We can’t say it’s never too late to qualify for the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge—because by Friday morning, it will be. However, it’s never too late to have a big day—or weekend—that can potentially make your entire year worthwhile. That was the case last Saturday and Sunday for Jonathan Socolow.

On Saturday, Socolow (3 wins, 0 places) was on the right side of a disqualification in the Bold Ruler Stakes at BAQ that resulted in Runninsonofagun ($34.00, $9.70) getting elevated to the top spot. Later, Socolow sealed the deal without any help from any stewards by hitting a 10-1 victor in the final contest race. When the dust had settled, Socolow had punched his ticket to Vegas in the day’s Low Ratio NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers.

It’s always great to feel like you’re hot. Sometimes hot streaks are even headier when some good fortune—like getting put up by DQ—is part of the equation. You feel like absolutely everything is going your way. Whatever the reason, Socolow decided to try his luck again in the following day’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier.

Low ratios certainly seem to agree with Socolow. The big Sunday horse for him among 5 firsts and 2 seconds was Mama’s Gold ($82.50, $25.20) in the Empire Classic at BAQ. And, just like that, Socolow now has action in both this week’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge and March’s NHC. 

Paul Cush was one of the few players on Sunday who didn’t have Mama’s Gold but did still have a smile on his face. He hit 4 straight winners early on, and then closed things out with Watchtower ($19.80, $5.60) in the 7th at Santa Anita. His second-place performance got him a $10,000 BCBC seat as well. Becky Mulligan picked up a $5,000 partial entry for running third.

The featured-tourney week was a frenetic one—chock-a-block with qualifiers for both the BCBC and this Thursday’s BCBC Last Chance Tourney right here at HorseTourneys.

The first of the week’s four BCBC Last Chance Tourney play-ins was led by Gary Machiz (3 wins, 1 place). He redeemed Gift Certificate for a $40.80-to-win, $19.00-to-place return in the 6th at Horseshoe Indy. Also securing $750 seats for Halloween afternoon were Ted “Forbidden” Apple (3W, 3P), who caught a $14.80 place payoff on a runner up in the contest finale and Stephen Lerma (3W, 2P), whose heavy lifter was Dona Illusion ($18.40, $11.60) in race 6 at Horseshoe Indianapolis.

Kevin Willett had Dona Illusion plus two other Wednesday winners.

Willett snagged the $2,000 entry in Wednesday’s qualifier to the $300,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray Classic here on November 23-24. The inaugural Pick & Pray Classic serves as the final leg of the 2024 HorseTourneys Grand Slam.

Meanwhile, Gift Certificate was like free money for Bobby Shoemaker. 

Shoemaker had the Hoosier longshot plus 3 other winners and 2 places to rack up a gaudy score of $139.68 and take home the top prize of $2,675 in Friday’s $5,000 Guaranteed cash game, which closed with a final purse of $5,944.

Thursday was an unusual day in that—in a 10-race schedule—there were two cap horses and another $47.40 winner that wasn’t technically a true cap horse because the play payoff was “just” $14.40.

The bomb du jour for Dan Brockman (3 firsts, 2 seconds) was Pilkington ($66.40, $24.40) in the final contest heat, race 7 at Horseshoe Indy. Brockman banked $3,701 for taking Thursday’s $6,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which paid out a total of $8,225.

Kevin Cornett picked three consecutive Thursday winners—a run that included Don’t Tell Kelly ($47.40, $14.40) in the 9th at Laurel. 

Cornett earned the $2,000 scholarship in Thursday’s Pick & Pray Classic entrance exam.

The 2022 Flo-cal Faceoff champion David Snyder (3 wins, 2 places) and Logan Stark (2W, 3P) each grabbed late Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge berths in Thursday’s $179 HorsePlayers Happy Hour BCBC qualifier.

Both Snyder and Stark came up with Woodcourt ($64.24, $25.52) in race 7 at Keeneland.

Friday’s top scorer, with a tally of $131.08 was 2024 NHC Hall of Fame inductee Brett Wiener.

Wiener’s 5 firsts and 1 second included Native Shaman ($60.24, $26.02) in the first contest race, the 5th at Keeneland. He pocketed $8,154 (plus some good HT Tour points) for taking Friday’s $15,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which closed with a final pot of $18,121.

Wiener also got mucho points of another stripe in Friday’s $75 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers.

As would befit a man with the high score of the day, Wiener finished first in this one too. However, he was already double qualified for the NHC, so that left the Vegas spots to the 2nd- and 3rd-place contestants (the other two players to crack the century mark) Peter “Sharp Dressed Man” Dresens (3 wins, 1 place) and Tim Kindlon (also 3W, 1P). Like Wiener, Dresens and Kindlon had Native Shaman. Kindlon’s three winners, by the way, came in the first three contest races.

The other Friday feature at HorsePlayers, a $500 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio Pick & Pray, was led by Jose Giron (3 wins, 2 places).

Giron, a Native Shaman backer, led a three-pack of seat winners that also included David Basler (3W, 3P) and Pete Manzo (5W, 0P). Manzo took an unorthodox-for-the-day path to success. He didn’t have Native Shaman, and his biggest win price all day was $9.40.

As for Giron, his victory in the BCBC qualifier was part of a Friday trend. He also captured the day’s Pick & Pray Classic qualifier…

…and he also led a gang of five that won $750 entries in Friday’s BCBC Last Chance Tourney qualifier.

Joining Giron in the field this Thursday will be Steve Arrison, Paul Cush, Ted Apple and Chris “Hoss” Inman. Sharp-eyed readers of this blog may have noted that Cush and Apple have already been mentioned in this report. Cush got a BCBC seat for finishing second to Jonathan Socolow on Sunday, and Apple received a BCBC Last Chance Tourney berth for finishing closest to Gary Machiz on Wednesday.

