Christmas came early to several featured-tourney players who wound up with full sacks last week. One of them was Curtis Meyer, who said, “Ho, ho, ho”—one “ho” for each of his Friday triumphs.

Meyer (3 firsts, 2 seconds) nailed the final two Friday races at odds of 13-1 and 24-1, respectively, to take the winner’s share of $8,453 in Friday’s HT Tour battle, our $15,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which closed with a final pot of $18,786. 

Those same selections gave Meyer something fun to do on the day after Christmas.

Meyer and runner up Turner West each earned $1,500 entries last Friday for this Thursday’s Santa Anita Opening Day Challenge. Like Meyer, West scored big with Infinite Diamond ($51.00, $16.60) in the 10th at Gulfstream.

Meyer added an extra winner to his scorecard and improved his best-of-day total to $142.60 in Friday’s $75 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers.

Finishing closest to Meyer was the already-double-qualified David Browning. So that left the other available Vegas berth to third-place finisher Shilo Merwitz, who—same as Meyer—also hit the final two contest races. In fact, those were Merwitz’s only Friday winners.

Friday’s features were all Pick & Prays. The same held true on Saturday…when Vineet Sharma did quite a bit of damage with his highly-copied-and-pasted, $112.40 scorecard.

Sharma (5 wins, 3 places) hit 4 of the last 5 Saturday winners, including Rocket Can ($22.00, $7.20) in the Harlan’s Holiday Stakes at Gulfstream, and he won a $1,500 seat for the $250,000 Gtd. Flo-Cal Faceoff as did runner up Joseph “Kevin” Costello. The two-time NHC Tour champion finished with 5 wins and 2 places and, like Sharma, technically hit four of the final five races, although in Costello’s case, he did so by simply sweeping the last four.

The weekend prior to the Flo-Cal Faceoff, Sharma will be on a “freeroll” in the Pegasus World Cup Betting Championship.

Sharma’s tally of $112.40 got him a fat $6,500 package for the January 25 competition, in which he will once again square off against Mark Stanton, among others. Stanton (4 wins, 3 places) finished second in this play-in. He got his biggest return from Sea Dancer ($34.20, $14.60) in race 7 at Laurel, the Carousel Stakes.

Sharma also picked up some late holiday spending money on Saturday.

Sharma defeated seven rivals to collect $5,699 in Saturday’s $8,142 Big Bucks Pick & Pray. 

As good as Sharma’s day was, his score of $112.40 wasn’t the day’s best…or even the second best.

The highest total of the day was the $138.40 posted by Jacob Warden (5 wins, including Sea Dancer, plus 3 places) in taking Saturday’s $25,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which was ultimately worth a total of $28,028. In the end, $12,612 of that belonged to Warden—and $5,605 of it belonged to Sharma because he came in second.

Sharma turned in another second-place performance in our first qualifier to the March 13 NHC First Chance/Last Chance Contest at Horseshoe Las Vegas.

There were a dozen $500 seat winners in this one. They were led by Dave Gray, whose $129.80 scoring total was the second highest on Saturday. The gaudy figure was built on Sea Dancer, Rocket Can plus 3 other winners and 1 place. The other early qualifiers to the NHC Eve competition—besides Gray and Sharma—were Jeff Joffrion, Chad Passante, Matt “The Fly” Tietze, Kevin Willett, Mario St. Pierre, Steven Meier, Michael Odorisio, Todd “American” Faro, 2007 NHC champion Stanly Bavlish and Jimmie O’Nail.

As for first-place finisher Dave Gray, he pulled off a fun double on Saturday, because not only did he win a seat to the NHC First Chance/Last Chance contest…

…he landed a seat to the NHC, itself. John Beckford also turned in a 5-win, 1-place scorecard that contained Sea Dancer and Rocket Can, and he, too, will be Vegas-bound this March after finishing just $5.60 behind Gray in the $210 play-in at HorsePlayers.

