We all have our favorite contests that we hope to win our way into each year. What a feeling it must be to qualify for five of them…in one day. 

Brett Wiener knows that feeling.

Last weekend was a Pick & Pray one around here, and on Saturday, Wiener scoped out 4 winners—topped by Kid Cairo ($31.20, $14.80) in the 11th at Gulfstream—plus one runner up and that got the recent NHC Hall of Fame inductee a seat worth $10,000 in this year’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge. 

There’s no need to fix what you don’t feel is broken, so Wiener copied and pasted those picks in Saturday’s qualifier (our first of the year) to the July 27-28 Del Mar Summer Challenge.

Cha-ching.

But Wiener was not done copying and pasting—or cha-chinging.

The Floridian assured himself of a busy—and fun—Kentucky Derby day this coming Saturday by finishing third in last Saturday’s Kentucky Derby Challenge qualifier. There were enough entries signed on for four $3,000 seats to be awarded, and the other three went to winner Tyler Okasaki (5 wins, 2 places), runner up Joseph Hardoon (4W, 3P), and 2020 Spa & Surf Showdown champ Scott Fiedler (4W, 2P). All but Fiedler hit Kid Cairo.

Wiener was also part of the happy group at the end of Saturday’s Monmouth Pick Your Prize play-in. 

His fellow members in that group were Jeff Bussan (3 wins, 1 place) and Stephen Berdar (also 3W, 1P). They’ll all have paid-up $2,000 seats on June 1.

And Wiener and John “The Clocker” Nichols were the one-two finishers (and seat winners) in Saturday’s qualifier to the $400,000 Gtd. Spa & Surf Showdown.

So it was a five-grand-prize day for Wiener and, for the record, it should be noted that he reported home third in the day’s $32,340 HT Tour event and earned $3,234 there. When all was said and done, Wiener had grossed cash and prizes totaling $26,734—and the promise of more to come should he enjoy success in one or more of the five tournaments to which he won seats.

Perhaps some might find it odd that Wiener didn’t enter Saturday’s $210 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers. Should the NTRA consider revoking the Hall of Fame status recently conferred on Wiener??

No need for any controversy. Wiener is already double qualified to the 2025 event. And Sylvain Paulhus (4 wins, 2 places) and Larry St. Andrie (2W, 3P) are each now single qualified to it. They had their opponents saying “Sacre bleu!” when they scored with Kid Cairo. Or maybe it was “Quel dommage.” In any event, they got the Vegas seats. It was a bit touch-and-go for St. Andrie, though. He caught a relatively modest $6.00 place collection in the final contest race, and that elevated him all the way from 6th to 2nd at the end. 

The featured-tourney week got rolling on Wednesday when Daven Turner used Decanted ($27.76, $10.78) in the 8th at Keeneland as a springboard to success in the day’s Spa & Surf Showdown qualifier.

In all, Turner amassed 5 firsts and 2 seconds—and they all came consecutively.

Jayson “Radio City” Rockett also had Decanted.

Decanted was one of 4 winners—that paired nicely with a place collection—and earned Rockett $3,826 in Wednesday’s $5,000 Guaranteed cash tourney, which ultimately was worth $8,502.

Two players received $3,000 seats at the conclusion of Wednesday’s Kentucky Derby Challenge qualifier. 

Congratulations to Ken Jordan (4 wins, 1 place) and Steven Meier (5W, 1P). They both got off to fast starts with Tiger’s Legacy ($14,70, $6.18) in the first contest race, the 6th at Keeneland.

Thursday was a bit chalky with the biggest price horse of the day being Beaumont Red ($17.60, $6.84) in race 6 at Keeneland.

Dale Hatfield had Beaumont Red plus 4 other winners and 2 runners up. The 7 collections paid Hatfield to the tune of $4,354 in Thursday’s $6,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which closed with a pot of $9,677.

Mark Stillmock (3 firsts, 2 seconds) also landed on Beaumont Red.

Stillmock got the $2,500 entry in Thursday’s qualifier to the third leg of the 2024 Horsetourneys Grand Slam, the $400,000 Gtd. Spa & Surf Showdown here on August 3-4.

On Friday, Hayden Leibrock recorded a pair of victories.

Leibrock counted Izzy d’Oro ($27.30, $13.00) in the 10th at Keeneland as his heaviest lifter among 3 firsts and 3 seconds. Leibrock pocketed $9,650 for taking the Friday HT Tour event, our $15,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which had a final prize pool of $21,446.

The same selections also landed Leibrock in first place in Friday’s play-in to the Kentucky Derby Challenge.

The other two $3,000-entry winners in this “three seater” were Eric Kurzhal (3 wins, 3 places) and Ryan Flanders (3W, 2P). The top three all had Izzy d’Oro on their tickets.

The Kentucky Derby Challenge qualifier was but one of three successes on the day for Kurzhal.

Kurzhal and 2023 HT Tour champ Ed Peters (2W, 2P) filled the top two slots and took home the $2,500 entries in Friday’s Spa & Surf Showdown qualifier.

Over at HorsePlayers, Kurzhal’s score of $78.64 got him a very worthwhile 3rd-place finish in Friday’s $75 NHC qualifier.

The redoubtable Kevin Engelhard (4 wins, 1 place) led the way and picked up his second 2025 NHC spot in this one. Just 22 cents behind Engelhard was Leonard Peterson (4W, 2P), who will be on his way to Vegas in 10 1/2 months along with Kurzhal. Izzy d’Oro was common to the three winners’ scorecards.

