Unburdened from having to watch any more Las Vegas Raiders games for a while, Evan Trommer was able to devote his full attention to horse racing last weekend. As is often the case, that boded poorly for his tourney opponents.

On a Pick & Pray Saturday, Trommer came up with three small winners and three placings. His final score was $55.00. That did the trick, however, in two tourneys.

Trommer picked up a $3,500 entry in Saturday’s Pegasus World Cup Betting Challenge qualifier and a $1,000 scholarship in the same day’s play-in to the High Rollers Handicapping Contest at Tampa Bay Downs. His top return along the way was Thunderously ($9.60, $5.40) in the 8th at Gulfstream.

Sunday brought Trommer two more tournament entries including another one to the Tampa test on Feb. 20-21.

The other Sunday tally was Trommer’s richest of the week, a triumph in Sunday’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier at Horse Players. This time around, Trommer didn’t lean on “short shots”. In the very first contest race, the 7th at Gulfstream, he struck with Valid Sense ($41.60, $12.00). That was one of five winners he sniffed out during the day.

Igor Mirambeau was another who has a nice two-day success story, although he got his started 24 hours earlier than Trommer.

Mirambeau (2 firsts, 3 seconds) pocketed the $9,772 grand prize in Friday’s HT Tour battle, our $15,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which closed with a final purse of $21,716. In what was something of a tourney oddity, his two best returns came via capped $22.00 place collections on a pair of runner ups—Spearfish (off odds of 25-1) in the 2nd at Santa Anita and Viva Vienne (26-1) in the final contest race, the 10th at Gulfstream.

The next day, Mirambeau reinvested some of his profits in Saturday’s Pegasus World Cup Betting Championship qualifier. Shrewd investment!

Mirambeau put up 5 wins and a place here to claim the $6,500 package. On a day without any really big prices, Mirambeau had the biggest—Souper Zonda ($14.80, $7.40) in the 11th at Gulfstream. (Though you probably already knew it was at Gulfstream when you saw “Souper”.) Phil Matzat (1P, followed by 5W) also backed Super Zonda, and he earned the other available Pegasus package for reporting home in second place.

The very busy featured-tourney week (40 events) got started on Wednesday.

The 2022 NHC Tour champ Jay Johns got the up-top money of $2,830 in Friday’s $5,000 Guaranteed cash tourney, which closed with a pot of $6,290. Johns recorded 4 winners—including Mo Says ($18.60, $6.40) in the 7th at Parx—plus 1 runner up.

Jimmy Rhodes (4 wins, 1 place) was the top scholar in Wednesday’s qualifier to the $200,000 Gtd. Flo-Cal Faceoff here on January 31-Feb. 1. 

The Salutatorian here was Basil DeVito (3W, 1P). He and Rhodes both received $1,500 entries—and both hit Mo Says. 

For Craig Amundson, the big horse on Wednesday was Six Fortyfive ($15.40, $6.40) in race 7 at Tampa.

Amundson reeled in the $500 entry in Wednesday’s qualifier to the Feb. 14 Laurel Handicapping Challenge. 

There was a Laurel qualifier on Thursday as well, and it went to Kevin Engelhard (2 firsts, 2 seconds). 

Engelhard managed to come up with the day’s big bomb—Ifyousaidso ($76.60, $23.00) in race 10 at Gulfstream.

Tim Downs (3 wins, 1 place), Michael Capos (3W, 1P) and John Gaspar (2W, 2P) were the three $1,500 seat recipients in Thursday’s Flo-Cal Faceoff qualifier. 

The top two scored big with Ifyousaidso. Gaspar’s top return came courtesy of Green Zone ($28.40, $10.40) in the first contest race, the opener at Santa Anita. Downs had that one as well.

Green Zone was the star of the day among those in Kevin Walsh’s stable.

Walsh (5 firsts, 2 seconds) collected the $4,261 grand prize in Thursday’s $6,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which paid out a total of $9,470.

On Friday, we hosted our first qualifier of the week to the January 24 Houston Betting Championship at Sam Houston. The $1,500 seat winners in this one were Gary Lee Russell (5 wins, 2 places) and Craig White (4W, 2P).

Russell finished strong with three consecutive winners at the end, He and White each profited most from Mi Triguera ($13.60, $5.40) in the 7th at Gulfstream.

Michael Foster had a day similar to that of Russell. Foster came up with Mi Triguera and, later, the final three contest-race winners.

Foster took home the $1,000 entry in Friday’s qualifier to the February 7 Lone Star Simulcast Betting Challenge.

For both John Vail (4 wins, 2 places) and David Nelson (4W, 1P), the top return on Friday came from Bad Gal Party ($12.60, $6.80) in race 9 at Gulfstream.

