This week, we’ll be starting at the end—because Jack Schwartz accomplished the rare feat of winning two NHC seats in one day with one set of picks.

When Schwartz woke up on Sunday, he was technically on the outside looking in with respect to the 2026 NHC. I say “technically” because he had already accumulated 17,963 NHC Tour points, making him a veritable lock to finish in the “Top 75 Not Otherwise Qualified.” Nevertheless, Schwartz remained eligible for Sunday’s $210 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers—an event restricted to those who had yet to officially secure a 2026 berth. Thanks to 6 winners—including Fair Haired Boy ($30.00, $14.20) in race 9 at Delaware—plus a place, Schwartz defeated 50 rivals by $31.90.

Schwartz copied and pasted the same selections in an entry for Sunday’s open, Low Ratio NHC qualifier. This time, he had just 15 foes taking him on. You can guess the result.

Schwartz romped by $57.96, giving him two sudden NHC entries, and, to the delight of those with about 8,000 NHC Tour points, taking his name off the “Top 75 Not Otherwise Qualified” list.

By entering those same, prescient selections in Sunday’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier, Schwartz made it a clean sweep of the three Sunday featured tourneys at HorsePlayers.

Happily for 2023 Flo-Cal Faceoff champion David Wolff (5 wins, 2 places), there were enough entries for a second $10,000 entry to be awarded in this affair. Like Schwartz, Wolff was fond of Fair Haired Boy.

The perfect Sunday was rounded out for Schwartz with a victory in Sunday’s Keeneland Fall BCBC-NHC Challenge qualifier.

This was a “two seater” and the other $3,500 spot went (by 84 cents) to John Gaspar (5 wins, 2 places). Gaspar had the distinction of being the only grand-prize-winning Sunday player who didn’t take a shine to Fair Haired Boy. He hit the last two races, with his best return of the day coming from Cooke Creek ($15.20, $5.20) in the Battery Park Stakes at Delaware. (I didn’t know there was a Battery Park in Delaware. Turns out it is a scenic area in New Castle.)

The 2024 NHC hero Mike Gillum hails from the Hoosier State—and on Wednesday, he leaned on his “local” track to further pad his bank account.

Gillum pocketed $2,523 for finishing first in Wednesday’s $5,000 Guaranteed cash tourney. His best hit among 5 wins and 2 places came in the 4th at Horseshoe Indianapolis with Whatnowdaddy ($11.60, $7.40).

Thursday’s cash-game star was Max Schnepf.

Schnepf hit for max money by sweeping the final four contest races and finishing with 6 firsts and 1 second on the day. Earlier in the day, he connected on Zuby ($12.44, $5.88) in the 6th at BAQ, and he earned the $3,048 top prize in Thursday’s $6,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which closed with a final purse of $6,774.

For the second straight week, HorsePlayers offered a BCBC Partial Entry qualifier on Thursday at HorsePlayers.

Michael Somich reeled off 4 straight winners early before turning in a scorecard that contained 6 winners (and no places). His best pick on the way to his $5,000 BCBC half-entry was Whittington Park ($23.76, $7.30) in race 7 at BAQ.

Tarik Kouchtaf had a better week last week than Tarik Skubal.

Kouchtaf posted the high score of the day in taking Friday’s $75 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers. Kouchtaf picked 4 winners. Both of the day’s big prices were among the four—Wow Whata Summer ($40.60, $15.20) in the 9th at Laurel and Amazing Athena ($64.18, $18.96) in race 8 at BAQ. Also punching his ticket to Vegas was runner up Kevin Walsh (3W, 2P). He, too, smoked out both of the $40.00+ horses. There were enough entrants for a third berth to be bestowed. The third-place finisher, NHC Hall of Famer Brett Wiener was already double qualified, though. So that left the remaining spot to Jim Cuzzupe, who counted Wow Whata Summer among his 5 wins and a place.

Perhaps things will turn around tomorrow for Skubal…

Things turned around for Brett Wiener in Friday’s HT Tour competition, our $15,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray. Instead of coming in third as he did in the NHC qualifier, he finished first.

This effort resulted in a tangible, non-points payoff too. Wiener won $7,481 in a game that was ultimately worth a total of $16,625. His most amazing collection among 4 winners and 3 runners up was 31-1 victress Amazing Athena.

The same 10 selections also allowed Wiener to lead the way in Friday’s Pick & Pray Classic qualifier.

By 52 cents, Dave “Gambling Actuary” Nichols (2 wins, 3 places) grabbed the other available $1,500 seat for the $250,000 Guaranteed tourney here on December 6-7. Wow Whata Summer was the star of the Friday Nichols stable.

Wiener (3 wins, 5 places) got himself another Pick & Pray Classic seat on Sunday.

