Any entertainer worth his salt knows that a key to success is to open your act strong and then finish with a bang. Clearly, that’s how Edward Enborg approached the most recent featured-tourney week.

In Wednesday’s qualifier to the $350,000 Gtd. Players Championship here on April 6-7, Enborg didn’t score big (his top winner paid $6.00), but he scored often with 4 wins and 3 places. That gave him a final score of $49.60, which, on this day, was good for a $2,000 “PC” entry. Only 60 cents behind Enborg was Jayson “Radio City” Rockett, who also received a berth in the second leg of the 2024 HorseTourneys Grand Slam.

Enborg kept a low profile on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Then he applied the coup de grace.

In Sunday’s Monmouth Pick Your Prize play-in, Enborg’s total reached triple figures—$102.70 to be precise—and he came away with another $2,000 seat to close out his “bookend” weekend. Two weeks out from St. Patrick’s Day, Enborg’s top return came with St. Pat’s Day ($21.20, $9.20) in the 8th at Gulfstream.

Keith Fenton utilized similar showmanship last week…he just got started a day later than Enborg.

Fenton’s 3 firsts and 4 seconds on Thursday included Bossmakinbossmoves ($18.80, $7.90) in the 6th at Aqueduct. The seven collections enabled Fenton to join Enborg in the starting gate for the April 6-7 Players Championship.

Fenton came back on Sunday with a highly lucrative finish to his week.

The biggest price of the day on Sunday was Fifty Cinco ($34.80, $14.00) in the 4th at Santa Anita. Fenton had the 16-1 shot along with 4 other winners and a runner up. His score was a best-of-day $156.80, and Fenton pocketed $12,993 in Sunday’s HT Tour game, our $20,000 Guaranteed cash tourney, which closed with a final purse of $28,875.

Matthew Blanchet did Enborg and Fenton one better. Instead of winning on two days, he won on three.

Blanchet (5 firsts, 1 second) got things rolling on Friday with a first-place finish in the day’s multi-track NHC First Chance/Last Chance qualifier. There were enough sign-ups in this one for seven $500 seats to be awarded, and the other six went to Jim Orban, Christopher Olsson, Peter Yan, Paul Roth, Mark Rudy and Daniel Edwards.

There was another NHC Last Chance/First Chance multi-track play-in on Saturday. This time there were 10 winners, though it was the same person on top.

Blanchet put up 6 winners plus a runner up to lead the way for a second consecutive day. Finishing closest to Blanchet and also having a successful day were James Norris, “Marvelous” Neil Thornbury, Mark Stovall, Stephen Spinelli, Robert Ruocco, Rick Vasquez, Don Allen Leonard Peterson and Steve “People are” Stange.

On Sunday, Blanchet apparently said, “The heck with this First Chance/Last Chance stuff…I want in to the main event!”

Blanchet defeated all but William “23” Sadoo in Sunday’s $500 NHC Low Ratio qualifier that had enough entries for two seats to be awarded. Sadoo (5 wins, 1 place) and Blanchet (3W, 2P) both looked smart for having selected Genius Jimmy ($17.60, $6.20) in the 5th at Santa Anita.

The first featured event of the week, our $5,000 Guaranteed cash tourney was an interesting competition. David Curich picked 8 winners out of 10 races—and yet he still needed to win a tiebreaker in order to finish first.

It was a very chalky day. Curich and Barbara Bowley each finished with totals of $61.80, but Curich prevailed by virtue of choosing more winners than Bowley, who posted 6 wins and a place. Curich wound up with $3,608 and Bowley $1,443 in a game that paid out a total of $8,018.

David “And down the stretch they come” Johnson picked 7 Wednesday winners—and needed no tiebreakers.

Johnson ($54.00) took home the $3,500 entry at the conclusion of Wednesday’s Keeneland Grade One Gamble qualifier.

Our first NHC Last Chance/First Chance qualifier of the week saw 6 players move on to NHC Eve with paid-up berths.

Congratulations to first-place finisher Robert Grace, who picked 6 winners including the day’s biggest price—King Miano ($11.20, $4.60) in the 7th at Tampa. The other five to grab $500 entries were Frank “Plaster of” Paros, Patrick O’Connor, George Novick, Robert Ramirez and Rafael Lopez.

