We’re all familiar with “Lather, Rinse, Repeat”. On Saturday, Sean O’Malley took it several steps further…as in “Lather, Rinse, Repeat, Repeat, Repeat, Repeat”.

Taking advantage of the fact that Pick & Pray was the format of the day this past Saturday, O’Malley figured out 12 horses he liked, and then copied and pasted them in five different marquee events. O’Malley’s results were…”Oh my!”

After beginning with five straight losers, O’Malley hit three winners out of the final seven contest heats. The best of his trio was Goldeneye Magic ($65.00, $14.80) in race 11 at Thistledown, a supporting feature on the Ohio Derby Day card there. 

The three double-digit winners propelled O’Malley to a triumph worth $13,582 in our richest tourney of the week, Saturday’s $25,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray (an HT Tour game), which closed with a final purse of $30,184. But that was just one of his Saturday successes. He enjoyed another five-figure score in Saturday’s $179 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge qualifier.

O’Malley also reeled in a $6,000 entry along with a $500 travel stipend in Saturday’s guaranteed qualifier to the Del Mar Summer Challenge.

Allen Schaffer (3 firsts, including Goldeneye Magic, 2 seconds) got the better of O’Malley in Saturday’s NHC qualifier, but they both received Vegas packages in this “two-seater”.

Saturday’s Kentucky Downs King of the Turf Challenge qualifier was a one-seater…and that one, $2,500 seat went to O’Malley.

The five Saturday tourneys yielded roughly $37,500 in cash and seat prizes for O’Malley…not a bad afternoon playing the ponies!

Jonathan Benton (4 firsts, 1 second) had an enjoyable Wednesday afternoon playing the races.

Benton’s collections included the day’s biggest price—Ballroom Eyes ($16.20, $7.40) in race 7 at Delaware. Benton took home the up-top money of $2,523 in Wednesday’s $5,000 Guaranteed cash game.

Steven Meier (3 wins, 2 places) also had eyes for Ballroom Eyes.

Meier secured himself a $2,500 place in the $400,000 Gtd. Spa & Surf Showdown, hosted here on August 23-24. The fourth leg of the five-leg 2025 HT Champions Series, the Spa & Surf Showdown calls on its participants to make Live-format selections for every race of the Saratoga (Spa) and Del Mar (Surf) cards during each of the two days of competition.

Another Ballroom Eyes fan on Wednesday was Dr. Ronald Tang.

The good doctor racked up 4 firsts and 2 seconds in the process of winning the day’s play-in to the July 19 Haskell Challenge.

On Thursday, in honor of Juneteenth, the NTRA offered a $125 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers.

The victor was Jim Clark, whose 5 wins and 3 places included Flat Top Box ($23.20, $9.00) in race 7 at Gulfstream. Clark hopes to be celebrating again on Marchteenth (March 15th, the final day of the 2026 NHC).

The big horse on Thursday for Vineet Sharma was Basscoat ($21.80, $6.80) in the 5th at Horseshoe Indianapolis.

Sharma squeezed out a $2,500 berth in Thursday’s qualifier to the Spa & Surf Showdown.

The star of the day on Thursday was Jim Cuzzupe.

Cuzzupe swept the final six contest races (!) He finished with 8 winners (including both Flat Top Box and Basscoat) and 1 place out of just 10 races. That left him with a score, $123.50, almost double that of his nearest rival in Thursday’s Haskell Challenge qualifier.

In Thursday’s $6,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, Ken Orchard made things much tighter on Cuzzupe, but again it was Cuzzupe on top.

Using the same selections as in the Haskell qualifier, Cuzzupe added $3,857 to his bank account in this game that was ultimately worth a total of $8,571. Orchard had to settle for $1,542.

Before the week was out, Cuzzupe added another nice victory to his record.

Cuzzupe had another high-strike-rate day on Sunday, amassing 5 wins and 3 places to lead the way in our Spa & Surf Showdown qualifier. Also earning spots in the big-money contest here on August 23-24 were 2nd- and 3rd-place finishers Thomas Kolschowsky (7W, 1P) and Brian O’Kane (3W, 5P). All three players backed the largest-priced winner of the day—Kilo Road ($13.80, $5.00) in race 8 at Laurel. One of O’Kane’s five place payoffs—a $4.20 one at the end—was particularly key for him. It made the difference between a seat and no seat.

On Friday, there were a couple of “double winners”. One of them was Kenneth Arnerich.

Arnerich hit a bomb—Topstitch ($97.60, $35.20)—in race 4 on the opening-day card at Los Alamitos Race Course. That cap horse plus 3 other winners and 1 place helped Arnerich take Friday’s $15,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray by a margin of $41.30. He pocketed $8,154 in an HT Tour event that closed with a final prize pool of $18,121.

Using the same picks, Arnerich won Friday’s Spa & Surf Showdown qualifier by even more.