With no unexpected cancellations over the previous seven days, we were able to host a normal week of featured tourneys—which got started, as per usual, on Wednesday.

Wednesday’s $5,000 Guaranteed cash game went off with a takeout to players of 4.1%. The chief beneficiary of the low rake was Ronnie Henderson. After just two innocuous place collections, Henderson reeled off four straight winners at the end, highlighted by Bati King ($31.20, $8.80) in race 8 at Tampa Bay Downs. His reward was $2,500.

Garry Addley (3 wins, 1 place) also connected with Bati King.

Addley scooped up one of the two available $1,500 seats in Wednesday’s qualifier to the Flo-Cal Faceoff here on February 1-2. The other one went to 2023 The BIG One champ Brendan Fay, whose biggest of four winners was Beemster ($17.60, $6.40) in the 10th at Parx.

There was another lower-than-usual-takeout cash game on Thursday when 3.9% was the house cut in our $6,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray.

Justin Kelly pocketed the up-top money of $2,700 on the strength of 3 firsts and 2 seconds. His top return came courtesy of Lucky Penny Rose ($35.80, $13.60) in race 7 at Mahoning Valley.

Thursday’s Flo-Cal Faceoff qualifier was the first of two victories recorded by Bruce Dagostini during the week.

Dagostini (2 wins, 0 places) hit a Mahoning mega-bomb with Colonel Cooper ($126.60, $33.60) in the 8th race at the Ohio oval.

On Saturday, Dagostini’s heavy lifter was 16-1 winner Sea Dancer in the Carousel Stakes at Laurel.

In all, Dagostini posted 4 wins, 1 place and a total of an even $100. He was the winner of Saturday’s Santa Anita Opening Day Challenge qualifier, which also saw Tim Herboth (5W, 2P) secure a $1,500 seat at the table on the day after Christmas. Herboth opened up with 3 straight winners before succeeding with Rocket Can later in the day.

There was one Friday feature that wasn’t won by Curtis Meyer.

In Friday’s Flo-Cal Faceoff qualifier, the top score was $69.60…put up by Raj Satyan, who selected 2 winners. One of those was Infinite Diamond ($51.00, $16.40) in the 10th at Gulfstream. Also reserving himself a place in the Faceoff was runner up Stephan Gravina whose 4 wins and 2 places were highlighted by Political Riot ($15.20, $8.20) in the 7th at Tampa Bay Downs.

Moving on to Saturday marquee games that weren’t previously discussed, Rick Vasquez was at the top of the leaderboard at the conclusion of Saturday’s $179 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Pick & Pray at HorsePlayers.

Vasquez’s most lucrative pick among 5 firsts and 2 seconds was 10-1 Rocket Can, winner of the Harlan’s Holiday Stakes at Gulfstream.

In Saturday’s Houston Betting Championship qualifier, there was a rather unusual tie at the top. It belongs in the category of “You couldn’t do this again if you tried.”

The two entries tied for first were the two entries put forward by Cal “Frontier” Jestice. Now, having the same person finish tied for first is hardly unprecedented. It almost always involves someone using the same set of picks twice (typically in an attempt to win two seats in a qualifier or feeder). This was not that, though. Six of Jestice’s 12 selections were common across his two entries. In the other six races, though, he used different horses that netted different win/place payouts. Nevertheless,  he still somehow managed to wind up with equal scores. That is not easy to do!

Jestice was also one of 10 people who accounted for the 11 seats distributed in Sunday’s NHC First Chance/Last Chance contest.

Myles Richards led the way with a final score of $99.50. The other $500 NHC Eve seat winners were Troy Johnson, Nick “48 Hrs.” Noce, Kirk Tesar, Jestice, Rafael Lopez, NHC Hall of Famer Brett Wiener (2 seats), Stephen McNatton, John “The Clocker” Nichols and David Brownfield.

Sunday’s highest scorer—with a total of $111.10—was Derek Isenberg.

