Ken Seeman and Steven Meier had similar weekends around here last week—similarly excellent, to be more precise.

The pair each received hefty $6,500 packages for running one-two in Saturday’s qualifier to the January 25 Pegasus World Cup Betting Championship.

The key horse for both Seeman (3 wins, 0 places) and Meier (2W, 3P) was Just Be Honest ($38.60, $12.80) in race 10 at Aqueduct.

Using the same Live-format selections, Seeman and Meier both finished “in the money” in Saturday’s qualifier to the $250,000 Gtd. Flo-Cal Faceoff here on February 1-2. 

This time, the dynamic duo ran two-three behind Dr. Ronald Tang, who led the group of three $1,500 seat winners by hitting Just Be Honest along with two other winners and three runners up.

On Sunday, Seeman and Meier nailed a price horse that was even bigger than Just Be Honest.

For the second straight day, the 2021 The BIG One champ finished with 3 winners, including a very juicy one. This time, it was Center Stage ($58.00, $20.60) in the 10th at Gulfstream. Seeman thereby brought his week to a close in grand style, grabbing a $10,000 berth in Sunday’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier at HorsePlayers. Seeman’s three prizes on Saturday-Sunday carried a total retail value (as they say on The Price is Right) of $18,000.

On his end, Meier (2 wins, 1 place) parlayed Center Stage into his second Flo-Cal Faceoff seat in as many days.

Meier didn’t do so by much, holding 3rd-place and completing his $9,500 weekend by a mere 40 cents in this three-seat qualifier. Ahead of Meier were this year’s Flo-Cal Faceoff champ Michael Solakis (who can now defend his title in February via a “freeroll”) and Joseph Zuer. Like Meier, Zuer connected with Center Stage. The heavy lifter for Solakis was Scheduling Dude ($24.20, $8.70) in race 7 at Aqueduct.

The featured-tourney week got out of the starting gate a day later than planned since Parx got rained out on Wednesday, and that wound up kayoing our featured schedules. Perhaps that just gave more time for 2013 Horse Players World Series champ James Henry to properly handicap the Thursday races.

Henry picked 6 winners out of 10 Thursday races, and he took home the up-top money of $3,639 in the day’s $6,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which closed with a final pot of $8,087. The star of Henry’s stable was Isomarshall ($27.60, $9.90) in the 9th at the Big A.

Frank “Plaster of” Paros (3 firsts, 2 seconds) also came up with Isomarshall.

Paros topped the charts in Thursday’s Flo-Cal Faceoff qualifier—a game that also saw Terry Jerge depart with a $1,500 seat in his pocket. Jerge selected 5 winners. The biggest of that quintet returned a win mutuel of $9.00.

Rich Constantine had a big day on Friday.

Constantine hit two nice place payoffs at the end, which got him over the top by $1.20 in Friday’s HT Tour event, our $15,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which closed with a final purse of $18,453. Constantine’s share of that came to $8,304.

The same picks also brought Constantine a Flo-Cal Faceoff seat.

Constantine bested all but 2023 The Big One champion Brendan Fay, who compiled 3 firsts and 4 seconds, led by Awesome Train ($12.00, $5.60) in race 9 at Gulfstream.

Robert Courtney swept the final four contest races to finish Friday with 6 wins and 2 places.

Courtney finished first in a very tight $75 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers, which wound up awarding three Vegas berths. The other two went to David May (5W, 1P) and David Browning (4W, 3P). All three winners got off to fast beginnings thanks to Splashy ($13.40, $4.70) in the first contest heat, race 7 at Aqueduct.

One of the most notable performances of the week came in Friday’s Santa Anita Opening Day Challenge qualifier.

Joseph Maneen Jr. didn’t really give his opponents a chance, flying out of the starting gate and banging out seven consecutive winners. His margin of victory, however, was just $17.10 since Kirk Rockwell (4 wins, 2 places) hit the final two winners to get up for second place and the other available seat for the Dec. 26th contest.

One could argue that the queen of HorsePlayers on Saturday—in more ways than one, I guess—was Wendy Long.

