There were so many prolific winners last week that it’s a little hard knowing where to begin. But we’ll start with the feat that used to be almost impossible—but has become slightly less impossible in recent times.

Any NHC Tour member worth his or her salt knows that you can only win one NHC seat in any given contest. Lately, though, the NTRA has sometimes elected to schedule a second qualifier (based on the exact same races) here in a given day. Towards the end of the 2025 NHC Tour year, Texan Brandon Leigh managed to pull off the “one-day, two-seat” double here. (Now that’s a REAL Texas Two Step.) On Sunday, it was William Holmes’s turn to do the same.

Picking 4 winners, topped by Stay in Line ($35.00, $8.60) in the 6th at Santa Anita, Holmes defeated 32 rivals in Sunday’s $500 NHC Low Ratio qualifier.

Holmes used the same selections in Sunday’s 139-entry, $165 NHC qualifier…and his score of $102.20 held up just fine in that one too.

The other player to crack triple figures here, Monte Engler (5 wins, 3 places), got the other spot in this two seater. Like Holmes, he, too, went to the front of the line with Stay in Line. 

As for Holmes, he can now take a crack at the NHC Tour if he wishes. Or he can sit back and look forward to his two NHC entries, which he’ll be playing just 10 1/2 short months from now.

Holmes wasn’t the only multiple winner on Sunday. The Stay in Line-backing Drew Keaton stockpiled future contest seats in four different qualifiers that day.

Keaton (4 firsts, 3 seconds) will be part of the field for the inaugural Breeders’ Cup Pick & Pray tourney, a $300,000 Guaranteed event that gets started on Halloween.

He’ll also have paid-up action in a little less than 3 weeks.

That’s because he also led the way in Sunday’s play-in to the Preakness Challenge at Xpressbet.

Three weeks after the Preakness Challenge, Keaton will be competing in the first-ever New York, New York Challenge—a $250,000 Guaranteed affair.

One player—Robert Turner (5 wins, 2 places)—managed to outdo Keaton in this one. The third available $1,500 scholarship in this “three seater” went to Steven Meier. Each of the top three profited from Stay in Line’s victory.

Keaton wasn’t done. He played second banana to no one in Sunday’s Monmouth Pick Your Prize qualifier.

This one was also a three seater. The two who finished closest to him—NHC Hall of Famer Brett Wiener (2 wins, 2 places) and Corey Lonberger (4W, 3P)—also picked up $2,000 entries for the May 31 competition. Wiener scored with Stay in Line, while Lonberger’s best return came via Navajo Warrior ($12.20, $7.40) in race 5 at Santa Anita.

For Wiener, the Monmouth seat was one of two he earned during the day.

The same Stay in Line-fueled selections also got his a $10,000 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge entry in Sunday’s $500 Low Ratio play-in at HorsePlayers.

We’ve now covered most of the Sunday action, but we’ll jump back to the start of the featured-tourney week—when Luke Peltz took home $3,235 for prevailing in Wednesday’s $5,000 Guaranteed cash game.

Peltz (3 firsts, 2 seconds) did most of his scoring in the very first contest race when he  nailed Charbonnay ($56.24, $21.08) in the 5th at Keeneland.

Three players garnered $2,000 berths in Wednesday’s qualifier to the Monmouth Pick Your Prize Challenge.

Congratulations to 2020 Spa & Surf Showdown champion Scott Fiedler (3 wins, 0 places), James Cosenza (5W, including 4 in a row, 1P) and Kirk Rockwell (3W, 4P). Fiedler struck early with Charbonnay; Cosenza’s best pick was Gowokegobroke ($10.40, $4.40) in the 8th at Tampa; and Rockwell got the job done with his top winner paying a modest $8.38.

Wednesday’s other feature was a qualifier to the initial New York, New York Challenge on June 6-7.

This one had another happy trio of handicappers at the end. Finishing first was Bruce Rossi, who correctly predicted the outcome of four of the final five contest races en route to a 5-win, 3-place day. His big horse was Cat’s Cave ($22.08, $8.84) in the 7th at Keeneland, and his margin of victory was $43.00. Peter Duca (4 wins, 1 place with a top winner of $8.38) checked in second and Peter Kizenko (3W, 2P…top winner: $8.24) earned the final $1,500 spot in the two-day, Belmont Stakes weekend competition.

It’s a good thing Jerome Linderman wasn’t too busy to play in the lone Thursday featured tourney—a $6,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray that paid out a total of $8,225.

Linderman counted Slightly Busy ($26.00, $11.40) in the 7th at Aqueduct among his 3 firsts and 2 seconds, and he bagged the up-top money of $3,701.

On Friday, Rafael Lopez made the most of his 3 winners.

Longshot Alan Turing ($101.50, $26.00) in the 8th at Aqueduct was one of Lopez’s hits on the way to victory in the day’s New York, New York Challenge qualifier. Runner up Jerald Segall (Alan Turing plus one runner up) and 2022 Spa & Surf Showdown champ Tim Hughes (also 1W, 1P) got the other two $1,500 entries that were available. The winner for Hughes wasn’t Alan Turing, but, rather, first-time-starter Will to Prepare ($44.00, $12.62) in race 7 at Keeneland.

Lopez also showed the way in Friday’s qualifier to the Breeders’ Cup Pick & Pray.

The other $2,000 seat up for grabs went to the other $80.00+ scorer, Steven Meier, who had Will to Prepare plus one other winner and one runner up.

The third and final top prize of the day for Lopez was earned in Friday’s Monmouth Pick Your Prize qualifier. 