There were two NHC Last Chance/First Chance qualifiers on Thursday. George Dacayanan swept the final four contest races to finish with 5 wins and 2 places and report home first.

The other available berths in this multi-track play-in went to Kevin Engelhard (4W, 1P) and Michael Schalweski (5W, 0P).

The only two players to turn a flat-bet profit were the two to emerge with NHC Eve seats in Thursday’s Gulfstream-only, full-card Last Chance/First Chance tilt.

Robert Courtney (1 win, 4 places) and Corey Esquerre (2W, 3P) ran one-two. Despite their relatively low qualifying scores of $42.40 and $41.00, respectively, they will begin the NHC Last Chance/First Chance contest tied for first place!

Thursday’s featured cash game, our $6,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, went to “Battlin’” William Smith.

Smith slashed away with 4 Leap Day winners—including the day’s three biggest prices—to collect $4,634 from what was a final pot of $10,299. It was the richest victory recorded on this date in at least 4 years.

The four Friday winners for Curtis Adams (4 firsts, 2 seconds) came in the final four contest races.

The fantastic finish earned Adams $9,950 in Friday’s HT Tour event, our $15,000 Gtd, Pick & Pray, which had a final prize pool of $22,111.

Dave “DC” Chenvert also swept the last four contest races on Friday.

Chenvert accounted for the late—and inexpensive—2024 NHC seat in Friday’s $75 qualifier at HorsePlayers. He finished the day with 5 winners and 1 runner up.

Max Schnepf had a very nice first day of March.

Schnepf selected 4 winners and 2 runners up to garner the $3,500 entry in Friday’s Keeneland Grade One Gamble play-in. His top return came with Kuchar ($21.20, $6.80) in the 8th at Aqueduct.

The same 10 selections also served Schnepf nicely in Friday’s qualifier to the Players Championship.

Only Turner West could best Schnepf in this “two-seater.” Like Schnepf, West (3 firsts, 2 seconds) also smoked out Kuchar.

Another Kuchar fan was David Goodhand (4 wins, 1 place).

Goodhand had the best hand in Friday’s Monmouth Pick Your Prize play-in.

Brendan Fay, last year’s winner of The BIG One, connected on a pair of victorious 7-1 shots at the end of Friday’s Gulfstream-only, full-card qualifier to the NHC Last Chance/First Chance convention.

The other $500 seat winner was John “The Clocker” Nichols. He and Fay both ended the card with 5 firsts and 1 second.

Fay got an even nicer prize the next day. He was one of 4 to snag $2,000 entries in Saturday’s qualifier to the $350,000 Gtd. Players Championship.

Leading the way was Linda Rodriguez, who picked 5 winners that were headed by Fiona’s Magic ($20.20, $6.80) in race 9 at Gulfstream. Megan “Rockefeller Center” Rockett (3W, 2P) also used Fiona’s Magic and got second. Then came Fay (4W, 2P) followed by Jon “Hurricane” Hurd (5W, 2P), who got the last available spot by just 20 cents. Hurd really had to piece things together…his top winner returned $7.60.

Ryan Leeper enjoyed a pair of victories on Saturday.

Fiona’s Magic was part of a 7-win, 1-place day that brought Leeper the winner’s share of $8,549 in Saturday’s $7,000 Gtd. Big Bucks Pick & Pray, which paid out a total of $12,213.

Over at HorsePlayers, it was a case of same picks…same result.

Here, Leeper locked down a late NHC berth in Saturday’s Low Ratio play-in…which was restricted to non-winners of a 2024 seat.

An Academy Award winner also earned an NHC seat on Saturday. (I am not making this up.)

It was screenwriter extraordinaire Eric Roth (Forrest Gump, Killers of the Flower Moon, et al.) who got rave reviews in Saturday’s $210 NHC play-in at HorsePlayers. Fiona’s Magic was among Roth’s 6 winners and 1 runner up.

John Beckford hasn’t won an Oscar…but he did pick Fiona’s Magic.

