He didn’t enjoy any monster, $100+ days. He probably didn’t perform any better than almost all of you have at one time or another. What 85-year-old Earl Pratt did do, though, was put two really solid days of handicapping back-to-back, and for that he was rewarded with $155,203 in the first-ever BC Pick & Pray Tourney.

The Lander, Wyoming, resident earned the $135,450 grand prize in the $377,784 event.

He also finished sixth — good for $16,931 — with his second entry, and picked up a $2,822 Day Money bonus for having the third highest score, $85.80, on Friday’s first day of competition in the two-day test. 

Pratt didn’t hit the day’s biggest price—Balantina ($43.20, $18.20) in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, but he got off to a quick start with Vodka Vodka ($27.00, $8.20) in Friday’s first race at Del Mar. Later came Cy Fair and Super Corredora in back-to-back Breeders’ Cup races.

The three winners left Pratt just $8.80 behind Day 1 leader Matthew Walsh, who pocketed a $9,406 Day Money bonus. Ronald Tang ($5,644) and Richard Reese ($941) finished Friday in 2nd- and 4th-places, respectively.

For a good bit of Saturday, it seemed as if 3rd place was as high as Pratt would get. He made not a single collection in the first seven races on Day 2. He had fallen out of the top 10. Then came the Breeders’ Cup Turf.

Pratt may have missed Balantina, but he didn’t miss Ethical Diamond ($57.40, $21.20). The former steeplechaser ended a 10-race losing streak for Pratt, stretching back to Friday. Forever Young followed about 45 minutes later, and Pratt was in front to stay.

That’s not to say that this was any cakewalk for Pratt at the end. Forever Young put Pratt ahead of Steve Arrison by just 80 cents with three races left, and Arrison had three completely different horses (including final-race favorite Cinderella’s Dream in the Filly & Mare Turf) than Pratt. But neither made a collection over the final three, and no one else could gain sufficient ground on Pratt from the back of the leading pack.

Time for a few “post-mortems” from the first BC Pick & Pray Tourney:

*We thank our friends at Breeders’ Cup for allowing us to run this event. We felt it would help address a pent-up demand among contest players for a somewhat different alternative (both format-wise and price-point wise) to the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge, which is obviously an outstanding tournament in its own right and set a new participation record this year. We hope that we are able to offer the BC Pick & Pray Tourney again in 2026.

*Steve Arrison went on a tear Saturday. He nailed all of the day’s double-digit win prices until missing on Gezora at the very end. He received $54,180 for his close second-place finish to Earl Pratt…plus another $9,406 for accumulating the top Day 2 score.

*The third-highest Day 2 score was recorded by 2022 NHC Tour champ Jay Johns. (More on him in a bit.) The second-highest Saturday total, worth a $5,644 Day Money bonus, belonged to Andy Asaro—who failed to enter selections for the three Saturday undercard races. Kudos to him…not just for his fine handicapping…but for good-naturedly poking fun at himself on social media over the mistake.

*Congratulations also to Matthew Walsh, who hung on to third-place overall ($27,090) a day after bagging $9,406 for having the best Friday score. (I found it interesting how Walsh and so many other of the tourney’s top finishers liked #12 Bellezza at the end in the Filly & Mare Turf.)

Come back to this space on Thursday—when we will get to know inaugural BC Pick & Pray Tourney champion Earl Pratt.

Now let’s take a look at some of the other highlights from an exciting Breeders’ Cup Week here at HorseTourneys/HorsePlayers.

We mentioned that Jay Johns had the third-highest Day 2 score (worth a $2,822 bonus). Overall, he came in 8th, which got him $11,852—for a BC Pick & Pray total of $14,674. Yet this was not his most lucrative tourney performance of the day. Not even close. In fact, it wasn’t even his second most lucrative.

A man who knows strong steeplechase form at Punchestown when he sees it, Johns had Ethical Diamond plus 3 other winners and 1 runner up to collect the $31,358 first prize in Saturday’s $75,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, an HT Tour event that closed with a final purse of $78,395.

Saturday’s $40,000 Guaranteed cash game (another HT Tour test) was contested in Live format. Johns, however, used all the same horses except for one in his Pick & Pray victory.

Here, he reeled in $18,508 from what was a final pot of $41,129.

For good measure, Johns added a Saturday victory in our qualifier to the $250,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray Classic here on December 6-7.

After winning cash and seats worth $66,040, Johns could be forgiven if, on Sunday, he had decided to kick back and celebrate his big Breeders’ Cup Day with a double stack of pancakes and a large orange juice. However, racing—like the restaurant business—is a seven-day-a-week enterprise.

Johns added another $9,000 to his bank account by taking yet another HT Tour competition, Sunday’s $20,000 Guaranteed cash game, which went off with a takeout to players of 10.1%. His big return among 2 firsts and 2 seconds came courtesy of Sporting Lady ($70.60, $23.40) in race 8 at Laurel.