Long put up 4 winners—including 18-1 Just Be Honest at Aqueduct—and 2 runners up to take the top spot in Saturday’s $165 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers. Scott Boudreaux (2 wins, 4 places) also had Just Be Honest, and he finished closest to Long to earn the other NHC spot up for grabs.

The same selections also served Long well elsewhere at HorsePlayers.

They got her first place and a $10,000 entry in Saturday’s $179 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge qualifier.

Despite Long’s exploits, one could claim that the queen of HorsePlayers—or at least horseplayers—on Saturday was actually Samantha Reidy.

Reidy (3 wins, 4 places) strutted her stuff at HorseTourneys, not HorsePlayers, but she had a day-best score that was 30 cents higher than Long’s to take the richest competition of the week, our $25,000 Guaranteed cash game. She, too, hit Just Be Honest and emerged victorious by $10.00 over Schuyler Wiggin with Ken Seeman winding up third. The victory by Reidy was worth $13,860 in an HT Tour battle that ultimately paid out a total of $30,800.

The other Saturday cash feature was our $7,124 Big Bucks Pick & Pray.

Uncaptured Warrior ($17.00, $8.00) was Rocky Hardy’s only winner of the day, and he didn’t turn a flat-bet profit. Neither did anyone else, however, so Hardy and his one winner (plus two places) got the first prize of $4,986.

Steven Culhane smoked out Just Be Honest, plus one other winner, plus one double-digit-to-place runner up.

Culhane copped the $1,500 seat in Saturday’s qualifier to the Santa Anita Opening Day Challenge. 

Curtis Meyer also had a runner up that yielded a double-digit place payoff…and to that he added five winners.

Meyer accounted for the one HorsePlayers feature on Saturday that Wendy Long didn’t win—a $500 NHC Low Ratio play-in. Meyer’s top return came courtesy of Scat Tu Tap ($19.40, $7.00) in the first contest heat, race 7 at Aqueduct.

Here’s how the HT Tour standings looked at the beginning of this past week:

The Tour got even tighter after Sunday’s results.

Our 2022 HorseTourneys champ Travis Pearson will make things even closer on Eric “B Connected” Boyd and Jorge Cruz-Aedo once the leaderboard has been updated. Speaking of close, wins don’t get any closer than the one Pearson enjoyed in this $20,000 Guaranteed test. He and 2020 Spa & Surf Showdown champ Scott Fiedler finished the 12 races dead even, and both had 5 wins and 1 place.

The nod—and, more importantly, the $11,015 winner’s share—went to Pearson, however, because his biggest winner, Center Stage ($42.00 for contest purposes) was bigger than Fiedler’s biggest (Morgan Point, $31.00). Fiedler had to settle for $4,410 in a game whose final prize pool was $24,500.

In Morgan Point and Center Stage, Troy Johnson (2 wins, 2 places) nailed the two biggest prices of the day.

Those two winners came in back-to-back races at Gulfstream, and on January 25th, Johnson will hope his Hallandale Beach prescience continues when he competes in the Pegasus World Cup Betting Championship.

Nancy Spence (5 wins, 2 places) did Johnson one better in that she landed the three biggest longshots on Sunday.

Spence ($186.20) and Kerry Bassore ($152.20 built on 6W & 2P) had what were, by far, the two highest scores of the day, and they each played their way to Vegas in Sunday’s $165 NHC Pick & Pray here at HorseTourneys. Bassore got up for 2nd thanks to sweeping the final three contest heats, starting with Center Stage in the 10th at Gulfstream.

There was also an NHC qualifier — a Low Ratio affair — on Sunday at HorsePlayers.

Shawn Khwalsingh (3 wins, 3 places) made off with the seat in this one. His big gun was Morgan Point in race 9 at the South Florida oval.

One race later at Gulfstream, Center Stage made things happen for Paul Weizer.

Weizer (3 firsts, 2 seconds) proved to be the wisest in Sunday’s qualifier to the Santa Anita Opening Day Challenge.

Racing goes on a brief pause this coming week in New York and in Southern California. So if you tend to do well at Gulfstream, Tampa and Laurel, the days ahead could really be your time to shine. Only nine shopping days remain until Christmas—and eight horse racing days. Here’s hoping you make the best of both.