The Weekly Recap is back up and running after a lengthy sojourn in Las Vegas. It was great seeing so many of you out there—and meeting a good number of you for the first time. McKay and I were delighted to see a HorseTourneys regular like Mike Gillum take down the $800,000 grand prize…and proud to see several other HT regulars reach the final table. That’s not an easy feat. Then again, our players are a pretty smart bunch.

Perhaps because they were still riding the wave of confidence from Vegas…or maybe just because they were feeling flush…several NHC Final Table competitors jumped right back into the saddle last week and, not surprisingly, most of them did quite well.

T.J. Sonde had a great NHC. He finished 8th overall, which was good for $75,000. He was the Day 1 leader, which got him a BCBC seat. And I believe he also earned a 2025 NHC seat for being the top finisher among those who had a Race Lens subscription. Anyway, why stop when you’re on a roll? On Friday, Sonde picked up a $2,000 Monmouth Pick Your Prize entry for finishing second to none other than the First Lady of the NHC, Judy Wagner—who won the 2001 event.

Lawrence Kahlden pocketed $150,000 for finishing 4th at the just-completed NHC. 

This past Sunday, he pocketed a $2,000 Houston Betting Challenge entry for finishing close behind fellow “HBC” seat earner Craig White.

The Houston Betting Challenge takes place on-track at Sam Houston on April 6. That will be a particularly busy day for Kahlden because it’s also Day 1 of the $350,000 Gtd. Players Championship.

Kahlden will need to bring his laptop—or at least his smartphone—to Sam Houston in order to play the $2,000 Players Championship seat the he won on Sunday for finishing third to Jim Colbert (2 wins, 5 places). And look who finished 2nd and also put himself into the Players Championship—Scott Cavalieri. He left Las Vegas with $65,000 last week for coming in 10th at the NHC.

Even NHC champ Mike Gillum refused to let himself fall prey to an NHC hangover. 

Turner West (5 firsts, 2 seconds) got the top prize of $8,154 for winning Friday’s HT Tour game, our $15,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray. Finishing 3rd was Gillum, who got $1,812 out of a prize pool that ended up at $18,121. A couple of weeks ago, this probably would have been a nice hit for Gillum. Now I suppose it’s just walking-around money!

The post-NHC, featured-tourney week got started on Wednesday when Mark “Santana” Tabakman took the day’s featured cash game.

Tabakman counted Litigant ($57.20, $21.40) in the 6th at Tampa among his pair of winners. He also had two runners up, and Tabakman bagged $3,079 in Wednesday’s $5,000 Guaranteed tourney, which closed with a final purse of $6,843.

The other two Wednesday features were both won by Terry Jerge.

Jerge got a quick start by having Loud Mouth ($22.80, $10.40) in Wednesday’s first contest race, the 5th at Gulfstream. From there, Jerge added 4 more winners and a runner up, and he got the $3,500 entry in Wednesday’s Keeneland Grade One Gamble play-in.

The same selections also landed Jerge atop the leaderboard in Wednesday’s qualifier to the $350,000 Gtd. Players Championship here on April 6-7. Christopher Dewey reported home second in this one, and he also secured himself a $2,000 entry for the second leg of the 2024 HorseTourneys Grand Slam.

On Thursday, Jim Lisowsky smoked out four of the day’s five double-digit winners, including the biggest one out there—Rough Draft ($23.40, $9.40) in the 5th at Gulfstream. 

Lisowsky collected $4,137 in Thursday’s $6,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which finished up with a pot of $9,193.

The other Thursday feature was a qualifier to the April 6-7 Players Championship.

Chris Grutsch ran off four winners in a row during the second half of the tourney. In all, he finished with 6 wins and a place, and he assured himself of a place in the starting gate for the $350,000 Gtd. “All Optional Live” event.

The Players Championship qualifier on Friday went to Dan Shugar on the strength of 3 wins and 4 places.

Also getting a $2,000 berth here was Eric Kurzhal (4W, 2P). Both Kurzhal and Shugar connected with first-time starter Tough Love Torres ($13.00, $6.90) in the 8th at Aqueduct.

The same selections were also productive for Kurzhal in Thursday’s Keeneland Grade One Gamble qualifier. 

In this one, Kurzhal bested all except John Gaspar, who recorded 2 winners and 3 runners up on the way to victory.

The top return on Friday for Ryan Leeper (4 wins, 2 places) was Play Harder ($13.00, $4.80) in race 8 at Laurel.

Leeper came away with the $1,500 seat in Friday’s Florida Derby Challenge qualifier.

Damian Roncevich (5 firsts, 1 second) also had Play Harder.

Roncevich earned a $1,500 place in the Santa Anita Derby Challenge a week from Saturday at Santa Anita and/or Xpressbet.

Another Santa Anita/Xpressbet competition is the May 4 Kentucky Derby Challenge.

Drew Keaton won a $3,000 seat for that one on Friday, thanks to 4 wins and 3 places. Tough Luck Torres was his top dog…err…horse.

Over at HorsePlayers, three players punched early tickets to the 2025 NHC in the always-popular Friday $75 qualifier.

Congratulations to Jon Petoskey (6 wins, 2 places), Jim Murphy (4W, 3P) and John Kimove (2W, 5P). It’s always a good feeling to have an NHC seat nailed down so early in the year.

Thanks to picking the day’s three biggest winners, Tim Gasaway (4 firsts, 1 second) nailed down the grand prize in the richest cash game of the week.

Gasaway took top honors—and the $11,781 that went with them—for performing best in Saturday’s HT Tour event, our $25,000 Guaranteed tourney, which paid out a total of $26,180.

Temecula, Calif., car dealer—and top-notch Three-Card poker player—Michael Caposio will be in action this Saturday.

