As the leaves are falling in the East, so are Kevin Engelhard’s tourney opponents.

On Saturday, Engelhard swept (raked?) the final four contest races to finish with 5 wins and 2 places in all. One of them was Lush Lips ($19.22, $6.04) in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Keeneland. 

That’s how Engelhard earned a $2,000 seat in the inaugural edition of the $300,000 Gtd. BC Pick & Pray Tourney. Robert “Candy” Graham (5 wins, 2 places) and Peter Osella (4W, 0P) also received berths for finishing second and third, respectively. Graham’s top return came from V Cruizer ($19.68, $7.20) in the 9th at BAQ. Osella best pick was Worth a Dime ($24.80, $10.20) in race 10 on the Maryland Million Day program at Laurel.

Engelhard enjoyed another brilliant finish on Sunday.

This time, he made collections in each of the final six contest heats. Prior to that, he scored with Halfway to Nowhere ($22.80, $10.60) in the 3rd at Santa Anita. That selection got Engelhard approximately halfway to the $11,517 that he won for taking Sunday’s HT Tour competition, our $20,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which closed with a final purse of $25,593. 

By about $1,200, our richest tourney of the week was Saturday’s $20,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which had a final prize pool of $26,796. 

Having Worth a Dime helped this HT Tour event be worth $12,058 to Max Schnepf (5 firsts, 2 seconds). The final pot came to $26,796.

Schnepf lost one of his place collections in Saturday’s $179 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge qualifier at HorsePlayers, but he finished first in that one too.

Michael Domabyl grabbed a $10,000 seat as well for coming home in second position. His 4 wins and 3 places were highlighted by V Cruizer at “Baqueduct”.

The featured-tourney week began, as per usual, on Wednesday. The horse you really wanted to have that day was English Chunnel ($26.90, $9.90) in the 8th at Keeneland.

Faye Wright (3 wins, 4 places) had the 12-1 winner. Wright pocketed the up-top money of $2,861 in Wednesday’s $5,000 guaranteed cash tourney, which closed its doors with $6,359 in the kitty.

G.T. Nixon (3 wins, 1 place) and Austin Herzig (2W, 1P) both cheered on English Chunnel’s victory.

Nixon and Herzig exited with the two available $2,000 entries at the conclusion of Wednesday’s BC Pick & Pray Tourney qualifier.

Thursday’s cash-game hero was Michael Herrington (3 wins, 5 places).

Buoyed by Spoken Bluntly ($15.06, $6.48) in the 7th at BAQ, Herrington pocketed $3,452 in Thursday’s $6,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which closed with a final purse of $7,672.

William “Bubble” Gumm (3 firsts, 5 seconds) managed to smoke out the really big price out there on Thursday.

Gumm stuck to his convictions and played Fountain Run ($52.80, $17.80) in the final contest race, the 8th at Horseshoe Indianapolis. Gumm picked up a $5,000 “half-entry” in Thursday’s “BCBC Partial” qualifier at HorsePlayers.

Friday was a nice day for Jim Cuzzupe, who has been very hot of late.

Cuzzupe hit cap horse Desvio ($70.90, $25.18) in the Sycamore Stakes at Keeneland plus 2 other winners and 1 runner up. That merited him a $1,500 scholarship in Friday’s entrance exam for the December 6-7 Pick & Pray Classic.

The same selections also landed Cuzzupe on top in Friday’s qualifier to the BC Pick & Pray Tourney.

Also grabbing a $2,000 seat for finishing second was 2022 Spa & Surf Showdown champion Tim Hughes (2 wins, 2 places). His heavy lifter was Changemyworld ($16.20, $5.40) in the 9th at Laurel.

Friday’s HT Tour battle went to Kris Andaur on the strength of 2 wins and 2 places.

Andaur had Desvio on the way to a windfall of $8,753 in our $15,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray. The total pot came to $19,451.

There were three featured tourneys at HorsePlayers on Friday.

Friday’s $179 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge qualifier went to Paul “Watch What Happens Live” Winandy, who swept the first three races and came up with Desvio later on.

Two Desvio supporters won $10,000 seats in Friday’s $500, Low Ratio Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge play-in.

Congratulations to 2022 NHC Tour champ Jay Johns (3 wins, 0 places) and Jim Colbert (3W, 1P).

Despite the fact that Friday’s features consisted of 10 (as opposed to 12) races, the high score of not just the day—but the week— came in the $75 NHC qualifier.

The gaudy total of $148.50 was posted by Joshua “Shake Your” Bode (5 wins, 1 place). Desvio was the first of three straight winners Bode used to close things out at the end. Runner up—and fellow seat winner—Mike Yurczyk also scored with Desvio. It was one of two winners on the day for Yurczyk, who whiffed on the first seven races.

Saturday’s NHC qualifier—also at HorsePlayers—was restricted to those who had yet to earn a 2026 berth.

The winner was Howard Blumberg, whose best return among 3 firsts and 1 second came via Worth a Dime. 

Phil Hoedebeck (3 firsts, 4 seconds) also used Worth a Dime as a springboard to success.

Hoedebeck captured the $1,500 berth in Saturday’s qualifier to the $250,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray Classic, the final leg of the 2025 HT Champions Series.

Brian “Concession” Stan picked 4 winners en route to a victory worth $3,562.

V Cruizer was Stan’s biggest producer in Saturday’s $5,088 Big Bucks Pick & Pray.

We mentioned earlier that Kevin Engelhard made collections in the final six contest races as part of his victory in Sunday’s cash feature. That was child’s play for Jim Atwell. He made cashes in each of the final nine races that day.

Atwell finished with 5 wins, 5 places and a score of $131.92 in taking Sunday’s $210 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers by more than 40 bucks. He profited most from the pick of 10-1 Halfway to Nowhere in the 3rd at Santa Anita. Dave Portnoy (5W, 2P) finished second—which gained him his second entry for the big dance in March. Portnoy’s most profitable selection was J.J.’s Joker ($21.88, $9.22) in the 8th at Keeneland.

One of Atwell’s place horses slipped through the cracks in Sunday’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier, but he won that one comfortably as well.

This time, Atwell shared the podium with Kathleen O’Kane (4 wins, 3 places). She, like Atwell, played Halfway to Nowhere. G.T. Nixon ran third, which was good for a $5,000 partial BCBC berth.

Rich Constantine also made a twin-killing on Sunday.

Constantine counted Halfway to Nowhere among the 4 wins and 3 places he accumulated in the course of winning Sunday’s Pick & Pray Classic qualifier.

The same Pick & Pray selections also put Constantine first among three $2,000 entry winners in Sunday’s BC Pick & Pray Tourney qualifier.

The other two were Terry Jerge (4 wins, 4 places) and Nicholas McMurdy (5W, 2P). Jerge’s big gun was One of These Days ($15.80, $6.40) in race 4 at Santa Anita. McMurdy’s most lucrative return came from J.J.’s Joker at Keeneland.

Before we go, we want to congratulate HorseTourneys stalwart John Gaspar for his triumph in last Saturday’s Keeneland Fall BCBC-NHC Challenge.

We also want to let you know that, after eight days of racing, the field in our first-ever Keeneland Super Survivor tourney has dwindled from 209 entries all the way down to five.

Those five—still in the running for a winner-take-all prize of $9,196—are NHC defending champion Mike Gillum, this year’s Spa & Surf Showdown champ John “The Clocker” Nichols, Rick Vasquez, Rick Hammerle and David Watts. They will be back at it on Wednesday when racing at Keeneland resumes…and our featured tourneys also resume. Until then—to them and to you—good luck!