and 4 winners on his “bad” entry. Perhaps most notably, Stillmock used the same horse across both entries in three of the 12 contest races—and all three won! A key for Stillmock was that one of those three “common” horses was Frankie’s Empire ($30.00, $11.20) in the 9th at Gulfstream. That was the highest-paying horse of the day.

Another handicapper who had 6 Saturday winners was Phillip Tremper.

Slow and steady won this race. Tremper’s biggest win came at the end with Miss Lizzy ($13.20, $7.00) in the 6th at Santa Anita. That victory earned Tremper a windfall of $15,107 in our richest tourney of the week, our $25,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray (an HT Tour event), which wound up with a final pot of $33,572.

Saturday’s other featured cash game was our $7,000 Gtd. Big Bucks Pick & Pray.

Evan Trommer heated up late, sweeping the final four race to finish with 5 winners on the day. He earned the top prize of $7,124 in a game ultimately worth a total of $10,177.

Vineet “Please don’t squeeze the” Sharma (5 wins, 0 places) and Matthew White (5W, 1P) both connected with Uncle Heavy ($20.60, $7.40) in the Withers Stakes at Aqueduct.

Sharma and White got the entries in Saturday’s Pick & Pray play-in to the April 13 Keeneland Grade One Gamble.

Patrick Cronin’s three Saturday winners—Frankie’s Empire, First World War and Hades—all came in Gulfstream Park stakes races.

Cronin can work on his Tampa game between now and February 16, when he’ll be participating in the Tampa Bay Downs Last Chance/First Opportunity contest.

Eleven players earned 12 $500 seats on Saturday for the March 14 NHC Last Chance/First Chance contest.

Steve “The Admiral” Nemetz led the way in our multi-track game, thanks to 4 winners, including 2 at the end. He got a $500 seat for his efforts as did Kirk Tesar Patrick Cronin, Billy Moore, Jon Van Niel, Chris Inman, Michael “Copa” Kavana and Evan Trommer.

Four got NHC Eve spots in a Gulfstream-only play-in on Saturday.

Congratulations to Billy Moore (giving him two seats for the day), Christopher Coleman, John Gaspar and Mark Richards.

Over at HorsePlayers, there were three featured tourneys.

Mike Steindler enjoyed success with both Frankie’s Empire and Hades en route to a 3-win, 2-place day that got him the coveted $10,000 entry in Saturday’s $179 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge qualifier.

One of Saturday’s two NHC play-ins was restricted to those who had yet to nail down a 2024 NHC seat.

John “Cornbread” Maxwell was smart for having picked Uncle Heavy in the Withers at Aqueduct. However, it was a $12.80 place return courtesy of Don’t Ju Forget in the final contest heat, the 6th at Santa Anita, that got Maxwell (5 firsts, 3 thirds) over the top and on his way to Vegas.

The other NHC qualifier was open to all.

Stephen McNatton (4 wins, 0 places) and Dave Handeland (6W, 2P) each leaned on 9-1 Withers winner Uncle Heavy, and they came away with the tickets to the big dance on March 15-17.

McNatton was at it again on Sunday.

On this day, he added a $1,000 Tampa Bay Downs Last Chance/First Opportunity seat to his contest portfolio. McNatton was the only player of 14 here to turn a flat bet profit. His top winner was the fast closing Kentucky Joker ($18.60, $7.90) in the 7th at the Big A.

Sunday’s richest cash game was our $20,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, an HT Tour battle that finished up with a total purse of $28,218.

Jorge Cruz-Aedo, the 2021 HT Tour champ, won the up-top money of $12,698. He selected 3 winners and 2 runners up, and his winners paid $61.00, $16.80 and $28.00, respectively.

That $61.00 winner was Jupiter Blues in the first contest race, the 6th at Gulfstream. Howard Welsh had Jupiter Blues.

Welsh also hit one other winner and four runners up on the way to a $7,836 payday in Sunday’s $7,000 Gtd. Big Bucks tourney, which closed its doors with $11,195 in the kitty.

Three players snatched $500 entries on Sunday for the NHC Last Chance/First Chance contest in our Gulfstream-only game.

Congratulations to Kris Andaur, Nick Fazzolari and Joe Pettit.

Ralph Magnetti (4 wins, 3 places) and Brandon Leigh (3W, 1P) both got off to fast Sunday starts with cap horse Jupiter Blues at Gulfstream.

Magnetti and Leight made that early lead hold up and they each punched their tickets to Vegas in this $165 NHC Pick & Pray here at HorseTourneys.

There was also an NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers on Sunday—a $500 Low Ratio showdown.

Larry St. Andrie got the seat here by virtue of 4 firsts and 1 second.

The Sunday Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge play-in was also a $500 Low Ratio Pick & Pray.

The winner was Chip Armbruster, who posted 3 wins and 4 places. Those three winners paid $20.40, $28.00 and $18.60. What was the difference for Armbruster? That $18.60 winner—Kentucky Joker in the 7th at Aqueduct—was an alternate selection that got pressed into service when his original pick, Lookin Super, got tangled up in the starting gate and had to be scratched. 

Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good — and sometimes those alternate selections matter…a lot.

Speaking of good, one of my “spotters” reported to me that Lucas Van Zandt was very good two Sundays ago while I was on vacation. I’m told he won something like five tourneys, including a rare “two-NHC-seats-in-one-day” feat. So congratulations, albeit belatedly, to our reigning Players Championship title holder. 

We hope the week ahead is a “Super” one for you and yours. We’ll be back next Monday with more featured-tourney recaps. Hope to see you then.