The Monmouth Pick Your Prize qualifier on Friday attracted enough entries for five seats to be awarded to the June 1 competition.

Congratulations to Ted “Forbidden” Apple (2 wins, 2 places), Daniel Taylor (5W, 2P), Jim Orban (4W, 3P), Bernard Reilly (5W, 2P) and Robert Pennell (4W, 2P). Reilly’s 5 winners came in a row. Pennell, meanwhile, hit the last two races to get up for the fifth and final seat.

Moving on to Saturday…we already covered Brett Wiener’s five-bagger—and mentioned that John “The Clocker” Nichols got a Spa & Surf Showdown seat for finishing second to Wiener in that qualifier. Well Nichols—perhaps bleary-eyed from having to get up so early to time the Derby and Oaks horses on Saturday—was further rewarded for his Saturday stamina.

Nichols picked 5 winners on Saturday, but his best return came with one of his two runners up—the 20-1 Pet Mat ($21.20 to place) in the 11th at Gulfstream. The seven collections gave Nichols a score of $88.60 and a payday of $8,549 in Saturday’s $12,213 Big Bucks Pick & Pray. Perhaps the windfall will prompt Nichols to take an extra day or two off next week to catch up on his sleep.

The other cash feature on Saturday was our $25,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which also serves as an HT Tour game. The winner was our first-ever (2021) HT Tour champion, Jorge Cruz-Aedo.

“Smooth Cruz” had Kid Cairo ($31.20, $14.80) in the 11th at Gulfstream among his 2 firsts and 4 seconds, and he bagged $14,553 from what was a total final purse of $32,340.

Port Jervis, N.Y., is famous for two things. It’s a good place to get cheap gas while driving on Interstate 84…and it’s the home of recent NHC Final Table contestant G.T. Nixon. On Sunday, Nixon made the most of two second-place finishes.

Nixon (2 wins, 3 places) and fellow New Yorker Mark Wilgard (3W, 2P) were the only two players in Sunday’s Spa & Surf Showdown qualifier to nail 68-1 cap horse Shezmisbehaving ($138.00, $38.80) in the 1st at Santa Anita. That one put a lot of mileage between themselves and the others, and they drove off with the $2,500 berths.

Nixon went for a really high-octane prize in his other game.

Nixon bested all but 2007 NHC champion Stanley Bavlish (3 wins, 2 places) in Sunday’s $165 qualifier to the 2025 big dance in Vegas. So Nixon can shoot for another final table next year—and Bavlish can try to become the event’s first two-time winner. (Bavlish won before there was such a thing as a final table…but once it became a thing, the NHC Hall of Famer made one of those too.)

Four players picked up $3,000 entries in Sunday’s play-in to the Kentucky Derby Challenge. 

The winners were Bruce Dagostini (5 wins, 2 places), Corey Lonberger (4W, 3P), Dan Weisenburger (2W, 3P) and Stephan Gravina (6W, 2P). Three of the four had Shezmisbehaving. From the win-place totals, you might have guessed (correctly) that Gravina was the one who didn’t.

The overlooking of Shezmisbehaving didn’t stop Gravina from scooping up a second grand prize on Sunday, though. 

Gravina again had just enough to snatch something good from the prize pool of our first qualifier to the Lone Star Million Betting Challenge on May 27. Two $2,500 entries were at stake in this one, and the other went to the victorious Ellen Patrick-Leavell (3 wins, 1 place), whose selection of Shezmisbehaving helped her level her rivals.

Another of the Sunday Kentucky Derby Challenge seat winners (besides Gravina) tasted success elsewhere during the day.

Corey Lonberger and his score of $117.50 proved best in Sunday’s three-seat Monmouth Pick Your Prize qualifier. Suresh Bomman (2 wins, 1 place) and NHC Hall of Famer Paul Shurman (1W, 1P) didn’t make many collections, but they did come up with Shezmisbehaving, and that made up for a multitude of sins.

With 2 firsts and 3 seconds, Michael Caposio captured the day’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio Pick & Pray at HorsePlayers. 

A $7.80 place collection in the final contest race gave Caposio the boost he needed to reach the top spot. Robert Little finished second to gain a $5,000 partial BCBC entry.

On the Sunday cash-game front, Anthony Mastropietro was the master of the day’s HT Tour competition.

Mastropietro had Shezmisbehaving plus 2 other winners and 2 places to reel in $12,796 in a $20,000 Guaranteed cash tourney that paid out a total of $28,437.

Steve Duffield whiffed on the first 5 contest races, but he connected on 5 winners over the final 7.

Duffield exited with the winner’s share of $6,411 in Sunday’s $9,159 Big Bucks tourney.

Before I wrap things up, I wanted to note a couple of things I meant to—but failed to—mention last week.

Firstly, the winner of the recent Lone Star Spring Betting Challenge was—who else?—Joe “Tex” Scanio.

Also, I gushed last week about how David Wolff had accumulated $25,160 in winnings across five tourneys on Sunday. Actually, I sold him short, because Wolff also won a $10,000 BCBC seat in a tourney that, for no good reason, completely eluded me.

These things happen to me from time to time. My wife has privately pointed out that my pen-and-paper method of tracking the weekly featured tourneys may be less than foolproof. In any event, I hope I didn’t miss anyone’s HT successes this week.

May you all have a happy, fun—and profitable—Derby week.