For most handicappers and racing fans, last week’s highlight was Preakness Day on Saturday. For Max Schnepf, it was the day after.

During what was an excellent, 5-win, 2-place day on Sunday, Schnepf saved his very best for last, hitting Pajaro ($28.60, $11.00 in GP9) and Ready Set Twirl ($32.80, $8.70 in BAQ9) in the final two contest races. That late salvo gave him the $11,025 grand prize in Sunday’s HT Tour competition, our $20,000 Guaranteed game, which closed with a final purse of $24,500.

The same picks got him the $10,000 berth in Sunday’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio Betting Challenge.

The cash feature and the BCBC qualifier were both Live-format tourneys. For anyone speculating that Pajaro and Ready Set Twirl were “situational-driven” selections for Schnepf at the end, we present to you Sunday’s NHC Low Ratio qualifier.

This one was a Pick & Pray. Same picks for Schnepf and same result. In both the BCBC and NHC qualifiers, Schnepf played a second entry in which four selections differed from those on his “good” ticket. His “bad” entry wound up in second place both times.

Schnepf wasn’t the only multiple winner during Preakness week, but only one player—Jay Johns—managed to triumph on more than one day.

The 2022 NHC Tour champ—and former pancake honcho—had a rooty-tooty Wednesday by taking the day’s New York, New York Challenge qualifier. There were only seven contest races after Delaware Park announced that they were rained out, and there weren’t many prices to be had out there, but Johns found Henry Mac ($9.00, $4.40) in the 6th at Thistledown and managed to get the job done with 2 wins, 1 place and a score of $35.40.

On Friday, Johns turned his short stack into a tall stack.

Four Friday winners for Johns included Awesome Aaron ($16.00, $7.60) in the Pimlico Special, and he got the $2,000 entry in Friday’s qualifier to the first-ever Breeders’ Cup Pick & Pray tourney.

Using the same picks, Johns also picked up his second New York, New York Challenge seat of the week.

Kenneth Arnerich (2 wins, 3 places) and Pete Manzo (2W, 3P) also reeled in $1,500 entries to the $250,000 Guaranteed, two-day event in about three weeks. Manzo had Awesome Aaron, while Arnerich’s best return came on a $20.40 place collection supplied by You’ll Be Back, runner up in race 10 at Pimlico.

Hopping back to the abbreviated race slate on Wednesday, Jeff Chandler (4 firsts, 1 second) nailed the biggest price of the day—Miss Candela ($11.40, $5.60) in race 6 at Horseshoe Indy.

Chandler banked the $2,500 first prize in Wednesday’s $5,000 Guaranteed tourney, which went off with a takeout to players of 8.3%.

Nick “48 Hrs.” Noce (2 firsts, 3 seconds) made the most of a final score of $35.30.

Noce’s top winner went off at just 7-2, but he emerged with the $2,000 seat in Wednesday’s play-in to the May 31 Monmouth Pick Your Prize Challenge.

There may not have been any juicy prices on Wednesday, but there was a whopper out there on Thursday—and G.T. Nixon had it.

The longshot in question was Quencio ($236.40, $77.00) in the 7th at Gulfstream. Nixon had the 117-1 shot plus two place collections to earn the Vegas package in Thursday’s special $125 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers.

Last year’s HT Tour champion (and current 2025 leader) Eric “Skeet” Boyd (1 win, 2 places) also smoked out Quencio.

Boyd bagged $3,670 in Thursday’s $6,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which closed with a final pot of $8,156.

The big horse on Thursday for Frank Foss was Shared Authority ($18.40, $7.60) in the 9th at Pimlico.

Foss (2 wins, 2 places) did all his scoring over the final five contest races. Despite the chilly start, Foss exited with the $1,500 entry in Thursday’s qualifier to the first-ever New York, New York Challenge here on June 6-7.

Black-Eyed Susan day was a very good one for Dylan Donnelly (2 wins, 3 places).

Donnelly scored with 7-1 Awesome Aaron in the Pimlico Special en route to a victory worth $8,603 in Friday’s HT Tour battle, our $15,000 Gtd, Pick & Pray, which had a final purse of $19,118. 

The same selections brought Donnelly an NHC seat. 

Donnelly finished 2nd in Friday’s $75 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers. Finishing first was Bob Gianquitti, whose 5 wins and a place included Awesome Aaron. Finishing 3rd and also earning a berth was the other player who scored in the 70s—NHC Hall of Famer Sally Goodall. For Goodall, it will be a record 24th appearance in the big dance.

Friday’s other feature at HorsePlayers was a $500 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge play-in.

Ken Jordan took home the $10,000 seat here thanks to Awesome Aaron plus one other winner and two runners up.

Awesome Aaron was common to the scorecards of Dennis Tiernan (3 wins, 2 places), Kevin Engelhard (5W, 0P), Christopher “Liberty and Justice for” Ahl (3W, 1P) and Jeff Bussan (4W, 1P).

They were the four to secure $2,000 entries in Friday’s Monmouth Pick Your Prize Challenge qualifier. Bussan got his seat via tiebreaker over Stephen Luca by virtue of having four winners to Luca’s three.

The top return of the day for Bronson Cambra came from Echo Sound ($9.80, $5.60) in race 10 at Pimlico.

Cambra got the $1,500 scholarship in Friday’s qualifier to the May 26 Xpressbet Santa Anita Gold Cup Challenge.

