They don’t call Joe Scanio “Tex” for nothing. It’s time for the Brooklynite to once again dust off his 10-gallon hat, get out his cowboy boots and polish his big belt buckle…because he’s headed back to the Lone Star State.

On Saturday, Scanio scored with Its Satisfactual ($34.40, $13.60) in the 9th at Tampa Bay Downs plus one other winner and four runners up. He and second-place finisher Gregory Lewis each picked up $1,500 entries in the day’s qualifier to the January 24 Houston Betting Championship.

Of course, Scanio has been to Texas enough times to know that they do everything in a big way down there. Wouldn’t it be more appropriate to show up at the Houston Betting Championship with more than just one measly entry? As famous Texas “Stone Cold” Steve Austin would say, “Hell yeah!”

It only took Scanio 24 hours to achieve that feat. On Sunday, a chalky day, he recorded 6 winners that included the day’s biggest win price—Manitowish ($12.00, $4.20) in race 2 at Los Alamitos.

Scanio wasn’t the only one who took his Saturday success right on in to Sunday.

Last week, we offered our first qualifiers to the 7th annual Flo-Cal Faceoff, a $200,000 Guaranteed tourney taking place here on January 31-February 1. Saturday’s play-in to the all-Gulfstream/Santa Anita test was won by Steven Meier, who counted Its Satisfactual among his 4 winners and 1 runner up. There were enough entries for two $1,500 berths to be awarded, and that second one went to fellow Its Satisfactual supporter Michael “Copa” Kavana (2 wins, 2 places).

On Sunday, Havana added a $1,500 Santa Anita Opening Day Challenge entry to his future-contest portfolio.

This time, Kavana (3 wins, 4 places) took a backseat to no one, defeating fellow seat winner G.T. Nixon (2W, 3P), They both cheered on the victory at Los Alamitos by Manitowish.

A Santa Anita Opening Day Challenge qualifier also helped the featured-tourney week get underway on Wednesday.

Ernest “Say” Hey Jr. came away with the December 26th entry in this one. His 3 winners were highlighted by Parx race 7 dead-heat co-victor Mildoon ($20.60, $22.40).

Mark Aylward (5 firsts, 1 second) was the Wednesday cash-game star.

Aylward hit Aqueduct race 7 closer Braciole ($20.62, $9.70) en route to a victory worth $2,986 in Wednesday’s $5,000 Guaranteed tourney, which closed with a final purse of $6,636.

Thursday’s lone marquee game was our $6,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which wound up with a pot of $8,018.

The winner of the $3,608 first prize—by a margin of $1.28—was 2013 Horse Players World Series champion James Henry (5 wins, 2 places). His best hit was Neom City ($29.00, $13.60) in the 7th at Gulfstream.

That $1.28 difference looked quite bulky in comparison to the one in Friday’s HT Tour event, our $15,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray.

Recent HT Champions Series winner and 2024 NHC champ Mike Gillum caught a $6.40 place mutuel on the runner up in the final contest race, the 4th at Los Alamitos. That got him up and over the previous leader, 2023 Flo-Cal Faceoff winner David Wolff by a mere six cents. That nickel-and-penny difference meant $8,753 to Gillum and $3,501 to Wolff in this game that paid out a total of $19,451.

Here’s a shot of Gillum taken seconds after squeaking out the win over Wolff:

There were three winners on Friday in what was our first qualifier to the 2026 Flo-Cal Faceoff.

Congratulations to Stephan Gravina (5 wins, 0 places), David Barnier (2W, 2P) and Jeff Higgins (2W, 3P). All three had Best Impression ($17.26, $9.28) in race 6 at Aqueduct.

NHC Hall of Famer Dennis DeCauwer (4 wins, 1 place) and Kevin Lux (5W, 1P) also shared an appreciation of Best Impression.

DeCauwer and Lux came away with the $1,500 berths in Friday’s qualifier to the Santa Anita Opening Day Challenge.

Best Impression was one of 4 winners and 2 runners up booked by Kenny McMahan (4 wins, 2 places) on Friday.

McMahan exited with the $10,000 seat at the conclusion of Friday’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier at HorsePlayers. Adam Murray finished in second place—which was good for a $5,000 partial BCBC entry.

David Brownfield topped the leaderboard in Friday’s $75 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers. However, Brownfield was already double-qualified.

That left the two available Vegas packages to Ellen Patrick-Leavell (3 wins, 1 place) and Paul Parker (also 3W, 1P). Patrick-Leavell had Best Impression. Parker’s most productive choice was Abeliefinthislivin ($16.60, $6.80) in race 8 at Tampa. Patrick-Leavell hit that one as well.