Vail and Nelson came away with the $1,000 berths in Friday’s play-in to the High Rollers Handicapping Contest at Tampa Bay Downs. 

On Sunday, Nelson registered another victory. It came in that day’s Houston Betting Championship qualifier.

Nelson’s heavy lifter among 2 winners and 3 runners up was Majestic Palisades ($36.20, $10.20) in race 2 at Santa Anita.

Getting back to Friday action, Cal “Frontier” Jestice (4 firsts, 1 second) led the way in our Keeneland Grade One Gamble qualifier. 

Jestice’s most lucrative selection was Crazy Cavalier ($13.20, $7.80) in the 2nd at Santa Anita.

There were three winners in Friday’s Flo-Cal Faceoff qualifier.

Congratulations to Jason Albano (5 wins, 2 places), last year’s HT Tour champ Eric “Skeet” Boyd (2W, 2P) and, via tiebreaker, Larry Smitley (4W, 2P). Albano’s best return came with Bad Gal Party. Boyd did best with the $22.00 place return supplied by 25-1 runner up Spearfish in the 2nd at Santa Anita. White swept the final three races to finish tied with Jim Cuzzupe, and then won the tiebreaker by having four winners to Cuzzupe’s three.

At least there was some consolation for Cuzzupe on Friday.

His $70.00 score—built on 3 winners and 2 runners up that included Spearfish—held up for the “W” in Friday’s Laurel Handicapping Challenge qualifier. 

Our 2021 Flo-Cal Faceoff champion Alan Levitt earned the $10,000 berth in Friday’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier.

Levitt’s 4 winners were topped by Crazy Cavalier. Finishing second to Levitt was Thomas Mayberry, who got a $5,000 partial BCBC entry for his efforts.

Friday’s $75 NHC qualifier was well attended as usual. In fact, there were enough entries attracted for three Vegas packages to be awarded.

They went to Juliana Bargfeldt (7 wins, 0 places), Dan Horvat (5W, 1P) and Kyle White (3W, 3P). Emblematic of the day, they each had a different horse serve as their top scoring contributor. For Bargfeldt, it was Mi Triguera, who was one of three straight winners for her at the start. Horvat scored with Crazy Cavalier. White would have liked Spearfish to win, but things worked out just fine with that one running second.

On Saturday, another four players earned $1,500 berths in the $200,000 Gtd. Flo-Cal Faceoff. 

They were Tim Moline (6 wins, 2 places), Matthew Trommer (6W, 3P), Wendy Long (3W, 6P) and Tory Cameron. Moline and Trommer both had Thunderously ($9.60, $5.40) in the 8th at Gulfstream. Cameron scored best with The Palace Girl ($12.60, $7.00) in the 10th at Tampa. No offense to the three of them, but Long had the most fascinating scorecard amongst the top four. She began the day with six consecutive runners up. One can forgive her if she cursed her “rotten luck” halfway through the day. As HT President McKay Smith is fond of saying from time to time, “Place is your friend.” If it was ever going to be your friend, it’s on a day like Saturday when the highest-priced winner went off at 6-1.

Thanks to The Palace Girl, Matthew Trommer was able to up his game in our first qualifier to the Feb. 28 Fountain of Youth Challenge.

Trommer hit the first three winners and the final three winners as part of a 7-win, 1-place performance that got him the $1,500 seat.

Souper Zonda ($14.80, $7.40 in the 11th at Gulfstream) was Joe Aurello’s springboard to Saturday success.

Aurello (4 wins, 2 places) got the $500 entry in Saturday’s Laurel Handicapping Challenge qualifier.

The richest tourney of the week was Saturday’s $25,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray (an HT Tour event), which closed with a final prize pool of $34,032.

The winner’s share of $15,314 went to Craig “Home Sweet” Hom, who counted Souper Zonda among his 3 firsts and 3 seconds on the day.

Matthew Blanchet (3 wins, 5 places) and Dave Ramold (3W, 1P) both connected with Super Zonda.

They came away with the $1,500 entries at the conclusion of Saturday’s qualifier to the Houston Betting Championship.

We mentioned earlier that Phil Matzat got a $6,500 Pegasus World Cup Betting Championship package on Saturday for besting all except Igor Mirambeau. 

Matzat used the same Super Zonda-infused picks to also win a Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge seat in Saturday’s $179 Pick & Pray qualifier at HorsePlayers. That made Saturday a $16,500 day for Matzat. 

Saturday was a $3,562 day for Joel Wincowski (6 wins, 1 place).

