Saturday may have been D. Wayne Lukas’s day, but Sunday belonged to “Battlin’” William Smith.

All eight of Sunday’s featured tourneys were Live-format games, but Smith played them—five of them anyway—as though they were Pick & Prays. If you know, you know, I guess, and on Sunday, Smith knew.

The big price on Sunday was wire-to-wire Monmouth race 9 grass winner Prince of Troy ($60.80, $18.40). Prince of Troy was one of five winners unearthed by Smith. To that quintet, he added a pair of runners up, and the seven collections got Smith into the winner’s circle of Sunday’s HT Tour event, our $20,000 Gtd. cash tourney, which closed with a final purse of $25,375. Smith’s share of that was $11,418.

Smith used the same picks in Sunday’s $9,159 Big Bucks tourney.

This one added another $6,411 to Smith’s coffers, giving him $20,577 in cash on the day—but his winning was far from over.

Smith also led the way in Sunday’s play-in to the $400,000 Gtd. Spa & Surf Showdown.

Like the New York Islanders, Battlin’ William achieved a fourth straight championship.

This one came in our qualifier to the June 22 Delaware Park Handicapping Contest.

Unlike the New York Islanders (in 1984), Smith went on to succeed in his “Drive for Five”.

This effort culminated in a $2,000 Monmouth Pick Your Prize seat, giving Smith $5,000 worth of seats to go with his $20,577 in cash prizes. Also earning Monmouth berths here were Ken Zelin (4 wins, 0 places) and Gary Sutton (3W, 4P). Like Smith, Zelin and Sutton both nailed Prince of Troy.

When all was said and done, there was little left for Smith to do but quietly contemplate all that he had accomplished.

Staring blankly out into the distance was pretty much all our higher-end players could do last Wednesday after wet conditions at Horseshoe Indianapolis wiped out their stakes-laden card—and our featured tourneys.

So on we marched to Thursday. 

William Ortega (3 firsts, 2 seconds) had a big finish with a 21-1 winner, a 17-1 victor and a 17-1 runner up in the final three contest races to score a come-from-behind victory worth $3,639 in Thursday’s $6,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which closed with a pot of $8,087.

In Thursday’s Monmouth Pick Your Prize qualifier, it was William “23” Sadoo (4 wins, 3 places) and David Nelson (2W, 2P) who came away with the $2,000 entries for June 1.

The big horse for Sadoo was Gabagool ($20.80, $10.00) at the end in the 8th at Gulfstream. Nelson’s was Tator Made ($45.00, $13.80) 30 minutes earlier at the Hallandale Beach oval.

It was quite the week around here for people named William. There was William Smith…and Ortega…and Sadoo…and McMillan. I don’t know whether William McMillan is married, but if he is, there could conceivably be a McMillan & Wife entry in next Monday’s Lone Star Million Betting Challenge. 

McMillan swept the top two spots in Friday’s Texas two-seat dance. What’s more, he managed to do that while using a different horse in every race across his two entries. In all, McMillan recorded 5 wins and 2 places on his “good” ticket and 3 wins and 2 places on his “bad” one.

John Gilpatrick picked 4 winners on Friday, and they were all four of the double-digit winners that were out there that day.

Gilpatrick was awarded for efforts with $8,902—the winner’s share of Friday’s HT Tour game, our $15,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which paid out a total of $19,783.

Friday’s top scorer was Robert Fry who put up 6 wins and 2 places over at HorsePlayers.

Fry and the two other players who topped the $70.00 mark were the three to secure 2025 seats in Friday’s $75 NHC qualifier. The second- and third-place finishers were John Marino (5W, 3P) and Victor Pasquariello (4W, 1P).

The other Friday feature at HorsePlayers was a Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio play-in.

Eric Pineiro got the $10,000 seat in this one, besting 22 rivals. The best pick among his 4 firsts and 3 seconds was Light Man ($18.40, $7.80) in the 6th at BAQ.

David Crupi also lit up at the sight of Light Man.

Light Man was one of 3 winners that propelled Crupi to victory in Friday’s Spa & Surf Showdown qualifier.

Brooks “Was Here” Schuler (4 wins, 2 places) and Joe Perry (also 4W, 2P) grabbed the $2,000 entries in Friday’s qualifier to the Monmouth Pick Your Prize contest.

Schuler finished fast with triumphs in each of the last three contest races. He and Perry both had Pyrenees ($12.20, $4.20) in race 12 on Black-Eyed Susan Day at Pimlico.

