David Nelson made three really good decisions on Saturday. He hit the day’s biggest price—Concrete Glory ($25.60, $11.20) in the 10th at Saratoga; he played multiple featured tourneys; and perhaps most importantly, he used the same picks on all of his entries…even though most of the marquee games were conducted in Live format.

When the smoke had cleared, Nelson had scored six lucrative victories.

The most lucrative of the bunch was the most lucrative tourney of the week—Saturday’s $25,000 Guaranteed cash game.

Finishing with 5 firsts and 3 seconds, Nelson pocketed $13,028 in this HT Tour event that was ultimately worth a total of $28,952.

Another tourney that helped make Nelson feel like Rockefeller was Saturday’s Del Mar Summer Challenge qualifier. 

Nelson shared space on the victory podium here with runner up Jeff Bussan (4 wins, 2 places). Nelson made collections in the final four races (including one with Concrete Glory) to edge Raj Satyan by 20 cents for the second and final $6,500 Del Mar package.

Nelson also got himself a $3,500 seat to the October 11 Keeneland Fall BCBC-NHC Challenge.

So did second-place finisher Bill Shurman. The NHC Hall of Famer recorded 5 wins and 3 places—the highlight of which was Mexican Sugar ($17.60, $6.60) in the 9th at Monmouth.

Nelson added two more nice seats to his burgeoning 2025 contest portfolio.

He will now have action in the September 6 Kentucky Downs King of the Turf Challenge and the October 31-November 1 Breeders’ Cup Pick & Pray tourney. 

The coup de grace for Nelson came in the form of more cash.

He won the $4,274 top prize in our $6,124 Big Bucks game—one of only two Pick & Prays on the Saturday featured slate.

All in all, Nelson collected $17,302 in cash and another $14,500 worth of seats…for a total of $31,802. This came on a day when he amassed a fine—but hardly spectacular—score of $84.20…which was the third best of the day.

Saturday’s top scorer was David Peed with $88.40.

Thanks to Concrete Glory plus 3 other winners and 2 runners up, Peed secured himself the $10,000 berth in Saturday’s $179 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge at HorsePlayers. Runner up Raj Satyan picked up a $5,000 partial BCBC entry

Saturday’s second-highest scorer was Jennifer Viens with $84.80.

Viens stockpiled 7 firsts and 1 second to lead the way in Saturday’s $165 NHC Pick & Pray. The other seat went to Mike Rajoppi, who made even more collections (7 wins and 2 places) and prevailed by just 20 cents over an unlucky Raj Satyan. Viens and Rajoppi both saw their NHC aspirations solidify significantly with Concrete Glory. 

Similar to David Nelson, Viens played the same picks in Saturday’s Spa & Surf Showdown qualifier as in the NHC Pick & Pray.

Viens won again, earning a $2,500 entry for the $400,000 Guaranteed test as did second-place finisher (and fellow Concrete Glory supporter) Stephen Thompson (3 wins, 2 places).

The featured-tourney week got off to a winning start on Wednesday for Kenneth Arnerich (4 wins, 0 places).

On a day with lots of close finishes, Arnerich scored a 60-cent victory over 2013 BCBC champion Peter Behr that was worth $2,799 in Wednesday’s $5,000 Guaranteed cash game, which had a final purse of $6,221. The best of Arnerich’s victories quartet was Mr. Sandman ($25.60, $12.40) in race 10 at Parx.

The featured-tourney week continued on a winning note for Arnerich in Friday’s HT Tour competition, our $15,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray.

Arnerich (5 firsts, 3 seconds) had a pair of $30 winners, topped by Mobay Princess ($35.80, $13.00) in the 7th at Gulfstream. He won $8,528 from what was a final pot of $18,952. And it got even better for Arnerich. This win was the third Friday HT Tour victory of the calendar year for Arnerich—which means he got a $1,000 bonus for it (and will continue to receive $1,000 bonuses for any subsequent Friday HT Tour triumphs in 2025).

We mentioned earlier that Wednesday featured a number of close finishes. Like Arnerich, Dustin Haluska captured his tourney that day by a narrow 60 cents.

The difference for Haluska (5 wins, 2 places) came in the final contest race, the 8th at Horseshoe Indy, with Trusted Image ($8.00, $4.80). Haluska wound up with the $2,500 scholarship in Wednesday’s qualifier to the $400,000 Gtd. Spa & Surf Showdown here on August 23-24.

Wednesday’s Haskell Challenge qualifier was even closer—at least when it came to awarding the second of the two available $1,000 seats.

The winner was Jim Murphy, who counted Mr. Sandman among his 5 wins and 1 place. The second spot wound up going to Ryan Petrunyak (4W, 2P), who hit Trusted Image at the end, which lifted him (thanks to a somewhat generous place mutuel) into a second-place tie with Kevin Engelhard. Petrunyak then won the tiebreaker 4 winners to 2.

Engelhard, however, got himself a measure of revenge—or at least poetic justice—in the next day’s Haskell Challenge play-in.

Engelhard (3 wins, 3 places) was one of three players to earn $1,000 entries for this Saturday’s Haskell Day test. He finished behind Tim Darnell (5W, 0P) and ahead of the other $70+ scorer, Gregory Lewis (3W, 2P). The top two hit Spiritual Lady ($25.40, $11.60) in the 9th at Saratoga, while the top return for Lewis came one race later at the Spa with Dream on Cara ($34.20, $7.10).

Myles Richards (2 firsts, 1 second) also came up with Dream on Cara.

Richards, who did all his scoring in the final contest race, bagged the up-top money of $4,012 in Thursday’s $6,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which closed its doors with $8,917 in the kitty.

Another Dream on Cara fan was Barbara Small (2 wins, 2 places).

Small secured a $2,500 seat for the Spa & Surf Showdown.