Johns also picked up his second Pick & Pray Classic seat in his many days.

Here, Johns improved his score slightly and led the way in a “two-seater” that saw runner up Jason Alonzo (4 wins, 3 places) also garner a $1,500 entry for December 6-7.

So the total haul for Johns last weekend (pending likely mathematical errors/omissions on my part) was $78,978 (counting a sixth-place finish he had in our 2-day, $50,000 Guaranteed game, which I’ll recap later).

Johns wasn’t the only player who managed to ride a hot Saturday performance right on in to Sunday.

BC Pick & Pray runner up Steve Arrison added a $3,000 Del Mar Fall Challenge berth to the $63,586 that he scooped up on Saturday in the BC Pick & Pray Tourney. The Sunday high-yielder for Arrison was Just a Photo ($31.20, $9.00) in race 10 at Gulfstream.

In a week with many featured cash games, our first of the week was Wednesday’s $5,000 Guaranteed affair.

Michael Caposio took home the up-top money of $2,500 in this one—which had a takeout to players of 2.6%. Caposio’s best pick among 3 firsts and 2 seconds was Angel’s Legacy ($20.20, $7.40) in race 4 at Horseshoe Indianapolis.

Thursday’s marquee game was a $6,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray.

Cesar Alvarez (who made some noise early in the BC Pick & Pray Tourney) was the one to hail in this one, which closed with a final purse of $8,433. He picked 5 winners—topped by Iriseach ($39.20, $17.80) in the first contest race, the opener at Del Mar—en route to a payday of $3,794.

Breeders’ Cup Friday offered a $75, multi-track NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers.

The two seat winners were Mario St. Pierre (3 wins, 1 place) and Michael “Copa” Havana (2W, 0P). The most bountiful return for both came not from the Del Mar card but from the Cellars Shiraz Stakes, race 10 at Gulfstream. In that heat, they both connected with bomb Crafty Collector ($124.60, $49.00).

Friday also began a two-day, $50,000 Guaranteed cash tourney that was run in Live format and that focused solely on the 14 Breeders’ Cup races run on Friday and Saturday. The leader on Day 1 turned out to be the overall leader at the conclusion of Day 2.

That skillful player was Brian Johnson, who hit 3 of the 5 Friday winners, including Balantina ($43.20, $18.20) in the Juvenile Fillies Turf. He added 5 more on Saturday, highlighted by Gezora ($20.20, $7.60) in the Filly & Mare Turf. (Johnson doesn’t seem to think too highly of U.S.-based grass runner.) In fact, Johnson closed out Saturday with 3 straight winners to seal a victory worth $24,388. The final pot for this one came to $60,970.

Another Balantina fan was Troy Robertson.

Robertson (3 firsts, 1 second) led the way in Friday’s $20,000 Gtd. Live-format cash game, contested on the full card from Del Mar. He pocketed $11,056 in a $260 buy-in tourney that paid out a total of $24,570

The best Friday performance came in Friday’s $40,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which closed with a final purse of $42,166. This story, though, is a bittersweet one to tell.

Playing the full Del Mar card, Chris Cupples picked 6 winners, including Balantina, and he waltzed to the $18,974 grand prize by a margin of $36.00 over runner up Ronald Tang. Not only did Cupples’s score of $123.00 exceed that of BC Pick & Pray Tourney Day 1 leader Matthew Walsh by $28.40, that $123.00 tally would have tied Cupples for 11th in the overall standings of the BC Pick & Pray Tourney…even if he hadn’t made a single collection in the 12 Saturday races! However, if you scroll back up, you’ll note that Cupples DID play in Saturday’s $75,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which was won by Jay Johns. In that tourney, Cupples finished 10th with a score of $72.20. Easy to say after the fact, and who knows, in hindsight, if things would have played out the same way…but combining Cupples’s two scores of $123.00 and $72.20 would have given him $195.20—$32.40 more than the two-day total amassed on the same races by Earl Pratt.

Moving on to Sunday…with the 2025 BCBC in the books, both featured tourneys at HorsePlayers focused on the NHC.

Tom Troeller picked 3 winners, including Laurel cap horse Sporting Lady and Gulfstream 14-1 shot Just a Photo to capture Sunday’s $210 qualifier, which was restricted to those who had yet to earn a 2026 seat.

Jose Cortez (2 wins, 0 places) and Steve Crocker (4W, 0P) both came up with Sporting Lady.

They got the seats in Sunday’s open, $165 qualifier at HorsePlayers. (The other winner for Cortez was Just a Photo.)

Thanks to all of you for making Breeders’ Cup Week—and our first BC Pick & Pray Tourney—a lot of fun. Again, we’ll be back on Thursday with a profile of $138,272 winner Earl Pratt.