Unlike most people, Lucas Van Zandt found that the truly super day last week was Saturday. 

It wasn’t a terrific day for scoring. The total for Van Zandt, our 2023 Players Championship winner, was $68.20. He did have the day’s biggest price in Neshume ($18.20, $7.20), who took the 8th at Tampa, but he was not the day’s top scorer. Nevertheless, the day turned into a potential “year-maker” for him.

The Nutmeg State resident bagged $14,762 for capturing our richest tourney of the week, Saturday’s $25,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray (an HT Tour battle), which closed with a final overall purse of $32,806.

Even better for Van Zandt, he played those same selections four other places.

Two of those four other attempts resulted in victories in Keeneland Grade One Gamble and Tampa High Rollers Handicapping Contest qualifiers.

He also set himself up for a possible second Players Championship triumph.

Joining him in that $200,000 Guaranteed event here on Friday and Saturday, April 3 and 4 will be runner up Schuyler Wiggin, whose 3 wins and 3 places were highlighted by Three Georges ($12.00, $6.40) in race 2 at Santa Anita.

Van Zandt also gained himself a second entry for next month’s NHC.

So did Steve “The Admiral” Nemetz (2 firsts, 3 seconds). The best return of the day for Nemetz was a max $22.00 place collection supplied by Wayne’s Law, the 48-1 runner up to Renegade in the Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa.

Add it all up and Van Zandt grossed $20,762 in cash and prizes plus an NHC seat to boot. Super, indeed.

The biggest longshot winner of last week happened on the first day of the featured-tourney week, Wednesday, when Atmospheric River ($30.40, $9.00) prevailed in race 4 at Turf Paradise. Charles Bryan had it.

Atmospheric River was the last of four straight winners rattled off by Bryan, who had one other victor as well. Bryan scooped up the winner’s share of $3,421 in Wednesday’s $5,000 Guaranteed cash game, which closed with a pot of $7,603.

The 2025 HT Tour champ Dave “Gambling Actuary” Nichols and “Pistol” Pete Acocella both nailed Atmospheric River.

Nichols (3 wins, 2 places) and Acocella (2W, 2P) got the $500 entries in Wednesday’s qualifier to this Saturday’s Last Chance-First Chance Contest, hosted by Laurel Park.

On Thursday, it was Matt “The Fly” Tietze (5 wins, 1 place) and Julie Loboyko (also 5W, 1P), who came away with Laurel berths.

The best pick for both was Chaos Agent ($24.20, $7.60) in race 8 at Gulfstream.

Zach Hinkle’s big horse on Thursday was Cox Canyon ($18.20, $8.20) in the 7th at Tampa.

Hinkle (4 firsts, 2 seconds) got the up-top money of $4,261 in Thursday’s $6,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which was ultimately worth a total of $9,470.

On Friday, we offered our first qualifier to the second leg of the 2026 HT Champions Series—the $200,000 Gtd. Players Championship, which will take place on Friday and Saturday, April 3-4.

The first three players to land spots in the “PC” were “The Commissioner” Tim Smith (5 wins, 1 place), “Pistol” Pete Acocella (3W, 1P) and Linda Rodriguez (5W, 0P). All three prospered with Withers Stakes winner Talk to Me Jimmy ($26.54, $9.44) at Aqueduct.

The biggest price of the day on Friday was Split Strike ($28.40, $10.00) in the 9th at Gulfstream. That one didn’t elude the detection of Jim Cuzzupe (5 firsts, 2 seconds). 

Appropriately, Cuzzupe also hit Talk to Me Jimmy. Cuzzupe reigned supreme in Friday’s HT Tour test, our $15,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray. He pocketed $9,996 in a game that closed with a prize pool of $22,213.

That’s not all Cuzzupe won. Tell him, Johnny Olson!

He also picked up a $1,500 entry for playing the same picks back in Friday’s Pick & Pray qualifier to the Xpressbet Fountain of Youth Challenge on February 28.

Talk to Me Jimmy also appeared on the scorecards of Michael Reynolds (2 wins, 3 places) and William McMillan (also 2W, 3P).

Reynolds and McMillian will square off again this Saturday in Laurel’s Last Chance-First Chance get together.

Talk to Me Jimmy spoke to Mike “The Coach” Goodrich.

Goodrich (3 winners and 2 double-digit place collections) secured himself a $3,500 place in the April 11 Keeneland Grade One Gamble.

David Brownfield (2 wins, 3 places) and NHC Hall of Famer Brett Wiener (3W, 0P) snagged the $1,000 seats in Friday’s qualifier to the High Rollers Handicapping Contest at Tampa Bay Downs on February 20-21.

Brownfield hit Talk to Me Jimmy ,while Wiener’s stable star was Split Strike.

Over at HorsePlayers, Tim Kindlon (2 firsts, 1 second) put the wood to his opponents in Friday’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier.

Kindlon had Talk to Me Jimmy plus one other winner and one runner up.

In Friday’s $75 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers, the first- and third-place finishers were Louis Masry and Dylan Donnelly, respectively. That pair, however, was already double-qualified and, thus, playing strictly for NHC Tour points.

That left the Vegas packages to the 2nd- and 4th-place finishers—Timothy Clark (4 wins, 1 place) and Shilo Merwitz (4W, 3P). Clark smoked out three different horses that paid $25.00+ in the win hole.

On Saturday, there were actually a few tourneys that Lucas Van Zandt didn’t win.

One of them was our 47,124 Big Bucks Pick & Pray. Brett Wiener got the top spot—and the $4,986 that went with it—in that one. Neshume was Wiener’s only winner of the day, but he supplemented that lone victor with six (count ‘em, six!) place collections.

