Trailing Christian Orscher by $10.64 with one contest race remaining in the $415,418 Players Championship, Matthew Bickey boldly selected 21-1 shot British Isles. When the Richard Baltas charge got up for second in that 11th race at Santa Anita behind winning 6-5 favorite Ngannou, the result was a $12.00 place payoff for British Isles backers—and a triumph worth $149,310 for Bickey.

The victory capped off two very strong days of handicapping for Bickey. He ended Saturday’s Day 1 in 22nd place in the field of 237.

Bickey followed that up with the sixth-best tally on Day 2.

It all added up to a weekend that Bickey will never forget.

We’ll do a much deeper dive on the second leg of the HorseTourneys Grand Slam in this space tomorrow—and we’ll also check in with the winner to see how the celebrating is going.

Featured-tourney celebrations last week began here on Thursday—a day later than usual—due to heavy rains that pelted much of the East and wound up knocking out the final eight races of the Wednesday Parx card. The late start was just fine as far as Joe Accavallo was concerned.

Accavallo did all of his scoring during a 6-race stretch in mid-tourney when he fired off 4 winners and 2 runners up. The six-race salvo gave Accavallo a score of $59.90—good for a winner’s share of $4,258 in Thursday’s $6,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which closed with a final purse of $10,645.

Dan Fischer has been on quite a roll lately. Last week he grabbed seats to the Kentucky Derby Challenge, the Players Championship and the Santa Anita Derby Challenge. On Friday, he apparently decided that a little upfront cash couldn’t hurt.

Fischer picked 6 Friday winners—all in the first 7 contest races—to collect $9,725 in Friday’s HT Tour event, our $15,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which closed up shop with $21.612 in the kitty. One of Fischer’s winners paid $40.02 and three others paid $22.00+.

And, for the record, Fischer’s cash-game skills continued into the weekend. He reported home 15th in the Players Championship, earning $3,733.

This coming Saturday is the Keeneland Grade One Gamble. On Friday, Sean Nolan (3 wins, 2 places) and Paul Cush (3W, 2P as well) took the steps necessary to ensure that they would each have an entry for it.

Nolan and Cush were the only two players to crack triple figures in this one. They both thought the winner of the 8th at Keeneland was pretty neat. It was Neat ($28.82, $14.90).

On Sunday, Sean Nolan took the steps necessary to ensure that he would have two entries for the Keeneland Grade One Gamble.

Thanks to 2 wins and 2 places, Nolan finished in between fellow Keeneland seat winners Daven Turner (4W, 0P) and this year’s Flo-Cal Faceoff champ Michael Solakis (3W, 0P). All three had victorious Santa Anita race 3 longshot Grazen in the Sun ($35.20, $15.40).

Getting back to Friday action, Neat was a tidy inclusion on the scorecard of “Battlin’” William Smith.

Smith put together 4 firsts and 3 seconds to emerge with the $3,000 entry at the conclusion of Friday’s Kentucky Derby Challenge qualifier.

At HorsePlayers, in honor of opening day at Keeneland (which is in its backyard), the NTRA elected to have a special 5-seat NHC qualifier. It was an unqualified success.

There were enough entries signed on for 6 spots to be awarded. They went to Jeffrey Pesot (5 wins, 2 places), Jeff Higgins (5W, 2P), Tyler Hoffman (5W, 1P), “The Admiral” Steve Nemetz (5W, 0P), Tchavdar Milanov (4W, 0P) and Louie Ucciferri (3W, 2P). The big horse for all but Nemetz was Faith Understood ($29.02, $11.70) in the 10th race at Keeneland.

Five of the 10 contest races on Friday had winners that paid $20.00 or more. The best return for Dr. Ron Tang on Friday came with Whenlovetakesover ($23.20, $11.80) in the 8th at Aqueduct.

In all, Tang amassed 4 firsts and 1 second, and he got the $2,000 entry in Friday’s qualifier to the Monmouth Pick Your Prize tournament on June 1.

The next day, Tang was at it again.

Scores were lower on Saturday, but Tang had 2 double-digit winners right off the bat en route to victory in the day’s $8,141 Big Bucks tourney. The winner’s share came to $5,699.

Jim Cuzzupe did an excellent job in the Players Championship, but faded a bit at the end to finish just out of the money. He did no fading in Saturday’s $165 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers.

Cuzzupe had the first three winners, plus one in the middle and one at the very end to romp home by more than $41.00. Frank Brown got that important second spot, and he, too, punched his ticket to the 2025 NHC.

The other Saturday feature at HorsePlayers was a $179 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge qualifier. 

Ronald Guffee bested 61 rivals in this one to bag the $10,000 seat. Hesaved his best pick for last—with 5-1 Aligato in the 11th at Santa Anita.

Another Aligato fan was Steve “People Are” Stange.

Stange stung his opponents with 5 winners and 1 runner up to earn the $1,000 seat in Saturday’s Lone Star Spring Betting Challenge qualifier.

Chip Armbruster, Mike Thomas and Jim Videtic will all have action this Saturday.

They were the three $3,500 entry winners in Saturday’s play-in to the Keeneland Grade One Gamble.

The leaderboard was tight at the top with one race to go in Saturday’s Monmouth Pick Your Prize qualifier.

Having Aligato at the end is what put David Lupo and Scott Eyraud over the top here. With paid-up entries, they will square off against each other (and many others) again on June 1.

The biggest winner on Sunday, of course, was Matthew Bickey. Another happy handicapper that day was David Barnier.

All three of Barnier’s winners returned at least $20.00. To that trio, he added two place collections, and he pocketed $10,139 for taking Sunday’s HT Tour competition, our $15,000 Guaranteed tourney, which was ultimately worth a total of $22,531.

The same selections also earned Barnier a place in the 2025 NHC.

Barnier and the runner up both had 16-1 Grazen in the Sun in race 3 at Santa Anita. And we’re happy to report that the runner up was none other than the First Lady of the NHC, Hall of Famer Judy Wagner, who captured the second edition of the “Big Dance” way back in 2001.

In the Players Championship, Matthew Bickey had Grazen in the Sun on the road to victory, and so it was with virtually every other winner of a featured tourney on Sunday…including Gregory Lewis.

Lewis recorded 3 firsts and 2 seconds in Sunday’s Lone Star Spring Betting Challenge qualifier.

The 2015 NHC champ John O’Neil had Grazen in the Sun within his productive 4-win, 3-place portfolio.

O’Neil, a Garden Stater, should feel right at home participating in the June 1 Monmouth Pick Your Prize tournament.

G.T. Nixon was the one in Sunday’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier.

Nixon had Grazen in the Sun…but he also needed 4-1 Space Launch as a running mate in the final tourney heat (GP’s 9th) before the networks would call this race in Nixon’s favor.

Thanks to all of you for making this past week a very vibrant one around here. Check back in tomorrow when we’ll talk to Matthew Bickey and learn more about his big win in the Players Championship.