Usually our most newsworthy events take place during the weekend. Last week, one occurred on Thursday. That was the day that our Keeneland Super Survivor tourney reached its conclusion after 10 days of competition.

It began on Friday, October 3 with 209 entrants and a winner-take-all prize pool of $9,196. It ended last Wednesday when Rick Vasquez outlasted his remaining two foes—Rick Hammerle and David Watts—to take home the money.

Hammerle and Watts were both sunk by the same horse, Steve Asmussen’s odds-on class dropper Mila Rose, who finished well up the track in the Keeneland opener. That meant that either Vasquez would be the big winner (if his pick later that day hit the board) or there would be a three-way tie (if Vasquez met the same fate as Hammerle and Watts.

Race after race went by with each “refresh” of the leaderboard reading “No Selection” next to Vasquez’s name. Then, in the final race of the day, Vasquez pulled the trigger on 4-5 Tom Amoss speedball Golden Irish, who wired the starter allowance field.

While this was our first Super Survivor tourney, it won’t be our last. We were pleased with the turnout and plan to offer more of them…but only during more anticipated meets…and, in certain cases, not necessarily at the very beginning of such a meet. 

Look for the next one, a Gulfstream Super Survivor tourney, to start sometime in December. (The “Championship Meet” at Gulfstream officially begins on Thanksgiving Day—which we don’t think would be an ideal day to begin one of these. We’d rather wait on Gulfstream until their big meet heats up a bit.) Keep in mind that the Gulfstream meet (unlike, say, Keeneland) is long enough where we might be able to host a second (or eventually a third) Super Survivor tourney during the meet, once the first one has been completed. 

It’s all a work in progress. Feel free to share your feedback as we contemplate the future of these. From our perspective, the first one was fun. We hope you felt the same way.

NHC Hall of Famer Rich Nilsen (Class of 2025) felt that our Friday tourneys were, ahem, fun.

Nilsen (5 wins, 1 place) swept the final three contest races, including a tally with Marcus Gift ($15.68, $8.46) in the 9th at BAQ. He led a group of three $2,000 seat earners that was also comprised of Joseph “Kin” Foulke (5W, 0P) and Conrad Hoetger (3W, 3P) in Friday’s BC Pick & Pray Tourney qualifier. The top three all had Marcus Gift on their scorecards.

Nilsen lost one of his winners in Friday’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier at HorsePlayers, but he finished in the money in that one as well.

Nilsen bested all except Bob Engelhard, whose 4 wins and a place were topped by Jewel Box ($26.24, $8.48) in the 8th at Keeneland. They got the $10,000 seats while third-place finisher Chris Grutsch received a $5,000 partial BCBC entry.

When it comes to dangerous brother combinations in contest play, two names that jump out are the Shurmans and the Mattieses (all four—Paul, Bill, Paul and Duke—are NHC Hall of Famers). Another pair that has to be in the broader conversation are the Engelhards.

One day after Bob won his BCBC seat, sibling Kevin took our first qualifier to the Del Mar Fall Challenge thanks to 3 wins and 2 places. Runner up James Amedure (3W, 2P) also reeled in a $3,000 entry for November 29. For Kevin Engelhard, it was a nice follow up to his exploits of the previous week when he captured our Sunday cash feature plus a BC Pick & Pray seat.

A rather remarkable performance was put forward on Wednesday, the first day of the featured-tourney week, by Edward Enborg.

Enborg rattled off four straight winners at the outset—including Total Luna Eclipse ($22.60, $13.00) in the 4th at Horseshoe Indianapolis—and added another four winners later on to finish with eight on the day…from just 10 races. Enborg was a highly deserving recipient of the $2,737 grand prize in Wednesday’s $5,000 Guaranteed cash game, which closed with a final purse of $6,083.

Mark “El” Kapitan (6 wins, 1 place) took the opposite approach of Edward Enborg.

Kapitan’s four straight winners came at the end, and he topped the leaderboard in Wednesday’s BC Pick & Pray Tourney qualifier. His most stylish victor was Gucci Vision ($19.40, $5.80) in the 9th at Delaware. Also grabbing a seat into the $300,000 Guaranteed test here in a couple of weeks was runner up Mike “The Coach” Goodrich. His only winner among five collections came with Total Luna Eclipse.

Ronnie Henderson (4 firsts, 3 seconds) took home the $3,577 top prize in Thursday’s $6,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which closed with a final pot of $7,949.

Henderson’s best hit came right at the start with Shilling ($39.14, $14.84) in the 5th at “Baqueduct”.

Joseph Parella (4 firsts, 1 second) also had Shilling.

Parella got the $5,000 “half-seat” at the conclusion of Thursday’s BCBC Partial qualifier at HorsePlayers.

For an entry fee of $179, a full $10,000 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge seat was on offer at HorsePlayers.

The star of this show was Joseph McKay, for whom Jewel Box was the best of four winners selected. Christopher Olssson reported home in second place—good for a $5,000 partial entry. 

As per usual, there was also a $75 NHC qualifier on Friday at HorsePlayers.