Lopez bested all except Robert “Bat” Masterton (2 wins, 4 places). Lopez and Masterton will be joined in the May 31 contest by William “23” Sadoo (3W, 2P), who finished 3rd. Masterton and Sadoo were each beneficiaries of Will to Prepare.

The three highest scorers of the day on Friday all strutted their stuff in the $75 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers—a tilt that had enough entries for us to distribute three Vegas packages.

Dave “Gambling Actuary” Nichols finished with a gaudy total of $137.82 thanks to the fact that his three winners included both Will to Prepare and Alan Turing. Evan Littman (4 wins, 3 places) and Tom Lenberg (4W, 0P) got the other two Vegas spots. They both connected with Will to Prepare.

Another player who reaped nice rewards on Friday on the strength of 3 winners (and no places) was Jimmie O’Nail.

Alan Turing was O’Nail’s hero on the way to the winner’s circle of Friday’s HT Tour event, our $15,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which paid out a total of $21,113. O’Nail’s share of that came to $9,501.

You can’t spell Winland without “Win”.

That’s what Mark Winland did in Friday’s Xpressbet Preakness Challenge qualifier. Will to Prepare was one of his two winners.

Two winners were also sufficient for Suresh Bomman in Friday’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier. 

Alan Turing was Bomman’s heavy lifter. Runner up Jim “No Pleasure” Crews didn’t go away empty handed. His lovely parting gift was a $5,000 partial BCBC entry.

The big winner of the day on Saturday was Max Schnepf.

Schnepf (3 wins, 4 places) edged Hayden Leibrock by just 40 cents in our richest tourney of the week, Saturday’s $25,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which was ultimately worth a total of $34,188. Among Schnepf’s seven collections, he got the most bang for his buck with Fast Buck ($18.20, $6.80) in race 5 at Santa Anita.

The same picks brought Schnepf a somewhat more comfortable victory in Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Pick & Pray qualifier.

Schnepf prevailed here by $4.20 over Rock Tocheri.

Schnepf sustained his Saturday successes in the day’s New York, New York Challenge play-in.

Schnepf ran second behind Darryl Mays (3 wins, 2 places), who used both Fast Buck and Public Assembly ($18.00, $7.20) in the 7th at Santa Anita. Third-place finisher Dale Hatfield also earned himself a place in the starting gate for the brand new event here on June 6-7.

Nick “48 Hrs.” Noce (4 wins, 2 places) and Darren Yarwood (3W, 2P) came away with the $2,000 entry fees in Saturday’s Monmouth Pick Your Prize Challenge qualifier.

Fast Buck was the first of three straight winners at one juncture for Noce. Yarwood’s best payoff came from a max $22.00 place return with 28-1 Sun of Hill, the runner up in the 7th at Santa Anita.

Public Assembly was the high yielder on Saturday for Joseph Zuer (2 firsts, 2 seconds).

Zuer pocketed the $4,986 grand prize in Saturday’s $7,124 Big Bucks Pick & Pray.

Preakness Day figures to be an exciting one for Michael “Copa” Kavana.

Kavana posted 4 wins and 4 places to win Saturday’s Xpressbet Preakness Challenge qualifier. His best return came courtesy of Sonny’s Goldenlady ($14.80, $7.00) in the 8th at Gulfstream.

The doings on Saturday at HorsePlayers were highlighted by a free, 4-seats-gtd. NHC qualifier.

The four ultra-low-cost seat winners were Sue Ford (5 wins, 3 places), Ronald Hafner (6W, 3P), Danny Whitaker (7W, 1P) and Travis Allison (7W, 0P). All four had Tepeyac ($23.00, $9.40 in the 7th at Gulfstream) on their scorecards. (That 7th at Gulfstream was not part of Saturday’s regular 12-race schedules.)

Fast Buck and Public Assembly were two of the keys to victory for Edward Enborg. 

Enborg (5 wins, 2 places) took Saturday’s $179 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge qualifier at HorsePlayers. Enborg started quickly, rattling off three consecutive winners at the outset.

Moving ahead to the couple of Sunday features that we didn’t get to earlier, Bryan Ingram (2 wins, 5 places) exited with $11,123 in his pocket at the conclusion of Sunday’s HT Tour battle, our $20,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray. 

Stay in Line (16-1 in SA6) was the primary springboard to success for Ingram in this game that closed with a final pot of $24,718.

Last but not least, Sunday’s qualifier to the Lone Star Million Betting Challenge on Memorial Day was a hard-fought tussle.

The victor, Darren Yarwood (who grabbed a Monmouth seat a day prior), won by a fairly comfy $23.30. Like most of Sunday’s successful players, Yarwood didn’t do much early on, but he picked up his game later—when the pricier winners came along. He received a $2,500 bankroll to use at Lone Star.

The second and final Lone Star bankroll went to Shad Walton by one thin dime on an unfortunate Matthew Blanchet. Walton made collections (3 wins, 6 places) in 9 of the 12 contest races. In the final contest race, the 8th at Santa Anita, he caught a $6.60 place payoff on Cioppina Pasadina. Had it paid just one tick less, Blanchet would have finished second instead.

Thanks to all of you for sticking around while I disappeared on vacation for a couple of weeks.

This coming weekend, of course is Kentucky Derby Weekend. While we obviously are unable to offer any Churchill races, we’ll do our best to make an exciting weekend that much more exciting by putting together some nice tourneys that involve Aqueduct (BAQ!), Gulfstream and Santa Anita. We hope you can join us for a portion of it. Good luck!