It was a holiday weekend of sustained excellence for Geoffrey Schutt.

The New Englander got the ball rolling by capturing Friday’s HT Tour competition, our $15,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which ultimately paid out $23,275.

Schutt’s biggest tally among 2 wins and 3 places came with Magic Connection ($45.80, $27.60) in race 2 at Del Mar. The victory brought Schutt a windfall of $10,473.

That was Schutt’s only clearcut, first-place finish of the week—but it was far from his only success.

Schutt came in fourth in Friday’s $75 NHC qualifier, but there were enough entries for three berths to be awarded, and third-place finisher Bob Gianquitti was already double-qualified…so Geoffrey Schutt…come on down! Leading the way in this one was the day’s high scorer, NHC Hall of Famer Jim Meeks, who counted Magic Connection among his 5 firsts and 1 second. The runner-up was fellow Magic Connection fan Mark Heider (4W, 1P).

Flush with the success of winning an NHC seat on Friday, Schutt went out the next day and got himself another one.

Fourth place was again lucky for Schutt, although this time there was more margin for error since this special play-in at HorsePlayers guaranteed a massive 10 seats. Like Schutt (4 wins, 3 places), first-place finisher Tony Schiavone (4W, 5P) hit it big with Bear River ($40.30, $11.76) in race 9 at Kentucky Downs. (Schiavone topped the leaderboard despite failing to make one of his 15 compulsory selections.) The other eight Vegas ticket punchers were Peter Osella (5W, 2P), Matthew Myers (6W, 1P), Victor Pasquariello, Danny Kelly (6W, 1P), Benjamin Posen (3W, 2P), Shad Walton (4W, 2P), Patrick Fujimori (3W, 3P) and—since Terrence Frank and Sean O’Malley were already double qualified—2017 NHC hero Ray Arsenault (2W, 3P), who got the 10th and final available spot from reporting home in 12th place. All of the above mentioned dozen had Bear River with the exception of Pasquariello, who overcame the Bear River omission by stockpiling an impressive 9 firsts and 3 seconds.

As for Schutt, he had an austere Sunday…but he threw yet another steak on the grill on Labor Day.

Schutt defeated all except Jeffrey Pesot, who tied him for first in this two-seat BC Pick & Pray Tourney qualifier. Ironically, the two had the same three collections, including longshot winners Going Deep ($85.60, $29.60) in the 7th at Del Mar and and Too Sassy ($52.20, $14.40) in race 10 at the picturesque southern California oval. 

The weekend haul for Schutt amounted to two NHC seats, a $2,000 BC Pick & Pray entry plus $10,473 in cash. It seems fair to say that handicapping was a, ahem, Labor of love for Schutt last weekend.

The same could probably be said of “Pistol” Pete Acocella on Wednesday. 

Acocella (6 firsts, 1 second) nailed Az U Chase Me ($29.60, $12.80) in the 7th at Saratoga plus a 10-1 winner in the tourney finale, and he pocketed the $2,892 grand prize in Wednesday’s Live-format, $5,000 guaranteed cash game, which closed with a final purse of $6,428.

Acocella used the very same picks in Wednesday’s Kentucky Downs King of the Turf Challenge qualifier.

Same picks, same result—victory. This one was worth a $2,500 seat for this Saturday’s grassy competition.

On Thursday, Charles Allen (4 winners) was the “one” in the $125 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers.

For those of you scoring at home, the one “#1 horse” that Allen eschewed finished 8th at odds of 185-1. Imagine if that horse had won, and it had cost him the seat!

Bruce Rossi (5 wins, 1 place) crafted an entry that utilized a wide variety of numbers in Thursday’s $6,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray.

Rossi scored with Final Score ($20.60, $7.50) in the first contest race, the 7th at Saratoga, and hit the final two races to close things out. He earned $4,354 from what was a final pot of $9,677.

Geoffrey Schutt wasn’t the only multiple winner on Friday. Dave “Gambling Actuary” Nichols also did the trick.