Saturday was a big day for Vineet Sharma (3 firsts, 3 seconds).

Sharma’s selections included Its Satisfactual ($34.40, $13.60) in the 9th at Tampa, and he pocketed the $11,919 grand prize in our richest tourney of the week, Saturday’s $25,000 Guaranteed cash game (an HT Tour battle), which closed with a final prize pool of $26,488.

That game and Saturday’s Pegasus World Cup Betting Championship qualifier were both Live-format tourneys—but Sharma played them as though they were Pick & Prays.

Using the same picks, Sharma showed the way in this one too. Finishing closest to Sharma was fellow Its Satisfactual backer Derek Isenberg (5 wins, 1 place). He also got a $6,500 Pegasus package for his performance.

Peter Rinato (2 wins, 1 place) and the previous weekend’s Pick & Pray Classic champion Lawrence Kahlden (2W, 3P) each grabbed $1,500 seats in Saturday’s Santa Anita Opening Day Challenge play-in.

Rinato celebrated the victory by Its Satisfactual. Kahlden’s most lucrative selection was Petite Treat ($13.20, $5.20) in the 4th at Los Alamitos.

Its Satisfactual had Howard Welsh singing Zippity-Do-Dah.

Welsh (2 wins, 1 place) did all of his scoring in the second half of Saturday’s $7,124 Big Bucks Pick & Pray, and he collected the up-top money of $4,986.

It was a busy Saturday at HorsePlayers with three featured events.

Kirby “Feeling no” Pain put up the highest score of the day, $120.68, in taking Saturday’s one-seat, 49-entry NHC qualifier—a $210 buy-in competition that was restricted to those who had yet to secure a 2026 seat. Its Satisfactual contributed most significantly to his gaudy final tally.

Saturday’s open NHC qualifier also cost $210 to enter. It attracted 58 entrants (including some double-qualified players) and offered two guaranteed seats.

Bradley Weisbord finished first thanks to 6 wins and 2 places. His best return came with Downtown Connector, who provided a $17.60 place payoff after coming in second in the 8th at Tampa. For the second consecutive day, the double-qualified David Brownfield picked up some NHC Tour points. He finished second here. That meant that the other available berth went to third-place finisher Rick Bengson. Its Satisfactual was one of Bengson’s three winners.

Thomas Michael Abinanti (2 firsts, 3 seconds) won the coveted $10,000 entry in Saturday’s $179 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge qualifier at HorsePlayers.

It’s true…it’s factual. Abinanti had Its Satisfactual. (Sorry. I held off as long as I could with that one.)

The 2024 Flo-Cal Faceoff champion will be back in the 2026 field.

That’s Michael Solakis, who won $168,405 in the Flo-Cal nearly two years ago. On Sunday, he hit the biggest win price of the day with Manitowish ($12.00, $4.20) in race 2 at Los Alamitos, then went out to sweep the final four races to complete a 6-win, 2-place day and capture the $1,500 seat.

Manitowish was one of seven Sunday winners that Peter Rogers came up with.

The high strike rate brought Rogers a reward of $9,253 in Sunday’s HT Tour get together, our $20,000 Guaranteed cash game.

Thomas Mayberry didn’t pick seven winners…but he managed to smoke out six.

Mayberry reeled in the Vegas spot in Sunday’s NHC Low Ratio qualifier at HorsePlayers. His big horse was Fantastic Flame ($11.20, $6.20) in race 8 at Gulfstream.

The two players who eclipsed the $60.00 mark were the two to land NHC seats in Sunday’s $165 Pick & Pray qualifier here at HorseTourneys.

Congrats to T.J. Sonde (5 wins, 3 places) and Steve Arrison (5W, 3P). Sonde nailed Fantastic Flame. Arrison’s heaviest lifter was Manitowish.

Fantastic Flame helped light up Steven Culhane’s life on Sunday.

The Gulfstream race 8 victor was one of 6 winners on the day for Culhane, who also added 3 runners up in the course of capturing Sunday’s Breeders’ Cup Low Ratio qualifier at HorsePlayers.

During the week ahead, Florida racing will take center stage around here while New York and California take a brief hiatus for the holidays. Our featured-tourney schedule will resume as usual on Wednesday, while NHC and BCBC qualifiers, plus our bigger cash games get rolling on Friday. Also remember that the upcoming weekend will be your final one in which to qualify for the Santa Anita Opening Day Challenge.

Until then, good luck!