Triple Crown season always seems to be “Prime Time” for John “The Clocker” Nichols, and on Preakness Day, he was one of two double winners.

Nichols selected 6 winners and 3 runners up to take home the $8,549 grand prize in Saturday’s $7,000 Gtd. Big Bucks Pick & Pray, which had a final pot of $12,213. His collections were topped by Aventapp ($11.20, $4.80) in race 2 at Santa Anita.

Using the same Pick & Pray selections, Nichols also snatched up an NHC seat on Saturday. 

In the day’s $165 qualifier, Nichols defeated all except fellow seat winner Jeff Higgins, who whiffed on the first 4 contest races, but connected on 5 winners thereafter. The best of the lot came at the end with Seize the Gray in the Preakness.

There was also a $500 NHC qualifier, a Low Ratio affair, over at HorsePlayers. The winner there was a Seize the Gray fan as well.

That would be Evan Trommer, who had the Preakness champ along with 4 other winners and 3 runners up. 

Trommer also led a winning group of three in Saturday’s Monmouth Pick Your Prize qualifier.

The Floridian shared the victory podium here with the two other players who got past the $80.00 barrier on Saturday. Those were runner up Bernard Reilly (4 wins, including Seize the Gray) and 2016 NHC Tour champion Cheryl McIntyre (4W, 4P).

The winning level in Saturday’s Lone Star Million Betting Challenge qualifier was $70.00.

Congratulations to the only two to accomplish that—Vincent Easley (4 wins, 1 place) and Bob Gianquitti (3W, 1P). They each received $2,500 entries to play on Memorial Day at Lone Star Park.

College administrator Joel Wincowski passed Saturday’s Spa & Surf Showdown qualifier with honors.

Wincowski picked 7 winners out of 12 races to add the $2,500 seat to the 3rd leg of the 2024 HorseTourneys Grand Slam to his portfolio. His best return came with 9-2 Aventapp in the 2nd at Santa Anita.

Michael Pallidine picked 5 Saturday winners that ranged in price from $5.20 to $13.60.

To those 5 winners, Pallidine added 4 runners up, and that rewarded him with the $15,384 grand prize in our richest tourney of the week, our $25,000 Guaranteed cash tourney. This HT Tour competition ended up with a total prize pool of $34,188.

On Saturday, Troy Johnson (3 firsts, 3 seconds) won our first qualifier to an upcoming tournament in The First State.

The First State is Delaware…since it was the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution in 1787. On June 22 of this year, Delaware Park will add another rich piece of history to the state by hosting the Delaware Park Handicapping Contest. Troy Johnson will be there—thanks in part to Seize the Gray.

Seize the Gray was one of 6 Saturday winners smoked out by Mark Stillmock.

The successful six pack earned Stillmock a $10,000 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge seat at the conclusion of Saturday’s $179 qualifier at HorsePlayers.

On Sunday, there were three featured events that William Smith did not win.

Actually…if William Smith had played in Sunday’s $210 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers, he still wouldn’t have defeated Kirk Tesar (4 wins, 0 places), who had the highest score of the day with $123.50. Tesar and runner up Mike Abernathy (4W, 2P) both had 29-1 Prince of Troy en route to their respective NHC berths.

Kevin Willett (5 wins, 1 place) and Craig White (4W, 1P) both hit the “Late Pick 3” by acing the final three contest races—a sequence that included Prince of Troy at Monmouth.

Willett and White will both have action in a week’s time with paid-up $2,500 entries to the Lone Star Million Betting Challenge.

Ken Seeman (6 wins, 1 place) didn’t sweep the “Late Pick 3”—in part because he failed to enter a selection for the final race of the day…but that didn’t stop him from finishing first (and third) in Sunday’s Low Ratio Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge qualifier at HorsePlayers.

As a service to Seeman, we here at HorseTourneys have taken the liberty of contacting the NTRA and asking them to have one of their NHC mentors reach out to Ken so that he might become more familiar with contest rules and requirements. We have every confidence that, in time, Seeman will get the hang of contest play.

Next weekend will be Memorial Day weekend—which means that the featured-tourney week will consist of six days (Wednesday through Monday). Pick your spots wisely…and your horses even wiserly! We’ll be back on Tuesday, the 28th to again recap the highlights…and maybe even the lowlights if they make us chuckle. Thanks to all of you for making Preakness Week a fun one around here.