It would be hard to do much better in the HT Tour than Eric “B Connected” Boyd has done. Coming into this week, Boyd had recorded 8 victories on the year—a number made all the more impressive given that only a player’s top 10 scores count in the year-end standings.

Make it 9 victories.

Boyd added another 10+-point score to his HT Tour total by taking our richest game of the week, Saturday’s $25,000 Guaranteed tourney, which was ultimately worth a total of $27,720. Boyd’s 3-win, 1-place day included Pali Kitten ($29.80, $8.00) in the 4th at Santa Anita, and—in addition to the points—he pocketed the winner’s share of $12,474.

The top five in the HT Tour points standings at the end of the calendar year earn a bonus. The first-place bonus—for which Boyd clearly has the inside track—is $20,000 plus one seat to each of the four HT Grand Slam events in 2025. Few bonuses (in any endeavor) will have been so richly deserved.

A deserving winner of riches on Wednesday was everyone’s favorite Gambling Actuary, Dave Nichols.

Very few of these Weekly Recaps have been written lately without Nichols’s name appearing somewhere therein. On Wednesday, he cinched his latest ink by hitting Under the Palms ($44.20, $18.20) in the 9th at Horseshoe Indianapolis, then holding on for dear life and eking out a $1.20 triumph in the day’s $5,000 guaranteed tourney, which closed with a final purse of $$6,083. The winner’s share for Nichols (2 winners, 0 places) came to $2,737.

Under the Palms was the only winner of the day for Steven Meier.

Meier did also have a place collection en route to a $2,000 berth in Wednesday’s qualifier to the $300,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray Classic here on November 23-24. The Pick & Pray Classic serves as the final leg of the 2024 HT Grand Slam.

Like Steven Meier, Len Hanson had just one Wednesday winner—but it wasn’t Under the Palms.

Hanson’s big…errr, lone…winner was Jazzole ($14.20, $2.80) in race 11 at Horseshoe Indy. That late hit, plus an earlier max $22.00 place collection, gave Hanson a final score of $39.00 and a $3,500 spot in Saturday’s Keeneland Fall BCBC/NHC Challenge.

Jazzole was also on the scorecard of Michael Marlaire.

After 3 earlier runners up, Marlaire swept the “late double” to come away with the $750 seat in Wednesday’s play-in to the BCBC Last Chance Tourney here on October 31.

On Thursday, the horse you really wanted to have was the Ed Barker-trained Paxsational ($35.60, $12.20) in race 6 at BAQ. Rafael Lopez played Paxsational.

Lopez (4 firsts, 1 second) bagged $3,732 in Thursday’s $6,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which finished up with a pot $8,295.

Another Paxsational supporter was Tim Yohler.

Yohler posted 3 wins and a place on the way to capturing Thursday’s special HorsePlayers Happy Hour Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge qualifier.

(Quick aside: Whenever Ed Barker won a race at NYRA while John Imbriale was calling the races, Imbriale would announce Barker’s last name in the winner’s circle with an extra-deep voice as “Bahh-kuh”. He did that because he always liked the way longtime Yankees public address announcer Bob Sheppard pronounced the name of visiting Texas/Cleveland pitcher Len Barker.)

For the second straight afternoon, BAQ produced the top win price of the day on Friday thanks to La Mehana ($21.20, $8.00) in race 7 at the Ozone Park, N.Y. oval. Both 2023 HT Tour champion Ed Peters (4 wins, 1 place) and NHC Hall of Famer Brett Wiener liked La Mehana.

Peters and Wiener each earned $750 entries for running one-two in Friday’s BCBC Last Chance Tourney qualifier.

Happily for Wiener, the Flordia resident played those same picks back in Friday’s Pick & Pray Classic qualifier.

This time Wiener found himself on top of the heap at the end, and he thereby added a $2,000 entry to his future-contest seat holdings.

At the beginning of Friday’s HT Tour event, Donald Beavers left it to Stylish Sue.

Stylish Sue ($15.86, $7.84) won the first contest race, the 5th at Keeneland, and Beavers added 5 more winners thereafter to take home the up-top money of $8,678 in Friday’s $15,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which wound up with a prize pool of $19,285. Brett Wiener ($3,471) reported home in second place.

Gene Stewart (5 wins, 2 places) and Sherill King also thought Stylish Sue was a stylish starting selection.

Steward and King will square off again this Saturday—with paid-up entries—in the Keeneland Fall BCBC/NHC Challenge.

Over at HorsePlayers, Allan Sadler (5 wins, 0 places) and Joseph Parella (4W, 2P) were the $10,000 seat winners in Friday’s BCBC Low Ratio qualifier.

Sadler and Parella both connected with La Mehana. Parella got himself up for second late by nailing 4-1 Cloudwalker in the final contest race, the 10th on the opening-day card at Keeneland.

The three players to break triple figures were the three to secure Vegas berths in Friday’s $75 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers.

The happy trio was Ed Claunch (4 wins, 4 places), Michael Vitale (6W, 0P) and Tim Holland (5W, 1P). They all had La Mehana. Vitale and Holland locked down their berths with Cloudwalker at the end. Claunch, meanwhile, may have picked the fewest winners of the victorious group, but 2 of his 4 place collections were of the max, $22.00 variety.

