Every Friday, HorsePlayers offers a $75 NHC qualifier with 2 seats guaranteed, and on Memorial Day, they hosted a $125 NHC play-in with 5 spots certain.

These low-cost qualifiers are very popular—both for the promise of a cheap ticket to the big dance in Vegas and for the chance to earn NHC Tour points…which could also result in an NHC berth.

These low-cost qualifiers are extra popular for Tom Blosser.

Our first-ever winner of the Flo-Cal Face-off in 2020, Blosser took a swing at last Friday’s $75 NHC qualifier and earned the third and final spot thanks to 3 winners.

Blosser—along with winner Stephen Diaz (6 wins, 1 place) and runner up Peter “Sharp Dressed Man” Dresens (3W, 4P)—all nailed Trash Talkin Larry ($58.60, $21.80) in race 7 at Pimlico.

On Memorial Day, Blosser entered the holiday, $125 qualifier and once again did just enough to achieve his objective.

In the course of 96 hours, Blosser went from 0 seats to 2 at the 2025 NHC. Here, his 3 wins and 1 place included L’Enfant Dit ($36.20, $20.60) in race 6 at Santa Anita and Promissio ($41.40, $18.40) 30 minutes later at The Great Race Place. Blosser’s Vegas foes next March will include the four who finished in front of him on Monday—Nick “48 Hrs.” Noce (3W, 5P), 2022 Flo-Cal Faceoff champ David Snyder (3W, 2P), Gary Fenton (4W, 2P) and the 2022 Spa & Surf Showdown champion Tim Hughes (4W, 1P).

What with Memorial Day and all, it was an extra-long six-day featured-tourney week last week. The first of those six days was Wednesday, which was a good day for Michael Goodrich.

Winning was a reflex act for “The Coach” on Wednesday. He had Reflex ($119.80, $20.20) in the 8th at Horseshoe Indy plus one other winner and two runners up to pocket $2,861 in the day’s $5,000 Gtd. tourney, which closed with a purse of $6,359.

The same selections got Goodrich second-place in Wednesday’s three-seat Monmouth Pick Your Prize play-in.

Goodrich bested all except Charles Welch (2 wins, 1 place). Welch’s big returner was a different triple-digit Indy bomb—Bella Francesca ($110.20, $38.80) in race 7. (The $2 Daily Double combining Bella Francesca and Reflex paid more than two grand.) Somewhat remarkably, Derek “Don’t” Huneau (4W,1P) got the third $2,000 seat without hitting either of the 50-1 shots. His big horse was Miss Amazing ($31.60, $14.60) in the 6th at Delaware Park.

On Thursday, recent Players Championship winner Matthew Bickey kicked off what was a nice Memorial Day week run for him.

Three Coats ($43.20, $19.80) continued the recent salvo of big prices at Horseshoe Indy. Bickey had the race 6 longshot plus another winner and a runner up to cash for $3,483 in Thursday’s $6,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which closed with a pot of $7,742.

After a quiet couple of days, Bickey came back on Sunday to land seats to a couple of upcoming tournaments.

Bickey picked 3 winners and 1 runner up to grab the $1,000 worth of entry fees in Sunday’s Hawthorne Summer Contests qualifier. His winners included Hamilton’s Way ($65.50, $20.70) in the 7th at BAQ and Gold Foot ($30.00, $12.20) in the final contest race, the 4th at Santa Anita.

The same selections landed Bickey at the top of the heap of Sunday’s Monmouth Pick Your Prize play-in.

Joining Bickey in the field of this Saturday’s contest will be “Pistol” Pete Acocella (3W, 0P), Jim “Never” Settle (3W, 3P), Cara Yarusso (4W, 0P) and defending Spa & Surf Showdown champion Anthony Spinazzola (3W, 1P).

Rewinding back to Thursday action, there was a Monmouth qualifier that day, too, and it added two more names to the roster of Pick Your Prize participants.

Scores were low in this one, but pretty is as pretty does. George Smith (2 wins, 4 places) hit the final two contest races—including Luck of the Draw ($13.00, $6.20) in the final race—to score a come-from-behind victory. The lone winner for Stephan Gravina (1W, 3P) was Group Hug ($23.40, $10.20) in the 6th at Delaware.

Friday brought a new day—and, of course, a new Monmouth Pick Your Prize qualifier.