He defeated four rivals in Saturday’s $5,088 Big Bucks Pick & Pray. His most productive pick among the seven collections was Phoenix of Wit ($8.00, $5.40) in the 8th at Tampa.

Steve “The Admiral” Nemetz (4 wins, 3 places) and Dave Cichy (5W, 2P) grabbed NHC entries in Saturday’s $165 Pick & Pray at HorsePlayers.

Nemetz hit Thunderously. Souper Zonda was the apple of Cichy’s eye.

On Sunday, the horse you really wanted to have came in the very first contest race—Valid Sense ($41.60, $12.00) in the 7th at Gulfstream. John Standiford (5 wins, 3 places) and Greg Monaldi (4W, 1P) both had that one.

Standiford and Monaldi came away with the Vegas packages in Sunday’s open, $165 NHC Pick & Pray here at HorseTourneys. 

There was and NHC qualifier on Sunday at HorsePlayers. It was a $500, Low Ratio affair that was restricted to those who had yet to safeguard a 2026 berth.

The victor was Joshua Isner (2 wins, 1 place). Isner hit Valid Sense at the beginning, but he needed Watsonville ($11.40, $7.40) in the 6th at Santa Anita at the end to prevail.

(Brief aside: Watsonville is a city about 90 miles south of San Francisco. It is one of California’s most prolific producers of avocados. It was also one of the cities most heavily damaged during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, whose effects spread well beyond San Francisco. An estimated one in eight homes were destroyed in Watsonville.)

Sunday was a very nice day for Michael McGee. Valid Sense was the only winner he picked in the day’s Laurel Handicapping Challenge qualifier, but he held on for the victory.

McGee held on over fellow $500 entry winner James Michael (4 wins, 2 places), who finished fast with three straight winners, including Watsonville.

In Sunday’s Flo-Cal Faceoff qualifer, McGee picked Valid Sense plus three additional winners, and he improved his score by $56.40 to a day-best $130.20.

McGee (4 wins, 0 places) led a group of four $1,500 seat winners that also Joseph Foulke (4W, 1P), 2023 HT Tour champion Ed Peters (3W, 2P) and John Gaspar (3W, 2P). Foulke and Gaspar also cheered on Valid Sense. The best return for Peters came from Majestic Palisades ($36.20, $10.20) in the 2nd at Santa Anita.

Jim Clark (3 wins, 2 places) was a Valid Sense fan.

Clark bagged $12,800 for capturing Sunday’s HT Tour event, our $20,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which closed with a final pot of an even $28,000.

Last year’s New York, New York Challenge winner Anthony “ATM” Mattera (2 wins, 3 places) and NHC Hall of Famer Brett Wiener (1W, 5P) both thought Valid Sense made sense.

They will both be in action less than two weeks from now after running one-two in Sunday’s Pegasus World Cup Betting Championship qualifier.

Last week, we offered our first five qualifiers (one per day from Wednesday through Sunday) for the NHC Last Chance/First Chance Tournament on NHC Eve at Horseshoe Las Vegas. A total of 59 entries (at the updated value of $600 per entry) were won. They went to Matthew Blanchet, Jay Johns, Jim Murphy (3 seats), George Decayanan, Kirk Rockwell, Tyler Smith, George Novice, Todd Faro (2 seats), Kevin Engelhard, Nathan Woodward (2 seats), Cal Jestice (3 seats), Kyle Morelli, Rafael Lopez, Carolyn Jack, Judy Wagner (2 seats), John Gaspar (2 seats), Matthew Walsh, Karen Richards, Ellen Patrick-Leavell, Jason Albano, Shawn Turner, Jim Cuzzupe, Jason Phillips, Samuel Robertson, Terrence Frank, Bronson Cambra, Kirk Rockwell, Wayne Eigelbach, Wendy Long, Ed Claunch, Matthew Thomas, David Pyrz, Noel Pink, Chris Weikel, Scott Cavalieri, Stephen Diaz, Brandon Leigh, Dave Smyth, Michael McGee, Brett Wiener (3 seats), Evan Trommer, Jeff VanDrie, G.T. Nixon, Daven Turner, Jose Cortez, Marilynn Gallagher, David Nelson, Mike Steindler and Nick Fazzolari.

Meanwhile, the Gulfstream Super Survivor tourney is now down to seven entries (and five people since Henry Korenvaes and Eileen “I’ll be” Brief have two live entries each).

They are vying for a winner-take-all prize of $3,784. Play resumes Thursday. A resolution may be near.

We hope you haven’t broken too many of your New Year’s resolutions yet. If your resolution was to win a HorseTourneys featured event in 2026, and you haven’t done so yet, your next chance comes on Wednesday. Good luck!