Nichols had just two winners, but one of them was 21-1 Magic Connection, and Nichols emerged with the $10,000 seat at HorsePlayers in Friday’s Low Ratio qualifier to the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge. The 2021 Flo-Cal Faceoff champion Alan Levitt finished second—good for a $5,000 partial BCBC entry.

The same picks landed Nichols on top of the heap in Friday’s Keeneland Fall BCBC-NHC Challenge qualifier.

Joining Nichols in the field of that October 11 get-together will be John Schimpf (6 wins, 2 places), who checked in second. Schimpf rattled off 4 straight winners at the outset. Later on, he hit his juiciest winner—El Diablo Rojo ($18.40, $7.60) in race 6 at Del Mar.

El Diablo Rojo was also the heaviest lifter for both Craig “Home Sweet” Hom (3 wins, 2 places) and Michael Somich (1W, 3P).

Hom and Somich took home the $2,000 berths in Friday’s qualifier to the inaugural BC Pick & Pray Tourney, a $300,000 Guaranteed contest here on Breeders’ Cup weekend. Somich got his seat by a scant 50 cents over Jeff Bussan.

Somich didn’t cut things quite so close the following day.

This time, in Saturday’s Keeneland Fall BCBC-NHC Challenge qualifier, Somich won by a full 5 dollars and change. He (2 firsts, 1 second) was one of the many successful Saturday players who smoked out Bear River at Kentucky Downs.

Dylan Donnelly (3 wins, 2 places) was bullish on Bear River.

Donnelly—in the top 10 of the HT Tour standings—will see his score improve further after taking our richest tourney of the week, Saturday’s $25,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which closed with a pot of $36,344. Donnelly’s share of that came to $16,354.

Bob Gianquitti (4 wins, 1 place) and Cal “Frontier” Justice (2W, 3P) each scored nicely with Bear River.

Their demonstrated Kentucky Downs acumen might again serve them very well…in this Saturday’s King of the Turf Challenge.

Michael “Copa” Kavana (3 wins, 2 places) and Bill Kellish (7W, 1P) were the $2,000 seat recipients in Saturday’s BC Pick & Pray Tourney qualifier.

Kavana took the “conventional” route of picking Bear River. Kellish, meanwhile, went rogue. His sweetest return came courtesy of Candytown ($17.60, $7.70) in race 13 at Saratoga.

Paul “Morning” Kloeker took all he could get in Saturday’s qualifier to the Sept. 27 Laurel Handicapping Challenge.

Kloeker (3 firsts, 0 seconds) played the same ticket twice and thereby swept both of the available $500 seats. He pounced early with Bear River, but at the end he needed Gold Phoenix ($6.20, $4.60) to win his 4th consecutive Del Mar Handicap in order to seal his “twin killing”.

Derek Dickson tallied with Bear River plus 4 other winners and 2 runners up to grab the $10,000 entry in Saturday’s $179 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge qualifier at HorsePlayers. 

Dave “The Warrior” Smyth finished second and had to settle for a $5,000 partial BCBC seat.

Smyth did no settling on Sunday.

Buoyed by bomb Brooklyn Dantz ($91.00, $30.00) in the 13th at Saratoga, Smyth (3 winners) shot at the walls of heartache and earned a full $10,000 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge entry in Sunday’s $500 Low Ratio qualifier at HorsePlayers. On this day, there were enough entries for second place to be worth a full seat, and that second one went to Joseph Zuer (4 wins, 1 place). Zuer missed Brooklyn Dantz, but he did score big with My Stubborn Lassie ($34.56, $14.92) in race 8 at Kentucky Downs.

Big prices were in abundance on Sunday. For Charles Welch, the day’s high yielder was Renew the Blue ($33.60, $11.00) in race 11 at Saratoga.

In order to capture Sunday’s $20,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, however, Welch (4 firsts, 3 seconds) needed to hit a 5-2 winner in the tourney finale. He did so, and that’s how he bagged $14,371 in this HT Tour event that was ultimately worth a total of $31,937.