Ciaran Thornton showed the way here with 5 wins and 1 place. His roster of horses was led by Krystalheir ($49.00, $12.80) in race 8 at BAQ. Also advancing were Eddie  “Wright Stuff” Wright (3W, 2P). Sean “Krystalheir” O’Malley (3W, 1P) and 2023 Flo-Cal Faceoff winner David Wolff, whose 3 firsts and 1 second all came in the final 5 races.

If it seems like last week was a particularly good one for those who have previously won “majors” at HorseTourneys, you’re not wrong.

The 2020 Spa & Surf Showdown champion Scott Fiedler recorded 3 firsts and 2 seconds—including Trash Talkin Larry ($58.60, $21.80) in the first contest race, the 7th at Pimlico—to reel in the $10,000 seat in Friday’s BCBC Low Ratio qualifier at HorsePlayers.

Alan Bourke hit Krystalheir in the 8th race at BAQ, but he needed to catch a $10.60 place price in the final contest race to prevail in Friday’s HT Tour battle, our $15,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray. 

Bourke collected the winner’s share of $9,576 from what was a final prize pool of $21,280.

The Saturday HT Tour game was our richest event of the week—our $25,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which ultimately paid out a total of $29,260.

Joe Ward collected the $13,167 windfall in this one on the strength of 5 firsts and 2 seconds. His best return came with Valenzan Day ($14.20, $6.90) in the 9th at BAQ.

The big horse of Saturday for Jason Alonzo (6 firsts, 2 seconds) was Power Attack ($16.80, $7.10) in the 10th at BAQ.

That’s how Alonzo earned his way in to the $400,000 Gtd. Spa & Surf Showdown here on August 3-4.

Another who flexed his muscles with Power Attack was Kirk Tesar (3 firsts, 2 seconds).

Tesar earned $8,549 for conquering Saturday’s $7,000 Gtd. Big Bucks Pick & Pray, which closed with a final purse of $12,213.

That wasn’t Tesar’s only triumph of the week.

Tesar (3 wins, 1 place) also emerged victorious in Monday’s Belmont Stakes Challenge qualifier. Also receiving $1,500 seats in this affair were Kevin Engelhard and Gregory Lewis (4W, 2P). All three connected with Princess Midnight ($96.00, $27.80) in race 5 at Santa Anita.

For Kevin Engelhard, it wasn’t his only “seat win” of the week…or even his first.

Engelhard also secured the $500 ducat in Saturday’s Delaware Park Handicapping Contest contest. He picked 6 winners out of 12 races, topped by Power Attack. As a result, Engelhard will return to the site where he captured one of his two 2024 NHC seats last year.

Elsewhere in Saturday featured-tourney competition, five players earned $2,000 seats for the Monmouth Pick Your Prize contest—now less than a week away.

Congratulations to Michael Mainzer (5 wins, 4 places), Stephen Spinella (8W, 1P, including the last 5 winners), Emad Himaya (3W, 5P), Steve “Rich Man” Poorman (4W, 0P) and Thomas Michael Abinanti (3W, 1P).

Over at HorsePlayers, David Alexander (8 wins, 2 places) and William Claunch (4W, 3P) each nailed down 2025 NHC seats in Saturday’s $165 Pick & Pray.

Alexander’s octet of winners was highlighted by Silent and Violent ($12.00, $6.40) in the 10th at Gulfstream. Claunch’s successful attack was most strongly powered by Power Attack.

The other Saturday feature at HorsePlayers was a $179 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge qualifier—the weekend’s only Live-format tourney.

Valenzan Day and Power Attack were among the 4 winners chosen by Wes Herek, who also added a pair of placings on his way to the $10,000 entry for this November.

On Sunday, we offered our first qualifier to the Belmont Stakes Challenge, which will be held at Santa Anita and Xpressbet.

Dane Moore (3 wins, 2 places) was the first HorseTourneys player to land a $1,500 seat to the June 8 contest. And Sam “Split” Sample (3W, 1P) and Thomas Kolschowsky (3W, 3P) were the second and third. Moore hit it big with Hamilton’s Way ($65.50, $20.60) in the 7th at BAQ.

Joe “Kramer vs.” Kramer also smoked out Hamilton’s Way.

Kramer got the $10,000 seat at the conclusion of Sunday’s $500 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier at HorsePlayers.

The other featured tourney at HorsePlayers on Sunday was a $500 NHC Low Ratio qualifier. The winner was another Hamilton’s Way fan.

