The inaugural Pick & Pray Classic, the final leg of the HorseTourneys Grand Slam, is now less than a week away. Since people are scrambling to land their $2,000 seats to the $300,000 Guaranteed competition, we have lately been offering a wider variety of qualifiers, including Low Ratio and single-track play-ins.

These increased options worked especially well last Sunday for Earl Pratt.

In Sunday’s Aqueduct-only, full-card qualifier, Pratt (3 wins, 1 place) nailed Starts Now ($35.20, $10.40) in race 7 at the Ozone Park, N.Y., oval, and he won a berth along with runner up Michael Guadagno (2W, 3P).

As it turned out, the Starts Now selection turned out to be doubly profitable for Pratt.

In Sunday’s multi-track qualifier to the Pick & Pray Classic, race 7 at Aqueduct was the first of 12 contest heats. Pratt had Starts Now in this one too—and while he couldn’t hold off the entire cavalry, Pratt (2 wins, 2 places) hung on for 3rd in what turned out to be a “four seater.” So Pratt will suddenly be playing the Pick & Pray Classic at maximum strength (i.e. two entries). 

Also punching tickets to the two-day test were first-place finisher Paul Weizer (4 wins, 0 places), runner up Jeff Bussan (5W, 2P) and superfecta-completer Joe “JK” Koury (2W, 1P). Like Pratt, Bussan played Starts Now. The big horse, meanwhile, for Weizer and “The People’s CFO” was No Valla ($41.60, $11.20) in the 10th at Gulfstream.

In all, there were eight Pick & Pray Classic qualifiers last week, and they distributed a total of 19 spots. The first of those eight entrance exams took place on Wednesday.

Amber Pereira (2 wins, 1 place) was the Valedictorian and Kevin Willett (4W, 0P) the Salutatorian of this class. In their respective speeches, they each credited Shakeurskinnylegs ($53.80, $11.80) in the 8th at Mahoning Valley as a key driver in their success.

Wednesday’s other feature was captured by Vineet “Shakeurskinnylegs” Sharma.

Sharma recorded 2 winners plus a double-digit-to-place runner up en route to collecting the top prize of $2,500 in Wednesday’s $5,000 Guaranteed cash tourney. 

Sharma won a bigger prize late in the week.

Sharma (3 wins, 1 place) put the squeeze on his opponents in Sunday’s Del Mar Fall Challenge qualifier by sweeping the first three races. He was eventually chased down by Stephen Diaz (3W, 1P) and NHC Hall of Famer Paul Shurman (4W, 1P), who both got healthy with 19-1 No Valla in the 10th at Gulfstream. In the end, all three came away with $3,000 entries for the November 30th on-track event.

Thursday was a competitive day around here with four of the day’s 10 featured-tourney race winners paying $25.00 or more.

The biggest of the bunch was Breezy Justice ($139.60, $63.20) in the 9th at Horseshoe Indianapolis. Not only did Michael Bailey (3 firsts, 2 seconds) have that bomb, but his two runners up returned $22.00 and $18.20, respectively, to place. It was no surprise then that Bailey romped by $63.40 in Thursday’s $6,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which closed with a final purse of $6,635. Bailey’s share of that came to $2,986.

The other marquee game on Thursday was a one-seat qualifier to the upcoming Pick & Pray Classic.

The winner was Kenneth Arnerich, whose best return among 3 firsts and 1 second came courtesy of Mobil Chic ($38.00, $14.60) in race 7 at Mahoning Valley.

Friday was sort of the opposite of Thursday. On Friday, there were just two winners that paid double digits, and the biggest of those returned just $13.20.

Matthew White found them both, adding two more winners and a place to those two “bombs”. He collected $8,079 for taking Friday’s HT Tour battle, our $15,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which closed with a final pot of $17,955.

Tom “Hit ‘em where they” Arndt also unearthed the two double-digit horses.

Arndt (5 wins, 0 places) led the way in Friday’s multi-track Pick & Pray Classic qualifier that also saw Kevin Engelhard (6W, 1P) and “Battlin’” William Smith also pick up $2,000 scholarships. Like Arndt, Smith had Mo Kreesa ($13.20, $8.40) in the 9th at Aqueduct. Engelhard’s top win price, meanwhile, was $8.20.

David Atwell missed out on Mo Kreesa, but it was one of his rare misses. He picked 7 Friday winners, including Morgan Point ($11.80, $4.00) in the 8th at Gulfstream.

Atwell was tops among 452 entrants in Friday’s $75 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers. Also gaining Vegas berths were the two other players to scale the $70.00 plateau—Ed Claunch (7 wins, 1 place) and Dan Horvat (5W, 1P). Horvat hit a 7-2 winner in the contest finale to get up into the all-important 3rd position.

There was also an Aqueduct-only, full-card Pick & Pray Classic qualifier on Friday, and, unlike in the multi-track tourneys, this competition had a big price in it.

