Last week offered mainly Pick & Pray competitions, and most days there were one or two prices that stood out from the rest. If you liked the one or two, you did well, and if you played more than one featured tourney, you may well have had multiple successes.

A couple of players, though, captured the magic on more than one day. One of them was Gary Blair.

The Ontario native counted Carol T. ($49.00, $18.00 in the 8th at BAQ) among his 2 winners and 3 runners up on Saturday.

The quintet of collections brought Blair $8,549 in Saturday’s $7,000 Gtd. Big Bucks Pick & Pray, which paid out a total of $12,213.

In Sunday’s HT Tour game, our $20,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, Blair took on 10 times the number of opponents that he faced on Saturday—but the outcome was the same.

Either Blair was really on his game last weekend or he just likes playing horses whose names are comprised of the first name and final initial of a woman. In any event, his best return across 3 wins and 4 places on Sunday came with Kathleen O. ($20.00, $7.40) in the 8th at Monmouth, and this gal helped reward Blair to the tune of $11,615 in a tourney that was ultimately worth a total of $25,812.

Another handicapper who had cause for celebration on two days last week was James Cosenza.

Cosenza picked 4 winners—all of which paid double digits—and he took home the grand prize of $2,581 in Wednesday’s $5,000 Guaranteed cash game, which closed with a final purse of $5,737. His big horse was Fast Bob ($38.00, $20.20) in race 7 at Parx.

Seventy-two hours later, Cosenza was back in the winner’s circle.

Cosenza (4 wins, 1 place) led the way in Saturday’s Lone Star Million Betting Challenge qualifier. He and runner up Chris “Hoss” Inman (5W, 3P) both earned $2,500 entries to the Memorial Day contest on-track at Lone Star, and they both connected with Amy the Butcher ($42.40, $8.00) in race 7 at Gulfstream.

Jumping back to the Wednesday featured-tourney action, the 2016 NHC Tour champ Cheryl McIntyre (5 wins, 1 place) and G.T. Nixon (5W, 0P) were two others who, like James Cosenza, managed to smoke out Fast Bob.

McIntyre and Nixon grabbed themselves $2,000 entries for the June 1 Monmouth Pick Your Prize tournament.

On Thursday, Joe Petrella’s 4-win, 1-place selections were nicely dressed up by Haberdashery ($51.40, $10.00) in the 6th at Gulfstream.

Petrella, whose runner up paid a max $22.00 to place, bagged the up-top money of $4,074 in Thursday’s $6,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which closed with a final pot of $9,055. 

It was a different Gulfstream longshot that paved Derek Isenberg’s road to success in Thursday’s qualifier to the $400,000 Gtd. Spa & Surf Showdown here on August 3-4.

Isenberg (2 firsts, 2 seconds) nailed the neither-easy-to-say-nor-spell Guaicaipuro ($58.00, $30.40) in race 5 at Gulfstream to help secure his place in the Spa & Surf starting gate on the first weekend in August.

The high scorer of the day on Friday was Ted “Forbidden” Apple, who turned in a notable performance in our Preakness Challenge qualifier.

Apple played two entries, and he used the same picks in 8 of the 10 contest races. Those 8 common races yielded 5 wins and 2 places. In the two “dissenting” races, one of Apple’s entries had both winners (thus becoming the apple of his eye). When all was said and done, even Apple’s “bad” entry got a $1,500 seat, finishing in second place. The third and final available Preakness Challenge spot went to Zachary Agamenoni who had 4 wins and a place and who…

…also got himself a Monmouth Pick Your Prize seat for besting all but Ed Reidy in that play-in. The heavy lifter for Reidy was Goodbetterbest ($20.80, $8.20) in the 7th at Gulfstream.

Another Goodbetterbest fan was Andrew Walker, who won $8,827 in our $15,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray (an HT Tour event), which had a final prize pool of $19,617.

It’s hard to believe that someone who got 8 out of 10 races right didn’t have the day’s highest score, but we already noted that Ted Apple’s tally of $132.40 was Friday’s best. Somewhat remarkably, Walker didn’t even have the second best score of the day.

That distinction went to Dan Flanigan.

A platinum-status member at Casino Royale, Flanigan compiled 7 firsts and 1 second to ensure a return-trip next March to the NHC in Vegas, where he will be holding court either at the Casino Royale’s $3 beer pit or at the adjacent White Castle. Also earning NHC berths for finishing closest to Flanigan in this $75 HorsePlayers qualifier were Allan Schaffer (5W, 1P) and Louis Masry (5W, 0P).

We don’t know whether Jeff VanDrie likes White Castle, but we know he liked Goodbetterbest.

Van Drie (4 firsts, 3 seconds) exited with the $2,500 entry in his pocket at the conclusion of Friday’s qualifier to the $400,000 Gtd. Spa & Surf Showdown, the third leg of the 2024 HorseTourneys Grand Slam.

