Playing the races on Kentucky Derby Day can be fun, exciting—and draining. For those who attend the Derby, things are made more challenging by dealing with the crowds and getting home on Sunday. As a result, many horseplayers—even die-hards—take the day after the Derby off.

Happily for him, William Holmes did not do that.

By keeping the pedal to the metal on the First Sunday in May, Holmes assured himself of a thrilling first weekend in November. He sleuthed out 6 winners—highlighted by She Prospers ($51.40, $19.80) in the 6th at Gulfstream—plus one runner up to earn a $10,000 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge seat in Sunday’s Low Ratio qualifier at HorsePlayers.

Next March, Holmes will be leaving home to play in the NHC.

The same picks yielded the same result for Holmes in this Live-format game. The second and final available seat went to Joel Hanson. Like Holmes, Hanson enjoyed a big early hit with She Prospers. However, Hanson needed Man Among Men ($6.60, $3.80) in the final contest race (the 5th at Santa Anita) to get up for second place.

So Holmes lays eggs in both the BCBC and NHC, he can still look back very fondly on the day after the 2024 Kentucky Derby. That’s because he got a bird in hand to go with his two in the bush.

The immediate gratification for Holmes on Sunday came in the form of the $10,532 he won for capturing Sunday’s $20,000 Guaranteed cash tourney—an HT Tour event that closed with a final purse of $23,406. 

The first featured cash game of the week was Wednesday’s $5,000 Guaranteed affair.

Gary Gristick emerged from the affair with the $2,799 winner’s share. That resulted from 5 winners that included Kabod ($35.40, $8.80) in race 10 at Parx.

Mark Stillmock (3 firsts, 1 second) smoked out Kabod plus Wora ($27.20, $7.20) in race 7 at Tampa Bay Downs.

The four collections will put Stillmock in the starting gate for the third leg of the 2024 HorseTourneys Grand Slam—the $400,000 Gtd. Spa & Surf Showdown here on August 3-4.

The two players to crack the $70.00 mark were the two to exit with $2,000 entries in today’s qualifier to the June 1 Monmouth Pick Your Prize tournament.

The 2007 NHC champ Stanley Bavlish (3 wins, 3 places) and Kevin Engelhard (4W, 2P) filled out the “in the money” slots here. Wora at Tampa was common to their scorecards.

On Thursday, the horse you wanted to have was Dr. Kraft ($20.40, $9.50) in the 7th at BAQ. 

Andrew Cormier (5 firsts, 1 second) had the good doctor, and Cormier pocketed $4,292 in Thursday’s $6,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which closed with a pot of $9,539.

Evan Trommer (2 wins, 3 places) also played Dr. Kraft.

Trommer got himself a $2,000 berth in Thursday’s qualifier to the Spa & Surf Showdown.

Friday’s play-in to the Spa & Surf Showdown went to James Lisowsky.

Lisowsky counted Cable Ready ($41.40, $15.40) in the 5th at BAQ among his 3 winners on the day. He also had a runner up.

Another Cable Ready fan was Neal Thomas.

Thomas (3 firsts, 3 seconds) can afford several months of cable bills after cashing for $8,379 in Friday’s HT Tour game, our $15,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which closed with a purse of $18,620.

Our 2020 Spa & Surf Showdown champion Scott Fiedler led the way in Friday’s qualifier to the Monmouth Pick Your Prize contest.

Fiedler (3 wins, 1 place) led the way on the strength of 3 wins and 1 place. His biggest pop came from Baby Yoda ($36.40, $10.60) in race 6 at BAQ. Runner up Mike Steindler (4W, 2P) had Cable Ready in his 10-horse stable. Two days after collecting $2,799 in the Wednesday cash feature, Gary Gristick (2W, 3P) picked up the third and final $2,000 entry here. Like Fiedler, Gristick picked Baby Yoda. The $2,000 seat wasn’t in the bag for Gristick, though, until he caught a max $22.00 place collection in the final contest race (BAQ9) with a runner up that went off at 42-1.

As it so often does, the Friday high score was on display over at HorsePlayers where Ty Alexander put up a tally of $208.50.

Five of Alexander’s six winners paid double digits, and his lone runner up paid like a winner. It was the same bomb place horse that Gristick had—Master Freud in the 9th at BAQ. Like Alexander, George Novick (3 wins, 1 place) also had longshot winner Cable Ready…and longshot placer Master Freud. Novick got the second and final available Vegas berth.

