We all know the feeling. You make your bet, then focus in on your horse in the starting gate—all the while knowing that your horse cannot possibly win, simply by virtue of the fact that you have bet on it.

Dave “Gambling Actuary” Nichols knows that feeling.

What a difference a week makes.

We don’t know for how long Nichols was running bad, but things turned around for him in a big way on Saturday, August 31—just seven days after his fatalistic tweet.

When you can hit not one but two big longshots in the course of a single tourney, you are in great shape, and that was the case with Nichols in our richest game of the week,  Saturday’s $25,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which closed with a purse of $32,648. Nichols came up with two robust Grade I winners—Idea Generation ($64.50, $16.00) in the Flower Bowl at Saratoga and Mix ($46.40, $16.40) in the Pacific Classic. To those bombs, Nichols added 3 place collections, and he earned the $14,691 grand prize in this HT Tour event.

If that victory, alone, didn’t make Nichols forget the rough patch he had experienced during the days leading up to it, then the rest of his Saturday probably did.

Using the same picks, Nichols also reeled in a $10,000 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge seat. But wait…there’s more!

Nichols also led the way in Saturday’s Keeneland Fall BCBC/NHC Challenge qualifier, and in…

…Saturday’s play-in to the Kentucky Downs King of the Turf Challenge on September 7. Gerry Addley (3 wins, 1 place) finished $53.92 behind Nichols, but that was good for second place—and a $2,500 “KOTT” entry of his own.

The fifth grand prize of the day for Nichols on Saturday was a “mere” $2,000 entry to the $300,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray Classic here on November 23-24.

As incredible as it was for Nichols to earn $32,691 in cash and seats in a single day, what may have been more incredible was the he did so without having the high score of the day. That honor belonged to Mark Stillmock, who had the same two Grade I stakes bombs as Nichols, and added 4 runners up (including a max $22.00 place number) on top of that. 

For Stillmock, it was the second seat won to the final leg of the 2024 HorseTourneys Grand Slam in as many days.

Twenty-four hours earlier, Stillmock (2 wins, 2 places) secured his first Pick & Pray Classic seat of the week—this time with the relatively pedestrian score of $55.00…a figure that was bolstered considerably by final-contest-race winner Just Is ($17.80, $6.20) in the 8th at Del Mar.

One of our first winners of the extra-long, featured-tourney week was Terry Jerge on Wednesday.

Jerge put up 2 firsts and 4 seconds to nail down a berth in the aforementioned Pick & Pray Classic. His best return came with Assembly Point ($15.80, $7.80) in race 7 at Parx.

One of our final winners of the extra-long, featured-tourney week was Terry Jerge on Monday.

Jerge (5 wins, 2 places) had a happy ending to go with his happy beginning by finishing second to Jim Cuzzupe (7W, 1P) in the Labor Day qualifier to the Kentucky Downs King of the Turf Challenge. Finishing third, and also garnering a $2,500 seat for this Saturday was Evan Trommer (5W, 1P). Cuzzupe and Trommer both connected with the biggest-priced winner on Sunday—Chancer McPatrick ($10.80) in the Hopeful Stakes on closing day at the Spa. Jerge, meanwhile, set himself up for good things by running off three straight winners at the outset.

Rewinding back to Wednesday, one of the players who shared the spotlight with Jerge was Robert Turner (5 wins, 2 places).

Turner fired off five straight winners, including Assembly Point at Parx, to capture Wednesday’s Keeneland Fall BCBC/NHC Challenge qualifier.

Eric Gielata hit it big in the final contest race of the day on Wednesday.

Gielata scored with Justheart ($32.80, $13.80) in race 9 at Saratoga to leapfrog his way to the top and pocket the $2,986 top prize in Wednesday’s $5,000 Guaranteed cash game, which closed with a final purse of $6,636.

Thursday’s featured cash-tourney winner was the red hot Hesham Ragab (3 firsts, 1 second).

Ragab has to be sorry to see August come to an end. On Thursday, he added another $3,981 to his ample winnings for the month, by taking the day’s $6,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which ultimately paid out a total of $8,848. Ragab’s big horse was Bedazzle ‘Em ($42.88, $17.36) in race 9 on the opening day card from Kentucky Downs.