Tom “Hit ‘em where they” Arndt nailed both Spiritual Lady and Dream on Cara.

Arndt (3 firsts, 2 seconds) captured Thursday’s special $125 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers.

On Friday, Gregory Lewis won his second Haskell Challenge entry in as many days.

Lewis (5 wins, 1 place) finished second in a “four-seater” that saw Lawrence Kahlden lead the way with 4 winners and Ken Jordan (4 wins, 2 places) get two entries for playing the same set of picks twice and finishing in 3rd and 4th. They all had Mobay Princess, and Kahlden also smoked out Italian Soiree ($31.20, $17.20) in the 7th at Saratoga.

Using the same picks, Lewis also won that day’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier at HorsePlayers.

Recent New York, New York Challenge champion Anthony “ATM” Mattera ran second to Lewis and earned a $5,000 partial BCBC entry.

Italian Soiree was the heavy lifter on Friday for last year’s HT Tour champion Eric “Skeet” Boyd.

Boyd compiled 2 firsts and 1 second to come away with the $2,000 seat in Friday’s qualifier to the inaugural Breeders’ Cup Pick & Pray tourney.

We noted earlier that the results on Wednesday came down to some very narrow margins. There were a couple of similarly close ones on Friday. One of them came at HorsePlayers in the $75 NHC qualifier, which had enough entrants for three berths to be awarded.

The first two were easy enough to determine. Last year’s Pick & Pray Classic winner Mark Stillmock (3 wins, 4 places) ended up on top by $1.40 over Dino Herrera (4W, 1P). There wound up being a tie for third, though, between Gary Fenton and Shirley Wolff. Fenton won the tiebreaker by virtue of having four winners as opposed to two for Wolff. Each of the top four scorers hit the Mobay Princess-Italian Soiree “double”.

Friday’s Spa & Surf Showdown qualifier was also tight.

The 2023 HT Tour champion Ed Peters racked up 2 wins and 5 places to prevail by $2.50 over Charles Welch (3W, 0P). Welch held on to second place by one thin dime over Terrence Frank, whose $7.20 place return on the runner up in the contest finale came up just short.

On Sunday, the horse you really wanted to have was Starview Twinkle ($65.40, $26.00) in race 8 at Monmouth. The 2024 NHC champion Mike Gillum had him.

The New Jersey cap horse was one of six Sunday winners that had Gillum flexing his muscles in the day’s HT Tour event, our $20,000 Guaranteed cash tourney, which closed with a final purse of $27,125. Gillum’s winner’s share came to $12,206.

It’s possible that Gillum enjoyed his second-place finish on Sunday even more than his cash-game victory.

That’s because the runner up effort came in Sunday’s $165, two-seat NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers. Gillum will now bid for an unprecedented second NHC victory next March. He used the same selections as in the cash contest to defeat all except Steve Arrison, who backed Starview Twinkle plus 4 other winners and 2 places.

The same picks landed Arrison on top of the leaderboard in Sunday’s five-seat Haskell Challenge qualifier.

The other four ticket punchers were George “Ki-“ Bosch (3 wins, 1 place), Sean O’Malley (2W, 1P), Paul “Morning” Kloeker (5W, 0P) and Mike Lazarus (3W, 1P). They all hit Starview Twinkle. We commented earlier that, on Friday, Ken Jordan played the same entry twice and won two Haskell Challenge seats in one qualifier. Here, Lazarus played his entry twice and pulled off an even more unlikely feat—at least based on the percentage probabilities. He won one seat and one $79 breakage refund.

William “23” Sadoo had a big Sunday.

Sadoo put together 5 firsts and 4 seconds to take the top spot in Sunday’s NHC Low Ratio qualifier at HorsePlayers. His highest-yielding selection was Karen’s Honor ($16.00, $7.60) in race 8 at Monmouth.

With the same picks, Sadoo also won Sunday’s Kentucky Downs King of the Turf Challenge qualifier.

Sadoo receives a $2,500 entry into the September 6 affair.

In Sunday’s Spa & Surf Showdown qualifier, Sadoo had one fewer win and one fewer place on his scorecard, relative to the ones in his NHC and Kentucky Downs play-in victories. However, Sadoo scored higher in this one.

That’s because he had cap horse Starview Twinkle here…which led him to another first-place finish. Also snatching up a $2,500 entry in this qualifier was runner up James Henry, winner of the 2013 Horse Players World Series. Henry (4 wins, 4 places) was one of the few successful Sunday participants who didn’t have Starview Twinkle. His best hit was Just Licorice ($20.20, $10.00) in the 7th at Saratoga.

Starview Twinkle didn’t escape the view of Michael Caposio.

Caposio (3 wins, 2 places) exited with the $3,500 entry at the conclusion of Sunday’s Keeneland Fall BCBC-NHC Challenge qualifier.

Caposio copied and pasted those picks in Sunday’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier, and he won that one too.

Finishing closest to Caposio was Karl Barth, who got a $5,000 partial BCBC entry for his efforts.

Caposio nearly came up with a third Sunday victory, but Tom Lenberg (4 wins, 1 place) blocked him in the final contest heat.

Lenberg walked off with the $6,500 package in Sunday’s Del Mar Summer Challenge qualifier.

The next “Weekly Recap” blog will come in a couple of Mondays from now on July 28. In the meantime, there are a couple of opening days to get excited about. This Friday, Del Mar kicks off its 2025 racing season. And, of course, on Wednesday, it’s Opening Day IV at Saratoga. 

Saturday figures to be an exciting day as well since it’s Haskell Day at Monmouth. We wish good luck to all of the HorseTourneys qualifiers who will be doing battle in the Haskell Challenge. (Qualifiers for that one continue here through Friday.) 

Thanks for playing—and reading.