The longshot in question was Flat to Da Mat ($34.00, $12.60) in race 5 (too early to be included in the multi-track games). Flat to Da Mat really accelerated Jerald Segall’s place in the standings. Segall made off with the $2,000 entry thanks to the 16-1 shot plus 3 other Big A winners.

Saturday’s big winner was Joe Petrella.

Petrella’s 4 firsts and 2 seconds included Esperon ($28.80, $11.00) in race 9 at Gulfstream. The six collections earned Petrella $12,612 in our richest tourney of the week, our $25,000 Guaranteed cash game (an HT Tour event), which was ultimately worth a total of $28,028.

Petrella was also one of five seat winners in Saturday’s multi-track Pick & Pray Classic qualifier.

Here, Petrella just snuck into the high-rent district, finishing in 5th place with a score not quite as high as the one he accumulated in the cash tourney. Occupying the first four slots were Anthony Mastropietro (3 wins, 1 place), Jason Alonzo (6W, 4P), Bernard Reilly (4W, 3P) and Jim Colbert (3W, 4P). The top four all connected with Stroke of Midnight ($46.40, $18.60) in race 8 at Gulfstream.

William Haliziw (2 wins, 4 places) and Jill Matzat (also 2W, 4P) both played Stroke of Midnight.

Haliziw and Matzat each picked up Vegas berths in Saturday’s “regular,” $165 NHC qualifier here at HorseTourneys.

There was also an NHC Low Ratio play-in at HorsePlayers on Saturday.

Wes Herek hit both Stroke of Midnight and Esperon, and he added 3 place collections for good measure to exit with the Vegas package.

Speaking of Low Ratio qualifiers, there was one on Saturday for the Pick & Pray Classic as well.

Tony Calabrese (2 wins, 1 place) grabbed the $2,000 berth here thanks in no small part to 13-1 Gulfstream race 9 winner Esperon.

There was also a Pick & Pray Classic qualifier just on the Saturday Aqueduct card. 

This one awarded two seats…which went to David May (5 winners, 0 places) and Bruce Dagostini (4W, 0P). May and Dagostini took disparate paths to the victory podium in this one. May nailed the first 3 Ozone Park races and 4 of the first 5. Dagostini, meanwhile, scored big in the final race with last-to-first first-time-starter Storm Changer ($25.20, $7.10).

David Nelson (6 winners) had a score more than twice that of his nearest pursuer in Saturday’s $6,106 Big Bucks Pick & Pray.

Esperon was Nelson’s best selection en route to a payday of $4,274.

Esperon was the only winner among the four Saturday collections realized by Dan Richards.

Richards and his score of $54.40 still got it done, though, in Saturday’s qualifier to the Hawthorne Thanksgiving Contests.

On Sunday, we offered our first qualifier to the December 26 Santa Anita Opening Day Challenge.

Leading the pack was Dr. Ronald Tang, whose three winners were the day’s three biggest—No Valla ($41.60, $11.20) in the 10th at Gulfstream; Starts Now ($35.20, $10.40)  in race 7 at Aqueduct; and Activated ($21.60, $10.00) in the opener at Del Mar. Also securing a $1,500 Boxing Day seat was Jose Giron (2 wins, 3 places), who hit No Valla plus a max $22.00 place collection.

No Valla was one of 5 Sunday winners sleuthed out by Robert Ricci.

Ricci posted the highest score of the day in taking Sunday’s HT Tour get-together, our $20,000 Guaranteed cash game, which closed with a final prize pool of $22,531.

Another No Valla fan was Jay Coatta (4 wins, 1 place).

Coatta nabbed an early BCBC seat for himself in Sunday’s Low Ratio qualifier at HorsePlayers.

Finishing second to Coatta was NHC Hall of Famer Steve Wolfson, Jr., who received a $5,000 partial BCBC berth for his efforts.

Justin Fielder (4 wins 2 places) and Ray Barnes (5W, 3P) were the two to reach triple figures and the two to earn $1,000 seats for the December 7 Lone Star December Betting Challenge. 

Fielder’s 4 winners, including No Valla, came in the final four contest races. Barnes did most of his damage early, starting with Starts Now in the first of 12 tourney heats.

Michael Odorisio also started fast with Starts Now.

Odorisio departed with the $1,000 worth of entry fees/bankroll money in Sunday’s play-in to the November 30-December 1 Hawthorne Thanksgiving Contests.

Starts Now and No Valla were both on the scorecard of Bob Jeffery at HorsePlayers. 

Jeffery amassed 3 wins and 3 places on the way to victory in Sunday’s $210 NHC qualifier—an event restricted to those who had not yet earned a 2025 seat. 

Qualifying for the inaugural edition of the Pick & Pray Classic continues right up through Friday.

Alternatively, you can purchase buy-in entries right up until the first contest race goes off on Saturday. It should be a fun—and lucrative couple of days. We’ll be back here to recap it all in this space next week. In the meantime…good luck!