NHC Hall of Famer Bill Shurman made collections on each of the first 6 contest races on Thursday.

Shurman (4 wins, 3 places) made off with the $2,000 entry in Thursday’s Pick & Pray Classic qualifier. His heaviest lifter was Two’s a Crowd ($17.60, $6.50) in the 9th at Saratoga.

Friday’s HT Tour battle was a tight one.

Jayson “Radio City” Rockett prevailed by $1.80 thanks to 3 wins and 4 places that included final-race victor Just Is at 7-1 at Del Mar. Rockett cashed for $9,800 in Friday’s $15,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which closed its doors with a total of $21,778 in the kitty.

Bobby Marks (4 wins, 2 places) and William Mauer (3W, 4P) will both be in action again this Saturday.

Marks and Mauer (not to be confused with Morneau and Mauer) ran one-two in Friday’s Kentucky Downs King of the Turf Challenge qualifier. The best pick for Marks was Just Is. Mauer’s was Soulofawarrior ($10.40, $4.40) in race 4 at Del Mar.

Steve Arrison (3 firsts, 3 seconds) also backed Soulofawarrior.

Arrison exited with the $1,000 seat in the first qualifier of the week to the September 14 Woodbine Mile Challenge.

Another Soulofawarrior fan was Gregory Lewis

Lewis secured himself a $3,500 place in the October 12 Keeneland Fall BCBC/NHC Challenge.

Over at HorsePlayers, the already-double-qualified Ciaran Thornton (4 wins, 3 places) led the way in Friday’s $75 NHC qualifier. That left the three available Vegas berths to second-, third- and fourth-place finishers Mike Yurczyk (3W, 4P), William M. Casper (5W, 2P) and Raymond Gallant Jr. (5W, 2P).

Each of the top four played Just Is, the $17.80 winner of the tourney finale, race 8 at Del Mar.

Just Is was the last of three straight winners Kenneth Murphy (5 wins, 4 places) used to successfully close out Friday’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier.

William “Hoss” Inman reported home in second place, which was good for a $5,000 partial BCBC entry.

He won’t get any HT Tour points for it, but current standings leader Neal Thomas was the victor in Saturday’s $10,174 Big Bucks Pick & Pray.

Thomas only picked two Saturday winners, but one of them was Mixto, the 22-1 upset winner of the Pacific Classic. For the victory, Thomas collected $7,124—which should cover quite a few HT Tour game entries between now and the end of the year.

Rudolph Hardin’s best idea on Saturday was Idea Generation ($64.50, $16.00) in race 12, the Flower Bowl, at Saratoga.

Hardin earned the $1,000 spot in Saturday’s qualifier to the September 14 Woodbine Mile Challenge.

The NHC qualifying opportunity on Saturday, a $165 Pick & Pray, took place here at HorseTourneys.

Buoyed by Spinaway Stakes winner Immersive ($27.40, $11.20) in the 11th at Saratoga, Peter Rinato led the way with his 4 wins and 2 places. Tammy Johns (3W, 2P) may have needed surgery to wipe the smile off her face after finishing second and grabbing the other available Vegas package. She had Idea Generation early, and got up for second late thanks to a $9.20 place collection in the final tourney race.

No one had a better first day of September (around here, anyway) than Dan Brockman.

Similar to Dave Nichols and Mark Stillmock on Saturday, Brockman smoked out two big prices in Rough Draft ($64.00, $20.80) in the 10th at Saratoga and Chasing Liberty ($46.76, $11.64) in the 10th at Kentucky Downs. Those two longshots plus two other winners and 1 place brought Brockman the up-top money of $12,107 in Sunday’s HT Tour competition, our $25,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which closed with a pot of $26,906. 

Brockman’s day-best total of $144.54 also allowed him to inflict maximum damage in Sunday’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier at HorsePlayers.

Cliff “Don” Pardo checked in second to wind up with the lovely parting gift of a $5,000 partial BCBC entry.