“Pistol” Pete Acocella put up 2 winners and 2 places in taking our first play-in to the Xpressbet BCBC Qualifier on June 25. 

Acocella’s heaviest lifter was You’ll Be Back, who returned $20.40 to place after finishing second in the 10th at Pimlico.

The high scorer of the day on Saturday was William Claunch (5 wins, 2 places).

Claunch took the top spot in Saturday’s $210 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers. He scored with the day’s biggest price, Unclecharliesgift ($36.20, $12.20) in the 10th at Gulfstream. Runner up Joe Johnson (4 wins, 5 places) also punched his ticket to Vegas. He did so by 40 cents over Kevin Engelhard, and, in the end, it came down to Johnson playing Journalism in the Preakness and Engelhard going with Clever Again.

Unclecharliesgift was the high point of the day for Jose Giron (3 wins, 2 places).

Giron pocketed $14,968 for capturing our richest tourney of the week, Saturday’s $25,000 Guaranteed cash game (an HT Tour event), which closed with a final purse of $33,264.

Joe “Tex” Scanio (3 wins, 0 places) will be back in his milieu on Memorial Day.

Scanio and Dave “Gambling Actuary” Nichols (3W, 0P) ran one-two in Saturday’s qualifier to the Lone Star Million Betting Challenge. Scanio did all his scoring in the final five contest races. He and Nichols both connected with Unclecharliesgift.

The three players who reached the $80.00 plateau were the three who walked off with $1,500 entries in Saturday’s qualifier to the $250,000 Gtd. New York, New York Challenge (an HT Champions Series test).

Congratulations to Alexander Calzi (3 wins, 1 place…all in final 5 races), William McKinney Jr. (3W, 2P) and Rafael Lopez (6W, 2P). 

Slow and steady won the race for Brad Meister (4 wins, 4 places). 

Meister collected the $2,000 berth in Saturday’s qualifier to the Breeders’ Cup Pick & Pray tourney. His top winner returned $8.60 in the win hole.

The best of four Saturday winners for Evan Trommer was Diamond Bar Girl ($20.60, $8.00) in race 4 at Santa Anita. 

Trommer claimed the $500 seat in Saturday’s play-in to the Xpressbet Canterbury BCBC Qualifier on June 25.

Barry Spatzer also profited with Diamond Bar Girl.

Spatzer (4 wins, 1 place) accounted for the $6,411 grand prize in Saturday’s $9,159 Big Bucks Pick & Pray.

Three players won their way in on Saturday to the Monmouth Pick Your Prize Challenge. 

Congrats to Dave Gray (2 wins, 2 places), Stephan Gravina (3W, 7P) and Gregory Lewis (3W, 4P). Lewis defeated Raj Satyan in a tiebreaker for 3rd (3 winners to 1).

We already mentioned that Sunday was a big day for Max Schnepf. Sean Nolan had a nice day as well.

Nolan counted both Pajaro ($28.60, $11.00) in the 9th at Gulfstream and Ready Set Twirl ($32.80, $8.70) in the 9th at BAQ among the 4 winners and 4 places that landed him on top of the leaderboard of Sunday’s Monmouth Pick Your Prize Challenge qualifier. Second-place finisher  Ken Zelin (3W, 1P) also earned a $2,000 seat. So did NHC Hall of Famer Steve Wolfson Jr. (5W, 0P), who checked in third and Thomas Labordo (3W, 4P), who came in fourth. Zelin had Cosmic Speculation ($62.80, $21.80) in the 7th at Gulfstream, while Wolfston and Labordo were both fans of Pajaro.

Nolan and his 4 wins and 4 places also finished first in Sunday’s New York, New York Challenge qualifier. 

Joining Nolan in the field for the Belmont Stakes weekend competition will be runner up Jeff Higgins (4 wins, including Pajaro, 1 place).

Pajaro could also be found on the scorecards of Christopher Wilhite (5 wins, 3 places) and Jeff Arthur (3W, 4P).

They were the two winners of NHC seats in Sunday’s $165 Pick & Pray here at HorseTourneys.

Paul Fishman nailed Pajaro and Ready Set Twirl at the end on Sunday.

Fishman now has action on Memorial Day…in the Xpressbet Santa Anita Gold Cup Challenge.

Another Memorial Day tournament is the on-track-only Lone Star Million Betting Challenge.

Mike Steindler (3 wins, 1 place) and Matthew Blanchet (5W, 3P) garnered the $2,500 starting bankrolls in Sunday’s qualifier to the “LSMBC”. Steindler scored with 30-1 Cosmic Speculation, while Blanchet ran up collections (including 5 winners) in each of the first 7 contest heats.

Last year’s Pick & Pray Classic champion, Mark Stillmock, won his way into another lucrative Pick & Pray tournament coming up (for the first time) later this year.

Stillmock used Pajaro plus 2 other winners and 3 runners up to grab a $2,000 place in the field for the inaugural Breeders’ Cup Pick & Pray—a $300,000 Guaranteed tilt here on October 31-November 1.

Thanks to everyone who spent a part of their Preakness week with us. The weekend ahead, of course, is Memorial Day weekend. So we’ll have an extra set of featured tourneys for you on Monday, the 26th. That means the next batch of recaps will come your way on Tuesday, the 27th. Until then…good luck!