Braden Selvig hit the winners of the first three contest races, ending with Renew the Blue.

In all, Selvig posted 4 winners, and he got the $3,500 seat in Sunday’s Keeneland Fall BCBC-NHC Challenge qualifier.

In June, Anthony “ATM” Mattera won $115,230 as the winner of the first-ever New York, New York Challenge. Sunday wasn’t quite as lucrative for the New Jersey native, but it was still a very good day.

Mattera uncovered 3 winners, topped by Banjo Chris ($23.10, $11.18) in the 7th at Kentucky Downs, and he secured himself the Vegas package in Sunday’s NHC Low Ratio qualifier at HorsePlayers.

Mattera also picked up a much more near-term seat—one for this Saturday’s Kentucky Downs King of the Turf Challenge. 

Mattera bested all but fellow Italiano Michael Caposio (2 wins, 1 place), whose best return came from Renew the Blue. The two will renew their rivalry this Saturday with paid-up $2,500 scholarships.

No fewer than 21 NHC seats were earned here last week. Two of them were bestowed here at HorseTourneys on Sunday in a $165 Pick & Pray.

Alan Lahr (3 wins, 1 place) and Chris “Army Strong” Lavezza (2W, 0P) were the two to earn their places in the big dance in this one. Lahr particularly enjoyed the performances of My Stubborn Lassie and Renew the Blue. Lavezza had cap horse Brooklyn Dantz plus Renew the Blue.

There were two winners of $500 entries in Sunday’s Laurel Handicapping Championship qualifier.

Congratulations to Kevin Engelhard (3 wins, 2 places) and G.T. Nixon (2W, 2P). Engelhard’s big horse was Renew the Blue. For Nixon, the star of the day was Banjo Chris.

We noted earlier that Jeffrey Pesot picked up a $2,000 Breeders’ Cup Pick & Pray Tourney seat by tying for first with Geoffrey Schutt in the Labor Day qualifier to the $300,000 guaranteed battle. Pesot also won an NHC seat on Monday.

Pesot finished 4th in a $125 4-seater (just as good as finishing 1st!). The three others who added their names to what figures to be the largest NHC roster ever were Matthew Ache (4 winners, all in the final 5 races), Crescencio Dacayanan (3 wins, 1 place) and Jason Jaszka. Too Sassy ($52.20, $14.40) in the 10th at Del Mar appeared on all four of their scorecards.

Ache put up the highest score of the day on Monday ($159.60). That meant his decision to enter Monday’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier at HorsePlayers was a good one.

It was an equally good decision for Jonathan “Kentucky” Oaks (3 winners) to take part. Like Ache, Oaks connected with Going Deep ($85.60, $29.60) in the 7th at Del Mar and Too Sassy ($52.20, $14.40) in race 10 out west. Also like Ache, Oaks did all of his scoring in the final five contest races. 

Another Going Deep supporter was Darren Rudnick (4 firsts, 1 second).

Rudnick hit the cash register for $11,571 in taking Monday’s HT Tour square-off, our $15,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which closed its doors with $28,927 in the kitty. 

Going Deep was one of five Labor Day winners for John Gaspar.

Gaspar earned himself a $3,500 ticket to the October 11 Keeneland Fall BCBC-NHC Challenge.

The two players to reach triple figures were the two to receive $2,500 entries in Monday’s qualifier to the Kentucky Downs King of the Turf Challenge.

Congratulations—and good luck on Saturday—to Anthony Mastropietro (4 winners, including each of the final three) and Edward Enborg (3 firsts, 3 seconds). They both took a liking to Too Sassy.

New York racing will go on a mini-break this coming week, but Del Mar and Kentucky Downs racing will still be going strong for another seven days. Thanks for spending a part of your Labor Day weekend/week with us. We appreciate the trust you place in us, and we hope to see you around these parts again sometime soon.