Lots of people love to play a wide variety of games here at HorseTourneys and HorsePlayers. Then there are those who largely just zero in on trying to qualify for the NHC or the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge. For 2022 HT Tour champion Travis Pearson, however, the primary focus is on cash games.

Perhaps that’s not surprising for a guy who also likes to hang around the felt. On Friday, Pearson’s seat was made of cyber-felt when he did battle in Friday’s HT Tour game, our $15,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray.

Pearson prevailed and pocketed $9,127 on the strength of 4 firsts and 4 seconds. Like most good poker players, Pearson is skilled at changing gears…mixing things up between aggression and tightness, between longshots and chalk. His biggest winner on the day was Patricia Ann ($15.20, $7.70) in the 8th at Aqueduct. He also boasted a pair of runner ups that each paid $12.00 in the place hole. However, to get over the hump at the end, Pearson (successfully) pinned his prayers on Deuteronomy, who took the final contest race—the 9th at Tampa—at odds of 1-2.

Pearson also took a shot at our richest HT Tour game of the week, Saturday’s $25,000 Guaranteed cash tilt.

This one was like a clash of the titans, with Pearson besting everyone except 2021 HT Tour champ Jorge Cruz-Aedo. With the victory, his seventh HT Tour triumph of the 2024 campaign, “Smooth Cruz” tightens the “scruz” on current HT Tour leader Eric “B Connected” Boyd. Heading into this one, Boyd was on top of the 2024 leaderboard with Cruz-Aedo second and Pearson fourth. At any rate, Cruz-Aedo (5 wins, 2 places) received $15,107 for taking this game, which paid out a total of $33,572. Pearson picked up another $6,042 for checking in second. That gave him a two-day haul of $15,169.

Pearson certainly wasn’t as pleased by the outcome of Sunday’s cash feature, but a winning session beats a kick in the head.

Pearson wrapped up his three days of impressive consistency by finishing 9th behind winner Kevin Engelhard in Sunday’s $20,000 Guaranteed tourney, which closed with a final purse of $23,406. Engelhard (5 wins, 3 places) raked in $10,532 of that prize pool thanks in part to Border War ($22.00, $9.60) in the 8th at Gulfstream. Pearson may have been tempted to “throw back” his 9th-place prize of $468.13, but we’re confident he won’t. Hey, it’s an entry or two!

The first cash feature of the week went to Christopher Dewey on Wednesday.

Dewey counted Beach Daze ($22.60, $7.60) in the 9th at Parx among his 2 winners and 3 runners up. Dewey wound up with a payday of $3,048 for capturing Wednesday’s $5,000 Guaranteed tourney, which closed with a final pot of $6,774.

Going back for seconds is a popular pastime on Thanksgiving Day. That’s what Dr. Ronald Tang did around here on Thursday.

Tang nailed the biggest price of Turkey Day—Golden Aurora ($39.40, $18.00) in the 5th at Laurel—and that hit plus one other winner and two place collections allowed him to lead the way in our first qualifier to the $250,000 Gtd. Flo-Cal Faceoff here on February 1-2. Also landing $1,500 spots in the first “major” of the 2025 HorseTourneys year were the other two players to exceed the $50.00 mark—Robert “Amazing” Grace (5 wins, 1 place, including the final three winners) and Dave “Gambling Actuary” Nichols (3W, 1P)

One helping wasn’t enough, however, for Tang on Thanksgiving. So he sated himself with an NHC seat.

First-place finisher Jay Johns was already double-qualified. So that left the two available seats in this $125 qualifier at HorsePlayers to Matthew Trommer (4 wins, 1 place) and Tang (who used the same picks here as in the Flo-Cal play-in). Like Tang, Trimmer connected with Golden Aurora.

Another Golden Aurora fan was Fred Christ.

Golden Aurora was the biggest of four Thanksgiving winners blessed by Christ. He won $3,981 in a $6,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, that closed up shop with $8,848 in the kitty.

Stanley Cup winner-turned hockey analyst/racing analyst Eddie Olczyk was thankful for Golden Aurora on Thanksgiving Day.

The Laurel race 5 winner was one of two that found the back of the net for Olczyk en route to being named the #1 star of Thursday’s Santa Anita Opening Day Challenge qualifier.

Pete Chapdelaine (4 firsts, 1 second) missed out on Golden Aurora. His top Thursday winner went off at 4-1.

That didn’t stop Chapdelaine from emerging with the $1,000 seat at the close of the Thanksgiving Day qualifier to this Saturday’s Lone Star December Betting Challenge. Chapdelaine’s biggest return on the day came from his one runner up—Mission Artemus, who paid $19.60 to place in race 8 at Laurel.

Friday’s Lone Star qualifier went to Stephen Lerma (2 wins, 5 places).

Lerma’s high yielder was Patricia Ann ($15.20, $7.70) in race 8 at Aqueduct.

Friday was far from black for Joseph Zuer (4 wins, 3 places) and Troy Robertson (2W, 1P).