John Beckford finished on top of the heap thanks to 4 runners up that were followed by 3 winners (including Jewel Box). The second-place finisher, Joseph “Kevin” Costello was already double-qualified and, thus, playing just for NHC Tour points in his bid to win an unprecedented third Tour title. That left the other available Vegas package to third-place contestant Luke Peltz, who had Jewel Box plus three other winners and one runner up. 

Friday’s cash-game hero was Turner West (4 firsts, 3 seconds).

West connected with Marcus Gift on the way to a triumph worth $8,453 in Friday’s $15,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray (an HT Tour event), which was ultimately worth a total of $18,786.

The best of four Friday winners launched by William Claunch was Frosty View ($13.58, $6.62) in race 9 at Keeneland.

Claunch got the $1,500 scholarship in Friday’s entrance exam for the December 6-7 Pick & Pray Classic, the $250,000 Guaranteed final leg of the 2025 HT Champions Series.

The richest tourney of the week was Saturday’s $25,000 Guaranteed cash game. It had a final purse of $27,104.

Jim Trepinski (3 wins, 1 place) pocketed the winner’s share of $12,196 in this HT Tour event. He was a member of the select fraternity of handicappers who correctly predicted that Kappa Kappa ($56.06, $24.30) would win the Lexus Raven Run Stakes at Keeneland.

Thomas Kolschowsky was another player who had Cappa Cappa…err…Kappa Kappa.

Thanks in no small part to the cap horse, Kolschowsky (3 firsts, 1 second) punched his ticket to Vegas in Saturday’s $210 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers—a get together that was restricted to those who had yet to nail down a 2026 seat.

The first seven contest races were Greek to Steven Shaffer…but then he scored with Kappa Kappa.

That began a run of 4 wins and 1 place over the final five races that brought Shaffer a $10,000 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge seat in Saturday’s $179 qualifier at HorsePlayers. Emmett Burns (5 winners) also smoked out Kappa Kappa from the AE list, and he, too, got a BCBC seat for finishing closest to Shaffer.

Kappa Kappa was the only collection of the day for Kevin Willett.

Willet exited with the $3,562 up-top money in Saturday’s $5,088 Big Bucks Pick & Pray.

There were three winners of $2,000 berths in Saturday’s qualifier to the $300,000 Gtd. BC Pick & Pray Tourney.

Congratulations to “Pistol” Pete Acocella (2 wins, 0 places), Gus Maritsas (2W, 1P) and 2023 Spa & Surf Showdown champion Anthony Spinazzola (1W, 2P). Acocella and Spinazzola were Phi Beta Kappa Kappas. The top return for Maritsas came from American Glory ($28.40, $10.20) in the opener at Santa Anita.

Alexander Calzi (2 firsts, 2 seconds) also scored nicely with American Glory.

Calzi bagged the $1,500 entry in Saturday’s qualifier to the December 6-7 Pick & Pray Classic.

The two available $1,500 seats in Sunday’s Pick & Pray Classic qualifier went to Tom “Speed,” Falter (5 wins, 2 places) and Jeff “Land” Ho (4W, 1P).

The heavy lifter for both was Ready to Jam ($18.34, $8.70) in the 9th at BAQ.

Another Ready to Jam fan was Gary Machiz (4 firsts, 3 seconds).

Machiz hit each of the first three contest races prior to nailing Ready to Jam. The seven collections were worth $11,123 to Machiz in Sunday’s HT Tour test, our $20,000 Guaranteed tourney, which closed with a final prize pool of $24,718.

Matthew Filios (4 wins, 1 place) and Joe Perry (3W, 2P) shared an appreciation of Ready to Jam.

They made off with the $10,000 spots in Sunday’s Low Ratio qualifier to the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge.

There were three winners in Sunday’s BC Pick & Pray Tourney qualifier.

In alphabetical order—and also in order of their final position in the standings—they were Steve Arrison (4 wins, 2 places), Christian Orscher (3W, 1P) and 2024 Flo-Cal Faceoff champion Michael Solakis (2W, 2P). The big horse for both Arrison and Solakis was Castle Leoch ($16.00, $8.00) in the 5th at Santa Anita. Orscher’s three winners came in the final three races. One of them was Ready to Jam.

Ready to Jam was the best of three winning legs on the barstool of Elio Imbornone (3 wins, 3 places). 

Imbornone led the way in Sunday’s $1,000 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Super Qualifier. There were enough entries for two additional BCBC seats to be awarded. Those went to Evan “Smoker’s Toothpolish” Topol (3W, 3P) and Craig Siedler (3W, 4P). Topol’s scorecard was brightened by Castle Leoch in the final race. Siedler hit a pair of 7-1 winners at the end. 

Tom Lenberg picked 4 winners en route to victory in Sunday’s NHC Low Ratio qualifier at HorsePlayers.

The biggest price of Lenberg’s victorious quartet was Venencia ($17.76, $9.04) in race 8 at Keeneland. Lenberg really leaned in to those mid-priced horses. Two of his other winners paid $16.40 and $16.20. 

Thanks to all who played one or more tourneys last week, and congratulations to all whose name appeared above. More featured tourneys come your way starting on Wednesday…with recaps to follow, of course, on Monday.