Neshume was a part of Wendy Long’s 5-win, 2-place Saturday.

Long secured a low-cost Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge seat in Saturday’s $179 qualifier to the big tournament in October.

Lynn “Amazing” Grace (5 wins, 3 places) punched her ticket to Vegas in a Low Ratio NHC qualifier that was restricted to those who had yet to nail down a 2026 seat.

Grace’s most productive pick was Concrete Glory ($14.40, $7.00) in race 10 at Tampa.

Three players got themselves some paid-up action for the following Saturday.

Robert Diamond (3 wins, 2 places), Sean O’Malley (2W, 2P) and Kirk Rockwell (5W, 2P) all got $500 seats for running one-two-three in Saturday’s Laurel “Last Chance-First Chance” qualifier. Diamond supported Concrete Glory. O’Malley backed Neshume. The top winner for Rockwell, meanwhile, paid $7.40, and it came in the final contest race.

Edward Enborg (3 firsts, 2 seconds) grabbed the $1,500 entry in Saturday’s play-in to the Xpressbet Fountain of Youth Challenge.

Enborg profited from Neshume plus 2 other winners and 2 runners up.

The good times kept rolling for Enborg on Sunday.

On this day it was a $2,000 Players Championship seat that Enborg (4 wins, 3 places) won. He got it for finishing second to David Lupo (6W, 3P). The heaviest lifter for both Lupo and Enborg was Tatsalrightmama ($11.40, $5.00) in race 6 at Santa Anita.

Thatsalrightmama helped make Steven Simonovic the king of Sunday’s NHC Low Ratio qualifier at HorsePlayers. 

Simonovic made collections in each of the final four contest races. He finished the day with 5 wins and 2 places in all.

Last week, blog readers learned that John Fasola was instrumental in convincing eventual winner Tory Cameron to play more aggressively in the Flo-Cal Faceoff. On Super Bowl Sunday, we were reminded that Fasola is able to practice what he preaches.

Fasola put up 4 wins and 3 places en route to taking the $13,978 first prize in Sunday’s HT Tour competition, our $20,000 Pick & Pray, which closed its doors with $31,062 in the kitty. His highest return came with Atmidnight ($14.40, $7.00) in the 10th at Tampa. Before Fasola could declare victory, however, he needed to score with Yellow Card ($8.40, $3.60) in the final contest heat, the 7th at Santa Anita.

Sunday was doubly nice for Dr. Ronald Tang.

Tang received seats totaling $11,500 in value for his victories in both the Xpressbet Fountain of Youth Challenge and (at HorsePlayers) the Breeders’ Cup Low Ratio qualifiers. His best return of the day came from First Call Bob ($11.40, $5.40) in race 7 at Gulfstream.

Cal “Frontier” Jestice (6 wins, 1 place) and Mark Rudy (5W, 4P) accounted for the two available seats in Sunday’s High Rollers Handicapping Contest (Tampa) qualifier.

Jestice’s top hit was Atmidnight. Rudy’s came at about 4:00 p.m. ET with Thatsalrightmama.

Another Atmidnight fan was Thomas Labordo.

Labordo (3 firsts, 4 seconds) took home the $3,500 entry after capturing Sunday’s Keeneland Grade One Gamble qualifier.

Aaron Bernstein (7 wins, 1 place) and Patrick “Moral” Compas (6W, 2P) added their names to the roster of participants for the upcoming NHC.

They were both among the many Sunday winners who rooted home Atmidnight.

Four players picked up $500 entries on Sunday for this Saturday’s Last Chance-First Chance contest, hosted by Laurel Park.

The successful quartet was comprised of Joe “Tex” Scanio (6 wins, 2 places), Dr. Patrick Grippo (6W, 3P), John Gaspar (5W, 3P) and Michael Guadagno (3W, 4P). The highest yielder for Scanio was Atmidnight. Grippo was partial to Nantasket Beach ($12.60, $6.20) in the 6th at Gulfstream. Gaspar’s top gun was First Call Bob. Guadagno joined Grippo in having Nantasket Beach as his parimutuel highlight of the day.

A total of 41 entries (valued at $600 each) were awarded last week in multi-track qualifiers to the NHC Last Chance/First Chance tournament on NHC Eve in Las Vegas. They went to: Kevin Okerson (2 seats), Christopher Olsson, Joseph Rumfolo, Sean O’Malley, Patrick Grippo (2 seats), Nick Noce, David Nabutovsky. Julie Loboyko, Mark Stovall, Angelo Partipelo, Cal Jestice, R. Paul Capone, William Claunch, Dan Brockman, Brett Wiener, Evan Trommer, Greg Knepper, Howard Johnson, Gregg Kingma (2 seats), David May, Jack Schwartz, Brian Kubik, Dave Chenvert, Britton Smith, Kyle White, Mike Klodnicki, Chris Inman, Matthew Ache, Casey Dixon, William Gumm, Mark Rudy, Brandon Leigh, Scott Prestridge, Terry Jerge, Michael Guadagno, Eric Gielata, Joseph Vida and Terry Bollom.

Before we depart, we want to offer belated congratulations to Paul McClelland and William “The Explorer” Clark, who wound up splitting the $3,784 winner-take-all prize after they were both eliminated from our Gulfstream Super Survivor tourney on January 30. 

ALERT: The Gulfstream Championship meet is long enough for us to offer a second Gulfstream Super Survivor tourney this meet. We’ll call it GP Super Survivor II. That next one closes this Thursday, February 12. 

Good luck to all who attempt to survive and advance!