Caposio drove off with the $1,500 entry following last Saturday’s Florida Derby Challenge qualifier. Caposio got all 3 of his winners in the first 4 contest races. One of them was Short of Dinero ($39.80, $13.00) in race 10 at Laurel.

Steven Culhane (3 firsts, 4 seconds) also came up with Short of Dinero.

Culhane snagged the $2,000 berth in Saturday’s qualifier to the June 1 Monmouth Pick Your Prize tournament.

Dave “Gambling Actuary” Nichols was also a Short of Dinero fan.

Short of Dinero was one of two Saturday winners for Nichols, who exited with the $3,500 entry in his pocket at the conclusion of Saturday’s Keeneland Grade One Gamble qualifier.

Recent NHC Hall of Fame inductee Brett Wiener was the victor in Saturday’s $7,000 Gtd. Big Bucks Pick & Pray.

Wiener’s 2 wins and 1 place were topped by Runwithheart ($20.40, $7.80) in race 4 at Hawthorne.

Two players earned $2,000 berths in Saturday’s multi-track play-in to the Players Championship.

Short of Dinero helped boost Ivar Cuellar (3 wins, 1 place) to the top spot in this one, while the scoresheet of Wendy Long (4W, 3P) was topped by Runwithheart.

Although Gulfstream wasn’t part of the Saturday featured tourneys (due to a dreadful weather forecast), we did manage to include a Gulfstream-only, full-card qualifier on Saturday pegged to the Players Championship.

Dennis Dougherty (4 firsts, 2 seconds) emerged victorious in this all-Tapeta test. He was most buoyed by Izzy d’Oro ($36.80, $17.40) in race 2.

At HorsePlayers, Mark Stillmock picked 2 winners on Saturday. One was Short of Dinero. The other was a real doozy—Echo Dreamer ($189.40, $48.40) in the 7th at Hawthorne.

Stillmock chipped up further with 3 place collections, and he won the seat in Saturday’s $179 qualifier to the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge.

Another who managed to come up with Echo Dreamer was Derek Lapikus (4 wins, 1 place).

Lapikus was the winner of Saturday’s Santa Anita Derby Challenge qualifier.

Like Bob Baffert, Phil D’Amato and John Sadler, Lapikas is really pointing to Santa Anita Derby day.

On Sunday, Lapikas won his second $1,500 Santa Anita Derby Challenge entry in as many days. Here he put up 3 firsts and 2 seconds. His three winners paid $29.60, $30.00 and $11.60, respectively.

In Sunday’s featured cash tourney, the always-dangerous Jeff Bussan did all his damage in the second half of the game.

Clearly spurred on by some halftime adjustments, Bussan recorded 1 win and 4 places over the final 6 contest races, and he scored a last-to-first victory worth $10,828 in Sunday’s HT Tour battle, our $20,000 Guaranteed tourney, which ultimately was worth a total of $24,062. Bussan’s highest yielder was Land d’Oro ($30.00, $9.30) in race 8 at the Big A.

Fresh off being recognized in Vegas as the first-ever two-time NHC Tour champ, Joseph “Kevin” Costello added a Keeneland Grade One Gamble entry to his upcoming contest portfolio.

Costello reeled off 5 straight winners at one point and finished with 6 wins and 3 places. He defeated all except winner Bobby Marks (5W, 4P), who hit two double-digit winners in the last two contest races to get up late for the victory.

Sean Nolan also nailed those last two winners.

Nolan finished with 3 firsts and 3 seconds and scored a come-from-behind victory in Saturday’s qualifier to the Monmouth Pick Your Prize qualifier.

Two wins and one place got the job done for David Bennett in Sunday’s $7,000 Gtd. Big Bucks game. 

En route to grabbing the winner’s share of $4,986, Bennett’s big horse was Twirling Queen ($29.60, $10.40) in race 8 at Gulfstream.

Twirling Queen was the only Sunday winner for Robert Schintzius Sr. 

Happily for Schintzius, he augmented his scorecard repeatedly with 6 place collections. The seven total cashes got him up and over the top in Sunday’s Kentucky Derby Challenge qualifier.

The Sundays of John Kennedy and Brian “BC” Chenvert were also highlighted by the performance of Twirling Queen.

Kennedy (4 wins, 2 places) and Chenvert (3W, 0P all during final 7 races) will be twirling their batons again this Saturday with paid-up entries in the Florida Derby Challenge.

The high scorer of the day on Sunday was John Nespolini (4 wins, 3 places). He did his work over at HorsePlayers in the day’s $165 NHC Pick & Pray.

With NHC fever still running high, there were enough entries in this play-in to award three spots to the 2025 event. Those other two went to Michael Marlaire (5W, 1P) and Matthew Ache (4W, 2P). Nespolini, Marlaire and Ache all came up with the day’s two biggest prices—13-1 Twirling Queen at Gulfstream and 14-1 Land d’Oro at Aqueduct.

The other feature at HorsePlayers on Sunday was a hard-fought battle that was interesting mainly because of the two people at the top who did the battling.

Tim Hughes (3 wins, 2 places) had both Twirling Queen and Land d’Oro, and he was able to edge Anthony Spinazzola in this $500 Low Ratio Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge qualifier. In case the significance didn’t jump right out at you, Hughes was the champion of the 2022 Spa & Surf Showdown and Spinazzola is the reigning Spa & Surf champ.

We told you at the top that HorseTourneys players are sharp…

Thanks to all of you for playing…and for bearing with me during the brief “recap hiatus”. In the week ahead, we’ll close out March with Florida Derby weekend. Hope to see many of you on the leaderboards then—and I look forward to typing your names next Monday. And that’s no April Fool’s joke.