Two more NHC spots were distributed here on Saturday.

Peter Yan (4 wins, 1 place) had the high score of the day thanks in no small part to Pali Kitten ($29.80, $8.00) in the 4th at Santa Anita. The other available berth at HorsePlayers went to Lynn “Amazing” Grace (6W, 2P). Grace ran off 5 straight winners at one point. The highest yielder within the quintet was Mickey Shillelagh ($14.20, $7.20) in race 9 at BAQ.

The other marquee game on Saturday at HorsePlayers was a $179 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge play-in.

As is the case with most BCBC qualifiers right now, two seats went out the door. They landed in the laps of the two participants who eclipsed the $80.00 mark—David Browning (4 wins, 2 places) and Patrick McGoey (4W, 3P). Browning’s big gun was Pali Kitten. McGoey was rewarded for being loyal to his Irish roots. His best return came courtesy of Mickey Shillelagh.

Rick Bruton recorded 3 place collections before reeling off 4 consecutive winners (including Pali Kitten).

Bruton led the way in Saturday’s Pick & Pray Classic qualifier—which also saw runner up Jason Matson (6W, 3P) exit with a $2,000 entry.

David Feldman’s best Saturday pick came in the day’s first contest race, the Demoiselle Stakes at BAQ.

Feldman (5 wins, 4 places) didn’t have many anxious moments watching Scottish Lassie ($15.00, $4.60) rumble home in the Demoiselle. Robert Felt also had 5 winners (though no runners up). Felt got the other available $750 spot in this two-seat BCBC Last Chance Tourney qualifier.

Blake Courtney (2 wins, 2 places) and 2016 NHC Tour champion Cheryl McIntyre (3W, 3P) both used Pali Kitten as a springboard to success.

Courtney and McIntyre will see each other again (at least in cyberspace) this Saturday after completing the exacta atop the leaderboard of this past Saturday’s Keeneland Fall BCBC/NHC Challenge qualifier. McIntyre made collections in each of the final four contest races during a late push that got her the second-place finish.

Mark Stillmock (4 firsts, 1 second) scooped up the $7,124 top prize in Saturday’s $10,177 Big Bucks Pick & Pray.

In this 10-entry tourney, Stillmock finished with a score of $85.54—which was exactly one dollar more than Eric Boyd amassed while winning $12,474 in the same day’s 90-entry, $25,000 guaranteed game.

Kevin Cornett enjoyed the best of both worlds on Sunday, winning a bird in the hand and another in the bush.

Cornett’s 5 winners included Joe Shiesty ($21.62, $10.42) in the initial contest race, the 5th at Keeneland. In fact, Cornett had 4 of the first 5 winners plus a place collection, and he went on to a triumph worth $9,450 in Sunday’s $20,000 Guaranteed cash tourney, which wound up paying out an even $21.000.

The cash feature was a Live-format affair. Sunday’s NHC qualifier was a Pick & Pray. Cornett didn’t score quite as well in that one…but he did well enough!

Cornett went for 4 wins and 2 places here, and he lost about 12 bucks off his score. That put him behind Dane Moore (2 wins, 3 places), but it didn’t put him behind anyone else. Not even close It was a full $30 back to Cornett’s nearest pursuer. As for Moore, not only did he hit the bomb of the day—Minaret Station ($78.88, $33.22) in the 10th at Keeneland—he also caught a max $22.00 place collection by having the longshot runner up, Lucky Shot, in race 6 at Keeneland. Both Moore and Cornett advance on to the big dance next March.

Speaking of big, it was a big finish on Sunday for Kevin Engelhard.

Engelhard swept the final four contest heats, finishing with 6 wins and 2 places on the day. The big run—of which Not a Sinner ($13.20, $4.80) in the 6th at Santa Anita was a part—landed Engelhard a spot in the BCBC Last Chance Tourney here on October 31.

He didn’t accumulate a gaudy final tally, but Gary Blair’s 2 wins and 4 places got him into the Pick & Pray Classic.

Blair’s total of $48.66 was most bolstered by Abientot ($12.20, $6.40) in the 8th at BAQ.

There were two winners in Sunday’s Keeneland Fall BCBC/NHC Challenge qualifier.

Congratulations—and good luck on Saturday—to Craig Siedler (4 wins, 0 places) and Jim “Never” Settle (3W, 2P). Siedler’s biggest hit came with Joe Shiesty. Settle’s top return was provided by Scythian ($24.20, $7.70) in the 6th at BAQ. For Settle, the win was his 6th over the last three weeks.

The only Sunday feature at HorsePlayers was a $500 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier, and Minaret Station played a large part in it.

The Keeneland cap horse rocketed Joe “Kramer vs.” Kramer (5 wins, 0 places) and Paul Winandy (3W, 2P) up the leaderboard in Sunday’s Low Ratio qualifier to the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge—now less than a week away.

That’s a wrap on last week. Good luck to all of you who will be competing in Saturday’s Keeneland Fall BCBC/NHC Challenge qualifier. If you don’t yet have a Keeneland entry, three more qualifiers remain for it (one each on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday).

We’ll be back here in this space next Monday with more recaps. In the meantime…good luck!