On Saturday, the two biggest prices hiding out there amid our 12 featured-tourney contest races were Miuccia ($30.80, $8.00) and Prins Fire ($28.80, $7.40) in the final contest heat, the 12th at Monmouth.

Andy Asaro had both of the longshots, and that meant—to paraphrase Jay Trotter—that he was having a very good day.

Asaro pocketed $12,474 for capturing Saturday’s HT Tour event, our $25,000 Gtd, tourney, which wound up paying out a total of $27,720. In all, he selected 4 winners and 2 runners up.

He utilized the same picks at HorsePlayers.

One such deployment got him the above-highlighted Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge seat.

In order to defeat Asaro on Saturday, you simply needed to record the highest score of the day—and that’s what Julie Loboyko did.

Loboyko missed on Prins Fire at the end, but she connected on 3 winners (including Muccia) and 3 runners up before that to hold off Asaro—who completed his “very good day” by getting the second seat in the $165 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers. 

The featured-tourney week began on Wednesday when the “O” in Sean O’Malley stood for the number of winners he picked that day.

As mentioned last week, pretty is as pretty does. O’Malley caught a max $22.00 place payoff by having 55-1 Henrythethird…who was Henrythesecond in the first contest race, the 7th at Parx. Three place collections later, O’Malley had a score of $48.20—and a $1,500 seat for this coming Saturday’s Belmont Stakes Challenge.

Wednesday’s high scorer was James Cosenza, who shrewdly opted for winners rather than runners up.

Cosenza posted 6 winners and—perhaps to appease O’Malley—1 second on the way to a $2,706 payday in Wednesday’s $5,000 Gtd. cash game, which closed with a pot of $6,013. His best selection was claim-of-foul-survivor Bolivie ($14.20, $7.80) in the last contest race, the 8th at Horseshoe Indy.

Thursday’s winner of the cash feature, our $6,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, was Mike Lazarus.

Rather than stage a comeback like his namesake, Lazarus picked three $20.00+ winners all within the first five contest races to take home the winners share of $4,199 from a final prize pool that totaled $9,331.

On Friday, Kenneth Arnerich finished fast with three straight winners—but before that, he nailed Louie the Sun King ($35.00, $11.80) in the 8th at Gulfstream.

Arnerich had 5 firsts and 1 second in all, and he got the up-top money of $8,304 in Friday’s HT Tour battle, our $15,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which closed with a purse of $18,453. Arnerich also received a $500 bonus since this was his 2nd Friday HT Tour victory in 2024.

“Pistol” Pete Acocella (2 wins, 1 place) and Corey Lonberger (2W, 3P) each came up with Louie the Sun King as well.

Acocella and Lonberger will square off again this Saturday in the Belmont Stakes Challenge with fully-paid-up $1,500 entries.

The big horse on Friday for Rick Bruton was Hit the Road Brat ($15.20, $7.20) in race 7 at Laurel.

Bruton (3 firsts, 5 seconds) snagged the $2,500 berth in Friday’s qualifier to the $400,000 Gtd. Spa & Surf Showdown here on August 3-4.

At HorsePlayers on Friday, the two featured tourneys ran from one extreme to the other.

The top two scores of Friday were turned in by Brenton Schraff (4 wins, 2 places) and Matt “The Fly” Tietze (4W, 3P) in the day’s $75 NHC qualifier. Schraff prospered with both Hit the Road Brat and Louie the Sun King, while Tietze just had the latter.

Meanwhile, Shad Walton took the Breeders’ Cup Low Ratio qualifier with the lowest winning score of the day.

A tally of $43.90 got the job done for Walton, whose 2 firsts and 4 seconds were topped by Hit the Road Brat.

We mentioned at the top that Andy Asaro thrived by hitting both 14-1 Miuccia and 13-1 Prins Fire. The 2022 NHC Tour champ Jay Johns (2 wins, 1 place) also smoked out the Saturday dynamic duo.

Johns got the seat in Saturday’s play-in to the Spa & Surf Showdown, Leg 3 of the 2024 HorseTourneys Grand Slam.

Like Johns, Ty Alexander’s only two Saturday winners were Miuccia and Prins Fire.

Alexander (2 wins, 1 place) earned a $500 entry into the June 22 Delaware Park Handicapping Contest.