That would be FOX Sports personality Chris “The Bear” Fallica, who put up 3 wins and 2 places en route to victory.

Sunday’s cash feature—and HT Tour event—was a $20,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray that wound up with a final purse of $26,468.

Edwin Herr (4 firsts, 1 second) amassed a gaudy total of $172.20 to take down the $11,910 first prize. Of his 5 collections, Herr got the most chips with cap horse Your Man Alex ($67.00, $42.60) in the 9th at BAQ.

Craig “Home Sweet” Hom (4 wins, 0 places) and Neal Metzger (4 places, followed by 2 wins in the final two races) snatched up the $2,500 entries in Sunday’s qualifier to Leg 3 of the 2024 HorseTourneys Grand Slam, the $400,000 Gtd. Spa & Surf Showdown.

Hom and Metzger both struck gold with Gold Foot ($30.00, $12.20) in the final contest heat, race 4 at Santa Anita.

Evan Trommer’s most lucrative pick among 3 Sunday winners was that of Afy Kid ($19.40, $9.40) in the 10th at Monmouth.

Trommer collected the up-top money of $3,562 for taking Sunday’s $5,088 Big Bucks tourney.

There were some big prices out there on Memorial Day. In three straight races at Santa Anita, the win prices came back $96.00, $36.20 and $41.40. Kirk Tesar had all three in his aforementioned Belmont Stakes Challenge victory. Alan Mullins had all three as well.

Mullins (4 wins, 1 place) recorded the highest score of the day—$195.00—while finishing first in Monday’s 37-entry Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier. Jeff Hartz finished more than $100 behind Mullins in second place, but received a $5,000 partial BCBC entry for his efforts.

Monday’s cash-game star was Thomas Guthrie who took first place—and the $10,773 that went with it—in the day’s HT Tour contest, our $15,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which closed its doors with $23,940 in the kitty.

The heavy lifter for Guthrie was Promissio ($41.40, $18.40) in race 7 at Santa Anita.

We mentioned earlier that Kevin Engelhard and Gregory Lewis earned Belmont Stakes entries on Sunday for finishing 2nd & 3rd, respectively, behind Kirk Tesar (and that Engelhard also picked up a Delaware seat on Saturday). Engelhard and Lewis were also among the five $2,000 seat recipients in Monday’s Monmouth Pick Your Prize play-in.

Here Lewis finished 2nd and Engelhard 4th behind top dog Anthony “ATM” Mattera who counted Promissio among his 4 wins and 2 places. Lewis used the same picks as in the Belmont Stakes Challenge qualifier, while Engelhard only had one horse in common between his successful Belmont and Monmouth entries. That lone common Engelhard denominator was 19-1 winner Promissio—a pretty good horse to “single”!

Kudos also to 3rd-place finisher Jean DeMarco (4W, 3P) and 5th-place contestant “Pistol” Pete Acocella (1W, 3P). They, too, secured Monmouth berths for this Saturday. For Acocella, it was the second Pick Your Prize entry won in as many days. 

Acocella’s lone Monday visitor to the winner’s circle was Promissio. That horse was also key for Matt “The Fly” Tietze.

Promissio was the best part of a 4-win, 3-place day for Tietze, who topped the leaderboard in Monday’s qualifier to the June 22 Delaware Park Handicapping Contest.

Travis Pearson (2 firsts, 3 seconds) also cheered on Promissio.

The 2022 HT Tour champ bagged $4,274 for winning Monday’s $6,106 Big Bucks Pick & Pray.

Princess Midnight ($96.00, $27.80) in the 5th at Santa Anita was the brightest star on Monday for Ilan Cuellar (2 wins, 2 places).

Cuellar and William Holmes (4W, 3P) took home the $2,000 entries at the conclusion of Monday’s Spa & Surf Showdown qualifier. Cuellar and Holmes both doped out L’Enfant Dit ($36.20, $20.60) in the 6th at Santa Anita.

Thanks to all of you for spending a portion of your Memorial Day week with us. It turned out to be a fun mix of contest days with plenty of long- and mid-priced winners out there to potentially get one on his or her way to a good result. (That ain’t always the case!)

For those still hoping to win their way into the Monmouth Pick Your Prize contest, we’ll continue to offer qualifiers right through “Pick Your Prize Eve” (Friday). That and more qualifiers and cash games will all be coming your way starting tomorrow (Wednesday). Good luck if you participate!