The biggest payoff realized by Michael Caposio on Friday came from one of his two runners up.

Linny Kate paid $19.20 in the place hole after running 2nd in the 7th at Gulfstream at odds of 19-1. In all, Caposio booked 3 winners and 2 places, and he reeled in the $10,000 entry in Friday’s underlaid Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier at HorsePlayers.

Several players scored multiple victories on Saturday, including Christian Orscher.

Orscher came up with both Carol T. ($49.00, $18.00) in the 8th at BAQ and Brooklyn Dantz ($30.40, $11.60) in the 11th back at BAQ. To that high-priced pair, he added two other winners and a runner up to prevail in Saturday’s Spa & Surf Showdown qualifier.

The same selections also earned Orscher a seat worth $10,000 at HorsePlayers.

That one, of course pegged to the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge. Not a bad return on a $179 entry fee!

Steven Meier also won twice on Saturday.

One of those scores came in the $165 NHC play-in at HorsePlayers. This game saw Mike Abernathy also punch his ticket to Vegas. Meier (3 wins, 2 places) played Carol T, and he and Abernathy both benefited from Amy the Butcher ($42.40, $8.00) in the 7th at Gulfstream.

Meier copied and pasted those successful NHC selections in our Saturday $25,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray.

More success! Here, Meier collected $13,305 for leading the way in this HT Tour game that carried a final pot of $29,568. Finishing second and third—and bagging a total of $9,461—was Neal Thomas, who played the same picks on two different entries.

That strategy worked even better for Thomas in Saturday’s Monmouth Pick Your Prize qualifier.

Here, there was no graduated step down in any of Thomas’s returns since he had the two best entries in what was a “three-seater”. His three wins on the day were the day’s three biggest—Carol T. (23-1), Amy The Butcher (20-1) and Brooklyn Dantz (14-1). So Thomas suddenly earned double-barrel action at Monmouth/Xpressbet on June 1. The third $2,000 seat, meanwhile, was scooped up by Stephen Berdar whose 4 wins and a place were highlighted by Amy the Butcher.

There were three winners of $1,500 spots in Saturday’s play-in to the upcoming Preakness Challenge.

Congratulations to Rafael Lopez (4 wins, 1 place) who staged a furious late rally with collections in each of the final four contest races to get up for the “W”, “Pistol” Pete Acocella (2W, 1P) and Thomas Labordo (2W, 1P).

Brendan Fay had a nice Sunday, snagging a pair of $2,500 seats.

Fay’s 4 firsts and 2 seconds got him the top spot in Sunday’a Spa & Surf Showdown qualifier. As was the case with Michael Caposio on Friday, The best return for last year’s champion of The BIG One came via one of his runners up—Cassation—who delivered a capped $22.00 place price after running 2nd at 39-1 in the 6th at Monmouth.

The same Pick & Pray selections also brought Fay a berth in the Lone Star Million Betting Challenge.

Fay finished 2nd in this two-seater with only William “Hoss” Inman outdoing him. Inman swept the first three contest races, including a nice hit with I’m On Fire ($15.80, $8.60) in the recently mentioned 6th at Monmouth (where a 1-5 shot went down in flames!). He finished the afternoon with 4 firsts and 1 second. Clearly, the Lone Star Million Betting Challenge goes through the Inmans!

Hayden Leibrock was another multiple Sunday victor.

I’m On Fire got Leibrock off to a successful start in Sunday’s $4,071 Big Bucks tourney. Four winners and three runners up after that, the $2,849 grand prize was Leibrock’s.

The same picks also rewarded Leibrock with a $1,500 Preakness Challenge spot.

Leibrock finished 3rd behind Timothy Jacobs (5 wins, 1 place) and Jim “Never” Settle (6W, 2P) and ahead of Tom Cooper (5W, 3P) in this “four-seater”. Jacobs, Settle and Cooper all came up with Sunday’s biggest-priced winner—Kathleen O. ($20.00, $7.40) in the 8th at Monmouth.

Danny Kelly (7 wins, 0 places), Joe Perry (3W, 3P) and Nick “48 Hrs.” Noce (4W, 0P) all hit Kathleen O.

They were the three to pick up $1,500 berths in Sunday’s play-in to the June 1 Monmouth Pick Your Prize Challenge.

Kathleen O. was also common to the scorecards of William McMillan (5 wins, 1 place) and Terrence Frank (4W, 0P) over at HorsePlayers.

McMillan and Frank got the seats in Sunday’s $210 NHC qualifier. They were also likeminded in their liking of I’m On Fire in the first contest race, the 6th at Monmouth.

Starting with I’m On Fire, Howard Kravets swept the first three contest races and added three more winners after that.

That’s how Kravets won a $10,000 seat in Sunday’s Low Ratio qualifier to the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge—where Kravets hopes to enjoy a similar strike rate.

Thanks to all of you for playing with us last week. Next stop: Preakness week!