David Barnier (3 firsts, 3 seconds) got the most bucks at the conclusion of Saturday’s $7,000 Gtd. Big Bucks Pick & Pray.

Barnier made collection in each of the final four contest races—including with Miuccia—and he bagged $9,261 in a game that was ultimately worth a total of $13,237.

Three players picked up $1,500 spots in Saturday’s qualifier to the upcoming Belmont Stakes Challenge. 

It was Jerry McClenin (4 wins, 2 places) on the top step of the podium in this one. He was joined by Edward Enborg (5W, 2P) and Neal Metzger (4W, 1P). The best return for both McClenin and Enborg came via Omaha City ($20.40, $6.60) in the 8th at Gulfstream.

McClenin also won a tourney on Sunday.

This time it was a Delaware Park Handicapping Contest qualifier—in which McClenin recorded 3 wins and a place. McClenin was the only player last week to finish atop the leaderboard of featured tourneys on two different days.

Two players scored multiple victories on Sunday. One of them was Rich Constatine.

Constatine posted 4 wins and 1 place in taking Sunday’s $11,195 Big Bucks game, and he was rewarded with $7,836.

In Sunday’s Spa & Surf Showdown qualifier, Constatine used most of the same picks and managed to generate a higher score—even though he failed to get a pick in for the first race in time.

Presumably (based on his Big Bucks scorecard), Constatine would have gotten a $6.40 place payoff in the first race had he entered his selection on time. Perhaps he was kicking himself for that all afternoon…because the Spa & Surf Showdown qualifier turned out to be a dogfight. Constatine used the same horse in both contests for the next 10 races (contest races 2-11), but in the last race he altered course by using Lovely Idaho (who finished 2nd and paid $12.60 to place) instead of the unplaced Truly Magical, which was his Big Bucks selection. Both of those horses went off at 16-1, but we’ll guess that Lovely Idaho was his slightly-more-preferred pick since he was behind heading into the last race of the Spa & Surf Showdown qualifier and well ahead in the Big Bucks game. Anyway, that $12.60 return with Lovely Idaho meant the difference between 1st-place and 4th-place for Constatine in this “two-seater.”

Speaking of “two seats”, belated congratulations to Larry Solakis (3 wins, 2 places) for finishing second and securing the other $2,500 Spa & Surf berth in this qualifier. Solakis had Lloyd ($25.80, $7.20) in the 12th at Monmouth. Lloyd was the biggest price of the day on Sunday.

Another who came up with Lloyd was John Kennedy (5 wins, 3 places).

Kennedy was Commander-in-Chief of Sunday’s $210 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers, which also saw Jean DeMarco (5W, 2P) earn a trip to Vegas to compete in the big dance next March. 

Well before then, Kennedy will campaign for a victory in the Belmont Stakes Challenge.

So will Frank Okasaki (5W, 0P), Chris Podratz (5W, 2P) and Henry Reitzenstein (4W, 0P). Kennedy, Okasaki and Reitzenstein were all in agreement on the issue of Lloyd. 

Elliott Gregory was also pro-Lloyd. Gregory (5 firsts, 2 seconds) won $11,221 for capturing Sunday’s HT Tour event, our $20,000 Guaranteed cash tourney, which paid out a final pot of $24,937. John Kennedy ($4,488)came in second.

In my mind, it made sense that Elliott Gregory had Lloyd. Horseplayers with two first names should always be on high alert for horses with just a single, human first name. For that reason, it was disappointing to see that neither Mike Thomas (one entry) or Neal Thomas (two entries!) used Lloyd in this game. 

All kidding aside, many horseplayers are loathe to admit that something as unscientific as a horse’s name could find its way in to their “handicapping process”…but I think we all know that—at least on rare occasions—it does.

Unless Craig Siedler is extremely punctual, we have no reason to believe that names were a factor in his Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier triumph.

Siedler had On the Dot ($15.00, $5.80) in the 11th at Monmouth among his 6 firsts and 2 seconds.

Another On the Dot backer was Mike Cirincione (5W, 4P).

Cirincione earned $1,000 in entry fees for ruling the roost in Sunday’s qualifier to the Hawthorne Summer Contests, to be hosted in Chicagoland on June 29-30.

Thanks to all for participating last week—and for reading today. On to Belmont Stakes week!