Tony Calabrese (3 wins, 2 places) also managed to come up with both Rough Draft and Chasing Liberty.

Calabrese showed the way in Sunday’s Kentucky Downs King of the Turf Challenge qualifier—an event that saw Brett Wiener (5W, 2P) also get a $2,500 seat for his second-place finish.

Using the same selections, Wiener finished behind no one in Sunday’s play-in to the Keeneland Fall BCBC/NHC Challenge.

Wiener’s big winner of the day was Galland de Besos ($18.60, $8.60) in race 4 at Del Mar.

Chasing Liberty was the Sunday star for Michael Caposio (4 wins, 1 place).

The recent subject of a Jennie Rees-written profile for Kentucky Downs, Caposio was the top dog in Sunday’s qualifier to the November 23-24 Pick & Pray Classic.

Rough Draft proved to be a letter-perfect submission on Sunday for A.J. Benton.

The Saratoga longshot was one of three Sunday winners for Benton en route to victory in the day’s Woodbine Mile Challenge qualifier.

Corey Lonberger bagged the $4,274 grand prize in Sunday’s $6,106 Big Bucks tourney.

Chasing Liberty was the big scorer for “CL” among 3 firsts and 2 seconds.

The Labor Day highlight was a special $125, five-seat NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers.

The five players to exceed the $80.00 mark were the five to earn low-cost Vegas berths. Filling out the top two slots were Thomas Buechler (6 wins, 2 places) and Cal “Frontier” Jestice (5W, 4P), who both made collections in each of the first 7 contest races. Behind them were Dean Malizia (7W, 0P), Joe Johnson (5W, 2P) and Mike Langthorne (6W, 1P). Malizia and Langthorne each hit the final two contest races to secure their places at Horseshoe Las Vegas.

James Moore II (6 wins, 1 place) and Kevin Newell (4W, 5P) each came away with $10,000 entries in a highly-attended Breeders’ Cup Low Ratio qualifier on Labor Day at HorsePlayers.

Moore got off to a very fast start with 4 winners right away. Newell scored with Raw Ability ($6.80, $4.20) in the final contest race (DMR8) to get up for second.

Here at HorseTourneys, we celebrated Labor Day with a $20,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray that served as the day’s HT Tour game. At the end of the day it was Thomas Guthrie who celebrated that decision.

Guthrie (5 wins, 2 places) correctly predicted the outcome of the first 3 races, 4 of the first 5 and 5 of the first 7. He banked $11,910 of what was a final prize pool of $26,468.

Joe Petrella also swept the first three contest races.

Petrella added one more winner thereafter and earned the $750 entry in Monday’s qualifier to the BCBC Last Chance Tourney here on October 31.

We mentioned earlier that Evan Trommer won himself a Kentucky Downs King of the Turf seat on Monday for finishing 3rd behind Jim Cuzzupe and Terry Jerge. Trommer (5 firsts, 1 second) picked up a $2,000 Pick & Pray Classic seat as well on Labor Day.

Win prices weren’t very big on Monday, but Trommer came up with the biggest—Chancer McPatrick ($10.80) in the Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga.

Monday’s Big Bucks Pick & Pray carried a $7,000 guarantee and paid out a total of $12,213. 

The top money of $8,549 went to 2023 Flo-Cal Faceoff champion David Wolff. The New Jersey barrister picked 5 winners, including a run of four straight that ended with Chancer McPatrick.

Neither Sondra Leslie (5 wins, 1 place) nor William Price (4W, 1P) managed to pick a double-digit winner on Monday. Nevertheless, they each won $3,500 entries for finishing first and second, respectively, in the day’s Keeneland Fall BCBC/NHC Challenge qualifier.

For the record, Leslie’s top winner paid $8.20. Price’s returned $9.60.

Thanks to all of you for spending a portion of your Labor Day Weekend—and week—with us. One bonus of an extended holiday weekend is that there is just one day of downtime before featured tourneys resume (on Wednesday). And even if your luck seems headed south at the moment, remember that things can change quickly. Just ask Dave Nichols.