Michael Caposio is a busy guy—but he has a “system”.

The Temecula, Calif., car dealer likes to multi-table his selections when he plays, but even when our featured tourneys are hosted in Live-format—as last Sunday’s were—he enters all his picks at the beginning of the day and does not change them. He approaches the games like they are Pick & Prays.

On this day, Caposio turned the Pick & Prays into Pick & Pray & Wins.

Thanks to Osage Creek ($30.60, $10.00) in the 6th at Santa Anita, along with 3 other winners and 1 runner up, Caposio drove off with a $10,000 seat at the end of Sunday’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier at HorsePlayers.

Hopefully, Caposio drove off in an SUV or, better yet, a truck—because there were plenty more items that needed to fit in his vehicle.

Not only will Caposio be playing in the traditional, Live-format BCBC, but he will also have action in the concurrent Breeders’ Cup Pick & Pray tourney—a brand new event with a $2,000 entry fee and a $300,000 purse guarantee. (It’s a good bet that he will have several common plays across those two contests.)

Caposio also locked himself up an entry on Sunday for the NHC next March.

He finished second behind Tammy Johns (5 wins, 2 places), who swept the final three races, starting with Osage Creek.

Another second-place finish earned Caposio some action in just under two weeks’ time.

Greg “Cookin’ with” Gass and Caposio ran one-two in Sunday’s two-seat qualifier to the May 17 Xpressbet Preakness Challenge. Gass made collections in the first six races (3 wins, 3 places) en route to a 4-win, 5-place day. His highest-octane selection was Warda ($25.80, $8.60) in the 8th at Gulfstream.

Another profitable second-place finish for Caposio took place in Sunday’s New York, New York Challenge play-in.

Here, Caposio bested all except Dr. Ronald Tang, whose 4 wins and 1 place included Warda.

Caposio also picked up a $2,000 berth in Sunday’s qualifier to the May 31 Monmouth Pick Your Prize Challenge. 

So did Ryan McGuire, who had both Warda and Osage Creek as part of his 6-win, 1-place scorecard,

Caposio completed his Sunday haul with $4,803 in cash—collected as a result of yet another second-place finish…this one in Sunday’s HT Tour event, our $20,000 Guaranteed tourney.

Jeff Tracy (5 firsts, 1 second) came away with the up-top money of $12,009 in this game, which paid to a total of $26,687. He connected with both Warda and Osage Creek.

All tolled for Caposio—$4,803 in cash plus seats worth about $22,000. Not a bad day in the showroom!

One of our first winners of the week was our 2023 Flo-Cal Faceoff champion David Wolff.

Wolff (5 wins, 0 places) and Kevin Engelhard (4W, 1P) each grabbed $2,000 seats for occupying the top two spots in Wednesday’s Monmouth Pick Your Prize qualifier Wolff’s best pick was Authenticate Now ($15.40, $6.20) in the 9th at Tampa, while the best return for Engelhard (4W, 1P) came courtesy of Special Caliber ($17.60, $3.80) in the 3rd at Horseshoe Indianapolis.

In Wednesday’s New York, New York Challenge qualifier, Kevin Engelhard’s brother Robert got into the act.

Engelhard put up 5 wins and a place…topped only by Stephan Gravina’s 6 wins and a place. Common to their scorecards was Moretastic ($12.40, $5.60) in the contest opener, race 6 at Tampa. From there, it was a nail biter for Engelhard, who held second place only after surviving a tiebreaker over Joseph Foulke, who laid claim to four winners as opposed to Engelhard’s five.

Wednesday’s cash-game hero was Angelo Romeo.

Romeo scored with Authenticate Now at the end to close out a 5-win, 2-place afternoon that got him the $3,017 grand prize in Wednesday’s $5,000 Guaranteed tourney, which closed with a final purse of $6,705.

On Thursday, John Camardo turned $18 into $3,608.

First, Camardo won a $79 entry into Thursday’s $6,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray by tying for the top spot in an $18 feeder for it.

Then he completed the circuit by storming off to an authoritative $42.40 victory in the “final”—a performance that had to leave his opponents feeling like complete unknowns.

Camardo’s 3 firsts and 3 seconds were highlighted by Lika Rolling Stone ($89.00, $21.40) in race 4 at BAQ.

Friday was a big day for Dave “Gambling Actuary” Nichols.