Isenberg was singing a happy tune when Chica Music ($46.00, $14.20) prevailed under Jose Ferrer in the final contest heat, race 10 at Tampa. The longshot wrapped up a 4-win, 2-place afternoon for Isenberg that was worth $10,532 in Sunday’s HT Tour event, our $20,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which paid out a total of $23.406. 

Chica Music was the key horse for several of the Sunday featured-tourney winners. One of them was Tim Hughes.

The 2022 Spa & Surf Showdown champ counted Chica Music among his 2 wins and 2 places, and he’ll now be competing on January 25th in the Pegasus World Cup Betting Championship.

Stephen Lerma also came up with Chica Music, and he will also be testing his handicapping acumen on January 25th.

After whiffing on the first six contest races, Lerma connected on two of the final six to bag the $1,500 seat in Sunday’s qualifier to the Houston Betting Championship, held on track at Sam Houston.

Another fan of Chica Music (the horse that won the final race at Tampa anyway) was James Dickson.

Dickson (2 wins, 2 places) topped the standings at the conclusion of Sunday’s Flo-Cal Faceoff qualifier. There were enough entries signed on here for two $1,500 berths to be awarded, and the other one went to Mike Delatte (3W, 5P). Delatte’s top return was provided by Fast Fixer ($16.00, $5.40) in race 6 at Gulfstream.

Chica Music wasn’t the only $40.00+ horse hiding out there on Sunday. There was also Yorkville ($43.60, $14.00) in the 8th at Gulfstream.

Paul Weizer (3 wins, 1 place) used Yorkville as a springboard to success in Sunday’s Last Chance qualifier to the Santa Anita Opening Day Challenge. This was a three-seat play-in, and the final two spots went to Sean O’Malley and Shirley Wolff. O’Malley and Wolff had the same one winner (Chica Music) and the same place collection on the way to identical $70.20 final scores.

Over at HorsePlayers, Yorkville was biggest returner for Tom Lenberg (2 firsts, 1 second). 

Lenberg picked up the $10,000 seat in Sunday’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier.

This is the time of year when you start to see the NTRA occasionally schedule more than one online NHC qualifiers in a given day. On Sunday, there were two such play-ins at HorsePlayers—an open, $165 competition and a $210 test that was restricted to those who had yet to earn a 2025 seat.

The $165 Pick & Pray attracted 87 entries and guaranteed two spots. Those seats went to Phil Matzat (3 wins, including Yorkville, 1 place) and Basil DeVito (3 wins, including Chica Music, 1 place).

The restricted $210 qualifier guaranteed (and ultimately awarded) one seat. It drew 46 entrants.

Congratulations to seat earner Marshall Gramm, who bulls-eyed the final two contest races to finish with 4 firsts and 1 second on the day.

Much like a horseplayer who carefully reads the conditions of a race before handicapping it, you might sometimes find it worthwhile to track the entry count on days in which there are multiple NHC qualifiers on the board. Many players who have not yet earned spots in that year’s NHC instinctively gravitate to the restricted “non winners of a seat” tourneys when offered…which, in a way, makes sense. Why enter against open company when we can compete in restricted company?

On Sunday, though, the open (and cheaper) qualifier turned out to be—at least in theory—a much better deal for players who were eligible for both contests. In the $210 restricted game, there were 46 entries and one seat awarded. (There were also no NHC Tour points awarded.)

Meanwhile, the $165 tourney handed out two seats to a field of 87 entries. Except that there weren’t really 87 entrants. Nine of the 87 were already double qualified and, thus, just playing for NHC Tour points. So the two berths were going to be dispensed to two among a group of only 78 players who were eligible to win a seat.

Just something to think about the next time one of you “first-seat-seekers” find yourself in a similar situation sometime soon…

We hope that every single one of you in these upcoming days find yourself in the position of enjoying a very happy and healthy holiday week. Good times and safe travels to all.