The only player to outdo Wiener in this one was no less than defending Pick & Pray Classic champion Mark Stillmock (4 wins, 3 places). In the 9th at Delaware, Stillmock and Wiener both favored Fair Haired Boy.

Jumping back to Friday action, William Holmes sleuthed out 4 winners, including Amazing Athena.

Holmes exited with the $10,000 seat at the conclusion of Friday’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier at HorsePlayers. Dave Nichols had to settle for a $5,000 partial BCBC entry for his second-place performance in this get together.

Steven Meier (4 wins, 1 place) and Wendy Long (2W, 5P) came away with the $3,500 scholarships in Friday’s Keeneland BCBC-NHC Challenge qualifier.

They both scored with Amazing Athena. Long got her seat by a margin of 14 cents over Sean Nolan. Long, Nolan and 4th-place finisher Nick Fazzolari all had the same picks in the final two races. So the final 40 minutes or so of this one may have been a little less nerve-racking for Long than a cursory glance at the leaderboard might suggest.

There were three winners of $2,000 entries in Friday’s qualifier to the inaugural BC Pick & Pray Tourney.

Congratulations to Tim Moline (2 wins, 2 places), Jerald Segall (3W, 1P) and Vineet Sharma (4W, 0P). Moline had Amazing Athena. The highest yielder for both Segall and Sharma was Come Out Fighting ($17.40, $7.20) in race 8 on the opening day program at Santa Anita.

After winning a Pick & Pray Classic entry and half of a BCBC seat on Friday, Dave Nichols must have decided he needed some more cash to fund future entry fees.

Problem solved. Nichols (4 firsts, 1 second) saved his two best winners for the very end of Saturday’s $25,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray (an HT Tour event). One of them was Innovative ($27.40, $11.80) in the 10th at Santa Anita. Nichols earned $11,250 for his efforts.

Chris Carpenter (4 wins, 4 places), Jason Phillips (5W, 2P) and Barbara Small (3W, 2P) all had Innovative.

They were the three players to pick up $2,000 entries in Saturday’s qualifier to the inaugural BC Pick & Pray Tourney.

Small had a different mix of horses in Saturday’s Keeneland Fall BCBC-NHC Challenge qualifier.

Here, Small (3 wins, 4 places) finished second to fellow $3,500 seat recipient Rich Pawlowski, whose 5 wins and 3 places were highlighted by Judge Davis ($26.46, $14.78) in the 11th at BAQ.

Friday Keeneland seat winner Wendy Long was also a Saturday Pick & Pray Classic seat winner.

Long racked up 4 wins (including Innovative) and 3 places to nail down the $1,500 berth in the two-day, Dec. 6-7 tourney here.

Larry “Kramer vs.” Kramer backed Judge Davis plus 5 other winners and 2 runners up.

Kramer parlayed his 8 collections into a $10,000 seat in Friday’s $179 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge qualifier at HorsePlayers.

The other Saturday feature at HorsePlayers was a $165 NHC play-in.

The packages in this one went to Wade White (6 wins, 2 places) and Edward Enborg (4W, 1P). White had Nevada Beach ($19.00, $4.40) in the 9th at Santa Anita and Innovative one race later at the Arcadia, Calif., oval. Enborg’s most productive pick was Judge Davis. Like Jack Schwartz, Enborg thereby removed his high-up name from the NTRA’s Top 75 Not Otherwise Qualified list. (Enborg had more than 15,000 NHC Tour points at the start of the week.) When people like Schwartz and Enborg win NHC seats, so do a couple of other people. We just don’t know their names yet.

When people put up a score of $26.08, they don’t usually win a damn thing…but Evan Trommer did.

Trommer (3 wins, 2 places) prevailed in a, ahem, defensive struggle in Saturday’s $4,071 Big Bucks Pick & Pray, and he collected the up-top money of $2,849. His most lucrative winner—I am not making this up—was Ultimate Love ($5.00, $3.00) in the 10th at Laurel.

Jack Schwartz wasn’t only one who had a big Sunday around here. So did Glen Gottlieb. 

Gottlieb (5 wins, 1 place) rattled off 4 consecutive winners at one juncture, ending with 14-1 Fair Haired Boy in the 9th at Delaware. Gottlieb got the grand prize of $10,926 in Sunday’s HT Tour battle, our $20,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which closed with a pot of $24,281.

The same selections also delivered Gottlieb a $2,000 BC Pick & Pray tourney seat.

Gottlieb showed the way in this one too. His closest pursuer, Earl Pratt (5 wins, 0 places) also bagged a berth for October 31-November 1. Pratt did all of his scoring over the final seven contest races.

That wraps up another fun week of featured-tourney action. Next week promises to be even more exciting with many Breeders’ Cup preps taking place around the country…including at Keeneland, where their Fall meet opens up on Friday. Until then…good luck!