A double grand-prize winner on Saturday was John “The Clocker” Nichols. 

In Saturday’s $10,177 Big Bucks Pick & Pray, a winner’s share of $7,124 flew into the pockets of Nichols after Special Aviator ($22.40, $9.00) took the final contest race, the 11th at Gulfstream. Nichols finished the day with 5 wins and a place.

Nichols was also one of five to pick up $750 places in Thursday’s BCBC Last Chance Tourney after ending up 3rd in it. The other happy competitors at the end were Alfred Dagostini (1st), G.T. Nixon (2nd), Matthew Thomas (4th) and Tory Cameron (5th).

Dagostino and Nixon both voted for Runninsonofagun ($34.00, $9.70) in the 7th at BAQ, and they were obviously pleased to see him moved up from 2nd to 1st via DQ. Similarly pleased were Jeff Bussan (3 wins, 2 places) and this year’s Flo-Cal Faceoff champion Michael Solakis (2W, 4P).

Bussan and Solakis each had Runninsonofagun en route to their one-two finish in Saturday’s Pick & Pray Classic qualifier.

Jim Trepinski hit Runninsonofagun—and a whole lot more.

Trepinski had a $34.00 winner (Runninsonofagun) plus a pair of $22.40 victors on the way to a 7-win, 1-place day that saw him demolish the field in our $25,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray by a whopping $77.80. He collected $11,642 in an HT Tour event that was ultimately worth a total of $25,872.

Two more fans of Runninsonofagun (and the BAQ stewards) were Anthony Mastropietro (3 wins, 0 places) and Brian “BC” Chenvert (2W, 2P).

They were the two to exit with $10,000 entries at the conclusion of Saturday’s BCBC Low Ratio qualifier at HorsePlayers. 

The only two players to reach triple figures were the two to be rewarded in Saturday’s $179 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge play-in at HorsePlayers.

Congratulations to Rocky Hardy (4 wins, 1 place) and Shirley Wolff (3W, 1P). And, yep, they both connected with Runninsonofagun.

There was also a $179 BCBC play-in at HorsePlayers on Sunday.

Gary Blair posted the high score of the day ($150.80 via 6 wins and 1 place) to capture the relatively low-cost berth in this one. Like most of the prosperous Sunday competitors, he played wire-to-wire Empire Classic winner Mama’s Gold ($82.50, $25.20). Runner up Stephen “Chile con” Caso left the proceedings with a $5,000 partial BCBC entry in his pocket.

Three players punched their tickets to the BCBC in Sunday’s $1,000 Super Low Ratio qualifier at HorsePlayers.

On the victory stand here were Jeremy “Eliot” Kness (3 wins, 1 place), David Atwell (6W, 1P) and John Gaspar (1W, 2P). Kness and Gaspar each doped out Mama’s Gold, while Atwell’s top winner paid $12.40.

Another Mama’s Gold fan was Christopher Olsson.

Olsson had the highest score among six contestants who won $750 entries in Sunday’s BCBC Last Chance Tourney play-in. The other five who will again do battle with Olsson and the others on Thursday are Jackson “Muggsy” Muniz, William Holobowski, Peter Rogers, Rick Vasquez and—by 60 cents—Eric Kurzhal.

Phillip “Never” Tremper (4 wins, 1 place) was the big cash winner on Sunday.

Tremper accumulated 4 firsts and 2 seconds to realize a payday of $10,139 following Sunday’s HT Tour game, our $20,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which closed with a final purse of $22,531. His high yielder was Mama’s Gold.

Daily Racing Form’s Kenny Peck and Tim Holland (no journalistic affiliation that we’re aware of) each had 5 wins and 1 place—and a love for Mama’s Gold.

Peck and Holland earned the Vegas packages in Sunday’s $165 NHC Pick & Pray here at HorseTourneys.

Plenty of people win tourneys around here…but very few have the educational chops to quickly explain in a public forum how they arrived at their key horse. Mr. Peck is one of those few.

Notice that Peck wasn’t bragging…he was teaching via one his employer’s tools. He wasn’t trumpeting his HorseTourneys triumph or posting screenshots of parimutuel tickets. Heck, in his tweet, he didn’t even claim to have bet the horse. Kudos to Peck (a youth football coach) for getting into the end zone—and acting like he had been there before.

In other Sunday action, Rich Gesiakowski reeled off three straight winners, concluding with Mama’s Gold. 

He also added three place collections, and he prevailed in our first qualifier to the December 7 Lone Star December Betting Challenge.

Michael Tindall (2 wins, 3 places) managed to reach the winner’s circle of Sunday’s Pick & Pray Classic qualifier despite missing on Mama’s Gold.

Tindall made up for the omission by compiling 2 winners and 3 places. His best return came in the final contest race when he nailed Watchtower ($19.80, $5.60) in the 7th at Santa Anita. 

Three more BCBC direct qualifiers come your way on Wednesday, and then our big, 1-per-15 BCBC Last Chance Tourney takes place on Thursday at HorseTourneys. We’ll also have our usual wide array of big-money cash games on Breeders’ Cup Friday and Breeders’ Cup Saturday. There are $40,000 (Pick & Pray) and $25,000 (Live format) Guaranteed tourneys on the full card from Del Mar on Friday. On Saturday there are $80,000 (Pick & Pray) and $50,000 (Live) Guaranteed games on the Saturday Del Mar full card. And there’s a special, two-day, Live-format tourney just on the Breeders’ Cup Championship races. That one has a Guaranteed purse of $90,000. 

Good luck with all of your tournament and parimutuel play during the days ahead. It promises to be an exciting—and lucrative—weekend of racing. Here’s hoping that you get a share of that!