It was a chalky afternoon around here and Nichols only came up with one winner all day, but that winner was Friday’s biggest “bomb”—Armada Rising ($14.40, $6.80) in the next-to-last contest race, the 9th at Gulfstream. That lonely winner, combined with three place collections, earned Nichols the top prize of $7,705 in Friday’s $15,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray (an HT Tour battle), that wound up with a final pot of $17,123.

The same picks delivered Nichols a victory in Friday;s qualifier to the Breeders’ Cup Pick & Pray tourney.

Nichols, thus, received a $2,000 entry for the brand new, $300,000-gtd. event here on October 31-November 1.

Nichols also had the high score in Friday’s play-in to the Monmouth Pick Your Prize Challenge.

Close behind Nichols was Terry Jerge (3 wins, 4 places), who also grabbed himself a $2,000 berth here. Jerge’s top winner returned a win mutuel of $8.40.

Rounding out the personal grand slam for Nichols on Friday was a triumph in the day’s New York, New York Challenge qualifier.

Like Nichols, runner up Frank “Plaster of” Paros (3 wins, 3 places) also nailed Armada Rising, and Paros got the other available $1,500 “NYNYC” spot.

This was NOT the highlight of the day for Paros.

Paros upped his score significantly (by $28.60) in Friday’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier at HorsePlayers. He prevailed thanks to 6 wins and 3 places out of 10 races.

There were three winners in Friday’s other featured tourney at HorsePlayers—a $75 NHC qualifier.

Congratulations to Ryan Andaur (7 wins, 0 places), Cameron Meredith (6W, 1P) and Ryan Tyreman (5W, 2P). Andaur and Tyreman each had an interest in Armada Rising. Meredith’s dandiest pick paid $8.40.

Tom “Yo MTV” Rapps also couldn’t do better than an $8.40 win price.

That mattered a lot less given that Tom rapped out 6 winners (plus a place). Rapps bagged a $1,500 entry—redeemable a week from Saturday—in the Xpressbet Preakness Challenge.

The Preakness Challenge qualifier on Saturday was good to Edward Enborg (3 wins, 3 places).

Sovereignty may or may not be in action on May 17, but Enborg will be. He scored with Tank ($12.60, $6.00) in the final contest race, the 11th at Gulfstream, to scoop up the $1,500 seat.

Another fan of Tank was Steve “People are” Stange (4 wins, 5 places).

Prior to succeeding with Tank, Stange got a big boost from Mio Bambino ($21.00, $7.60) in the opener at Santa Anita. He went on to win a $2,500 starting bankroll in Saturday’s qualifier to the Lone Star Million Betting Challenge on Memorial Day.

Our richest tourney of the week, Saturday’s $25,000 Guaranteed cash game, went to Michael Sussman (3 firsts, 1 second).

Sussman’s three winners ranged in price from $21.60 on the low end to $37.60. That higher-end price was provided by Motet in the 4th at Santa Anita. When the dust had cleared, Sussman had pocketed $12,612 out of a total final prize pool of $28,028.

For 2024 Pick & Pray Classic champion Mark Stillmock, the star of the day was Hatch ($70.50, $21.20) in race 8 at BAQ.

Stillmock (4 firsts, 1 second) landed the $10,000 berth in Saturday’s $179 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge qualifier at HorsePlayers. His final score of $135,.50 was the day’s best.

Hatch also appeared on the scoresheet of “Pistol” Pete Acocella (2 wins, 3 places).

Acocella also profited from his selection of Mio Bambino, and he took home the $2,000 entry at the conclusion of Saturday’s Monmouth Pick Your Prize Challenge qualifier.

Our 2023 Spa & Surf Showdown winner will look to be our first-ever winner of the New York, New York Challenge.

We are referring to Anthony Spinazzola (2 wins, 3 places). Like Pete Acocella, Spinazzola started off with a bang, nailing 34-1 Hatch in the first contest race and 9-1 Mio Bambino in the second one.

Moving on to the only Sunday feature that didn’t involve Michael Caposio taking a bow at the end…Shad Walton secured himself a $2,500 starting stake in the day’s qualifier to the Lone Star Million Betting Challenge.

Walton posted 2 wins and 2 places on the day. The two winners were healthy ones—Warda ($25.80, $8.60) in the 8th at Gulfstream and Osage Creek ($30.60, $10.00) in race 6 at Santa Anita.

Thanks to all of you for spending a part of your Derby week with us. For the next two jewels of the Triple Crown, we’ll have all the top action right here. And starting this week, Pimlico and Monmouth join the fray. We look forward to that—and we thank all of our partner tracks for allowing us to use their races and put together fun tourneys for players like you.