Beckford (6 firsts, 2 seconds) landed the $10,000 entry in Saturday’s $179 Pick & Pray qualifier to the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge.

Peter Rogers had both of the day’s double-digit winners in Saturday’s HT Tour competition, our $25,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray.

Rogers finished the day with 6 wins and 1 place, and he took home the up-top money of $17,740 in a game that paid out a total of $39,424.

Another Fiona’s Magic believer was John Orecchio.

Orecchio racked up 4 wins and 3 places en route to capturing Saturday’s Monmouth Pick Your Prize qualifier.

Jerald Segall (3 wins, 4 places) and 2023 Spa & Surf Showdown champion Anthony Spinazzola (3W, 1P) both had Davona Dale Stakes upsetter Fiona’s Magic.

For their efforts, Segall and Spinazzola each earned $3,500 seats for the April 13 Keeneland Grade One Gamble.

Karen Richards (6 firsts, 1 second) led a group of four who won NHC Last Chance/First Chance entries thanks to their Fountain of Youth Day prowess.

Romeo Pericic, Mario St. Pierre and Bob Jeffery also reeled in $500 seats in this Gulfstream-only test.

On Sunday, the star of the day was James Lisowsky, who proved best in two tourneys.

With 5 winners, Lisowsky took top honors—and the $10,000 seat that went with them—in Sunday’s Low Ratio Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge qualifier at HorsePlayers.

That BCBC game was a Pick & Pray. Sunday’s $7,000 Gtd. Big Bucks game was the day’s lone Live-format tourney. How would Lisowsky approach this one? Format, schmormat. Lisowsky liked his 12 picks, and he played them right back verbatim in the Live-format cash game.

Strategery is good, but picking good horses is better. Lisowsky bagged $4,986 in cash here to go along with his BCBC seat. 

The $165 NHC qualifier here at HorseTourneys on Sunday saw Nicholas Battaglia (5 wins, 1 place) and Earl Pratt (4W, 1P) secure a late passage to Vegas.

The big horse for both was Fifty Cinco ($34.80, $14.00) in the 4th at Santa Anita.

Early last week, there were certainly some chalky days in which to do battle. That was clearly not the case on Sunday. Six of the day’s 12 contest-race winners paid (in chronological order) $21.20, $22.00, $34.80, $18.80, $17.60 and $20.40. That meant there were many, many pathways to the HT winner’s circle.

This was well illustrated in Sunday’s Players Championship play-in.

The 2023 HT Tour champ Ed Peters (4 wins, 1 place), Nick “48 Hrs.” Noce (2W, 2P), Eric Pineiro (3W, 2P) and Ronald Guffee (5W, 2P) pretty much used four different yellow brick roads to find their $2,000 seats. Guffee got his at the end by having victorious odds-on favorite Ruby Nell in the final race, the 10th at Santa Anita.

Lawrence Kahlden (3 wins, 2 places) and Rudolph Hardin (4W, 0P) were the two $3,500 seat earners in Sunday’s Keeneland Grade One Gamble qualifier.

St. Pat’s Day ($21.20, $9.20) in the 8th at Gulfstream was common to the scorecards of Kahlden and Hardin.

A dozen players earned $500 entries across the two NHC Last Chance/First Chance qualifiers hosted here on Sunday.

Jimmie O’Nail (4 wins, 4 places) Karol Mannarino, Evan Trommer, Alan Hoffman, Don Allen, Mark Wilgard, Jerry McClenin, Anthony DeCaspers and Jeff Bussan claimed the nine spots that were up for grabs in the multi-track version.

Three more went flying out the door in the Gulfstream-only, full-card game.

Congratulations (and good luck on March 14) to Steven Meier (2 wins, 2 places) Daniel Fischer (2W, 1P) and Stephen McNatton (3W, 0P). The three winners each had a different horse as their top-priced returner of the day.

I will be on vacation in Las Vegas for the next couple of Mondays. So the next Weekly Recap blog after today will come your way on March 25.

In the meantime, good luck to you in all of your tournament pursuits and safe travels to all those who will be making the trip out to Sin City for the 25th NHC. I hope to see many of you out there.