This time the margin was $55.10. Well back in second place—but not upset in the least about it—was NHC Hall of Famer Paul Shurman (2 wins, 2 places), who claimed the other available $2,500 seat. Shurman’s best return of the day came from Constant Conflict ($11.60, $6.40) in race 2 at LosAl.

Another Constant Conflict supporter was James Cosenza (5 wins, 1 place).

Cosenza’s Constant Conflict connection helped him finish first in Friday’s qualifier to this coming Saturday’s Lone Star Summer Betting Challenge in Grand Prairie, Tex.

The same group of 10 horses also earned Cosenza a berth in the July 19 Haskell Challenge.

Cosenza finished second to G.T. Nixon (5 firsts and 3 seconds). Topstitch helped Nixon sew this one up.

Over at HorsePlayers, there was a $75 NHC qualifier that attracted enough entries for three Vegas packages to be awarded. The first of the three went to 2019 NHC champion Scott Coles.

Coles (3 wins, 1 place) nailed Topstitch at the end to book his passage to Vegas for an attempt at history. Runner up Anthony Spinazzola, our 2023 Spa & Surf Showdown champ, finished second. He was already double-qualified, though. So the other two spots went to Mike Langthorne (6 wins, 2 places) and George Novick (1W, 0P). Langthorne’s best pick was Constant Conflict. You might have already guessed from looking at Novick’s “stats” that his only collection all day was Topstitch in the contest finale (after nine straight races of getting the middle of a donut)—and now he is headed to the NHC. Just another reminder that there is (almost) always hope in these things.

Constant Conflict brought peace and joy to Gerald “Like a good” Naber (3 firsts, 2 seconds).

Naber captured Friday’s other featured tourney at HorsePlayers, our Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier.

Moving on to some more of Saturday’s featured tourneys (the ones in which Sean O’Malley did not take part), there were two winners of $2,500 entries in the day’s qualifier to the $400,000 Gtd. Spa & Surf Showdown.

Congratulations to Wendy Long (3 wins, 3 places) and 2023 The BIG One champ Brendan Fay (4W, 2P). The high-yielder for both was Blossoming Erudite ($38.80, $9.30) in race 10 at BAQ.

Frank “54-40 or Fight” Polk had longshot Goldeneye Magic in the Lady Jacqueline Stakes at Thistledown.

Polk fought off all of his rivals in Saturday’s qualifier to the June 28 Lone Star Summer Betting Challenge.

Terrence Frank (2 wins, 3 places) made collections in each of the final four contest races, starting with a big hit on Goldeneye Magic.

Frank’s flying finish cot him the $2,000 seat in Saturday’s qualifier to the inaugural Breeders’ Cup Pick & Pray tourney—a $300,000 Guaranteed competition here on October 31-November 1.

Mark “Santana” Tabakman also played Goldeneye Magic.

Tabakman (2 firsts, 4 seconds) banked the $3,562 grand prize in Saturday’s $5,088 Big Bucks Pick & Pray.

Sunday’s cash-game star was Steve Pavich (7 wins plus 1 place at the end).

Pavich hit for $12,009 in Sunday’s HT Tour battle, our $20,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which ultimately paid out $26,687.

The priciest of Pavich’s seven winners was Kilo Road ($13.80, $5.00) in the 8th at Laurel. That was Eddie “Hoss” Inman’s heavy lifter among seven winners of his own on Sunday.

Inman earned a $1,000 seat in Sunday’s play-in to the Lone Star Summer Betting Challenge.

Kilo Road was on the scorecards of both Terry Jerge (5W, 1P) and Robert “Bat” Masterton (2W, 4P).

Jerge and Masterton emerged with the $1,000 entries at the conclusion of Sunday’s Haskell Challenge qualifier.

Over at HorsePlayers, Scott Rubinchik (6 wins, 2 places) and Michael Mainzer (6W, 3P) each rocketed out of the starting gate with four straight winners.

Rubinchik and Mainzer ran one-two in Sunday’s $165 NHC Pick & Pray.

There was also a $500 Low Ratio NHC qualifier on Sunday.

Jeff “Land” Ho was the winner here thanks to Kilo Road plus 4 winners and 2 runners up.

The same selections also allowed Ho to land a Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge seat.

Clearly a “Low Ratio specialist”, Ho came out on top here in this separate $500 buy-in test at HorsePlayers. Robert Traynor reported home in second place, which was good for a $5,000 partial BCBC entry.

Back here at HorseTourneys, Michael Stiscak (6 firsts, 3 seconds) earned a $2,000 seat in Sunday’s qualifier to the Breeders’ Cup Pick & Pray tourney.

Stiscak’s lone double-digit winner in his bunch was Come Rain or Shine ($10.60, $5.30) in race 9 at BAQ.

Hot weather on the East Coast may play havoc with schedules over the next few days. We thank you in advance for your patience—and we thank you in the present for playing with us last week. Congratulations to all of you who won. We look forward to celebrating more of you in this same space next Monday.