Zuer and Robertson got the $1,500 scholarships in Friday’s qualifier for the Flo-Cal Faceoff. Zuer’s big horse was Patricia Ann. Robertson’s was Florida Flower ($26.80, $11.80) in the 8th at Tampa.

The two contestants who scored in the 80s were the two to nail down NHC berths in Friday’s $75 qualifier at HorsePlayers. 

Congratulations to Jeff VanDrie (4 wins, 3 places) and Richard Scangarello (4W, 3P). VanDrie had Patricia Ann, while Scangarello came up with Florida Flower.

Patricia Ann was the heavy lifter among five Friday winners forecast by Todd “American” Faro.

Faro earned himself a spot in the December 26 Santa Anita Opening Day Challenge.

Siennois ($42.40, $24.20) in the 3rd at Del Mar was common to the Saturday scorecards of Craig “Home Sweet” Hom (4 wins, 0 places) and Ted “Forbidden” Apple (3W, 2P).

Hom and Apple were the two to exit with $1,500 entries in Saturday’s qualifier to the 2025 Flo-Cal Faceoff.

Apple gave Hom a good fight in the Flo-Cal play-in, falling short by $13.90. However, Saturday’s $8,142 Big Bucks Pick & Pray was no contest.

It was Hom again on top in this one, although here his margin of victory was a whopping $50.30. He was rewarded with $5,699 for his efforts.

Kevin Willett swept Saturday’s final three contest races, including Mi Hermano Ramon ($24.80, $7.20) at the end in the 3rd at Del Mar.

Willett finished the day with 5 firsts, 1 second and one $1,000 seat to Saturday’s Lone Star December Betting Challenge.

Crystal Andaur (3 wins, 1 place) and Jim Meeks (5W, 2P) punched their respective tickets to Vegas in Saturday’s $210 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers.

Andaur smoked out Siennois, while Meeks saved his best—Mi Hermano Ramon—for last.

Siennois was part of a 4-win, 3-place day for Michael Accettullo.

Accettullo accounted for the other Saturday feature at HorsePlayers, a $179 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge qualifier.

Eric Kurzhal got more races right than he got wrong on Saturday.

Kurzhal picked 7 winners out of 12 races on the way to a $1,500 Santa Anita Opening Day Challenge seat. His highest return came courtesy of Nineteenamendment ($18.00, $10.00) in the 8th at Gulfstream.

On Sunday, our 2021 The BIG One champ Ken Seeman won a big two.

Seeman picked 3 winners, led by King Julien ($29.00, $8.80) in the 7th at Gulfstream, and he grabbed a $10,000 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge entry in the day’s Low Ratio qualifier at HorsePlayers. Chris Podratz reeled in a $5,000 partial entry for coming in second.

The same picks also put Seeman at the head of the class in Sunday’s Flo-Cal Faceoff qualifier.

Seeman will be joined in the Faceoff field by runner up Max Schnepf (3 wins, 4 places). The star of Schnepf’s stable was Border War ($22.00, $9.60) in race 8 at Gulfstream.

Another past champion of The BIG One took our first qualifier to the January 25 Pegasus World Cup Betting Championship.

Brendan Fay won the 2023 edition of The BIG One, and on Sunday, he put up 4 wins and 3 places that included Aqueduct race 9 victor Follow Your Arrow ($23.00, $9.50), who was one of three $20.00+ horses among the 12 contest races. The other available $6,500 package went to the other triple-digit scorer, Rick “I-65” Broth, who had King Julien among his 3 firsts and 2 seconds.

Another King Julien supporter was Craig Siedler.

Siedler (4 winners) captured Sunday’s qualifier to the Santa Anita Opening Day Challenge.

Aqueduct race 9 wire-to-wire winner Follow Your Arrow was the Sunday hero for Cal “Frontier” Justice (4 wins, 2 places).

Jestice will be in action again this Saturday with a paid-up entry in the Lone Star December Betting Challenge.

Terry Jerge (3 wins, 2 places) and Dan Piazza (4W, 4P) were the two winners in Sunday’s $165 NHC qualifier here at HorseTourneys.

King Julien was the highest common denominator among their respective scorecards. Piazza hit three winners in a row late and held second place by 70 cents over a hard-luck Ellen Patrick-Leavell.

King Julien also appeared on Tom Troeller’s scoresheet…in a different NHC qualifier.

Troeller got his Vegas berth via the $165 qualifier at HorsePlayers that was restricted to those who had yet to earn a 2025 seat. (Troeller and his score of $108.80 would have won a spot regardless of which of the two NHC qualifiers he chose to enter. He had the single best score across the two play-ins.)

Sincere thanks to all of you for spending a portion of your Thanksgiving day, weekend or week with us. We hope we made things just a little more fun. More cash games and qualifiers come your way in the week ahead, including our “Last Chance” Lone Star qualifier on Wednesday. Good luck if you play!