The richest tourney of the week here was Saturday’s $20,000 Guaranteed game, which closed its doors with a final prize pool of $26,488.

David “Bleu, blanc et” Ruge (3 firsts, 1 seconds) reeled in the top prize of $11,919. On a day in which 6 of the day’s 12 contest-race winners paid $20.00 or more, Ruge nailed 3 fo those 6—Pleasant Embrace ($26.80, $9.20) in the 9th at Tampa, Soul of an Angel ($51.00, $9.60) in the 10th at BAQ and Freedom Principle ($44.60, $18.20) in race 11 at Gulfstream.

Michael Foster had Freedom Principle, plus two other winners, plus a runner up that paid the $22.00 contest maximum to place.

Foster received the coveted $10,000 seat in Saturday’s $179 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge qualifier at HorsePlayers.

Gary Brous (3 wins, 3 places) and Anthony DeCaspers (also 3W, 3P) reeled in the $2,000 entries in Saturday’s play-in to the Monmouth Pick Your Prize contest.

Four different horses comprised the “Big Two” for Brous and DeCaspers, respectively. Brous connected with Skipperini ($31.60, $12.80) in the 8th at Tampa and Freedom Principle. DeCaspers, meanwhile, connected with Smokin Cloud ($37.80, $11.20) in race 10 at Gulfstream and Soul of an Angel a short time after that.

Tim Moline (3 wins, 2 places) came up with Smokin Cloud and Freedom Principle—but to achieve his objective, he had to hit Gold Phoenix ($13.80, $6.00) in the final contest race the 7th at Santa Anita.

The realized objective for Moline was a $2,500 entry into the $400,000 Gtd. Spa & Surf Showdown. Incidentally…thanks to Moline and everyone else who stuck around with us for that 7th at Santa Anita. When entries came out and our race-picking decisions were being made, Equibase had the 7th in Arcadia going off at 6:30 pm ET. However, that race, the Charles Whittingham Stakes, ultimately wound up going off at 7:38 pm ET. (Unfortunately, this type of thing happens occasionally on big days.)

A couple of weeks ago, David Wolff swept the weekend Big Bucks tourneys. This past week, Howard Welsh accomplished the same feat.

On Saturday, Welsh’s scoring in the first contest race with Skipperini ($31.60, $12.80) turned out to be all he needed. (Welsh drove that point home by hitting very little the rest of the way!) Welsh took home the Derby Day winner’s share of $4,274 from a final prize pool of $6,106.

On Sunday, Welsh vanquished four rivals with 4 wins and 2 places. A pair of $14.40 winners were his heaviest lifters on this day, and his HorseTourneys account went up by another $3,562 at the conclusion of this $5,088 competition.

With all the talk at the top about William Holmes’s three-win Sunday, you’d think that his 12-race score of $132.60 would have been the highest score of the day.

You’d have been wrong. 

Rocky Hardy (5 wins, 2 places) put his opponents between a rock and a hard place on Sunday with his tally of $135.20. He and fellow Monmouth Pick Your Prize entry winner John Vail (4W, 1P) both hit She Prospers ($51.40, $19.80) in the 6th at Gulfstream and Bad Larry ($14.40, $6.60) in race 6 at BAQ.

Dr. Ronald Tang selected 4 Sunday winners. One was She Prospers, and another was Judge Judith ($20.80, $9.20) in race 7 at the Hallandale Beach, Fla., oval.

Tang finished first in Sunday’s qualifier to the $400,000 Gtd. Spa & Surf Showdown, to be contested in these environs on August 3-4.

On Memorial Day, Lone Star Park will host its Lone Star Million Betting Challenge. David Goodhand and Jeff Sandler will be there.

They will be there—with paid-up $2,500 entries—thanks to their performance in Sunday’s qualifier to it. Goodhand (3 wins, 1 place) and Sandler (2W, 1P) both prospered from the victory by She Prospers.

Thanks to all of you who made HorseTourneys a part of your Kentucky Derby weekend. And special kudos to Brett Wiener—who won a seat to the Kentucky Derby Challenge here a couple of weeks ago…and proceeded to win the event this past Saturday. That’s what we like to see!