There were a lot of very large parimutuel payoffs in our contests last week—particularly on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. Had it been a Pick & Pray weekend, you might have seen several people win a whole bunch of tourneys on Saturday and Sunday. Almost all of the Saturday and Sunday features, however, were conducted in Live format—and the only player to win as many as two grand prizes all week long was Scott Pulcini, who made a twin killing on Saturday.

Key to Pulcini’s success was his selection of Sanzio ($71.42, $19.82) in race 7 at Aqueduct. That hit plus two other winners and two runners up delivered Pulcini a windfall of $16,050 in our richest cash game of the week, Saturday’s $25,000 Guaranteed tourney (an HT Tour event), which closed with a final purse of $35,667. 

Pulcini didn’t play the exact same picks in Saturday’s NHC Low Ratio qualifier at HorsePlayers, but he used Sanzio again so…close enough!

Also gaining a late Vegas seat in this one was runner up Seth Morris (3 wins, 1 place).  Morris was another who scored big with Sanzio, but the difference in him winning the NHC spot came down to him having Commandment in the final contest race, the Fountain of Youth Stakes. That narrow victory by Commandment edged Morris past an unfortunate Daniel Wolf, who had the also-highly-impressive Chief Wallabee in the race.

The first of many big prices during the featured-tourney week came in the very first contest race of the featured-tourney week. (A harbinger, perhaps?) It was Bonita Breeze ($54.80, $18.20) in race 7 at Tampa Bay Downs. 

Bonita Breeze was one of two Pick & Pray winners unearthed by 2024 Pick & Pray Classic champion Mark Stillmock—who snagged the $2,000 seat in Wednesday’s qualifier to the $200,000 Gtd. Players Championship here on Friday and Saturday, April 3-4.

Wednesday’s cash feature went to Michael Herrington on the strength of 3 firsts and 4 seconds.

One of those firsts was Bonita Breeze in the first (contest race). Herrington pocketed $2,644 in Wednesday’s $5,000 Guaranteed cash tourney, which closed its doors with $5,875 in the kitty.

The marquee cash game on Thursday, our $6,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, was captured by Peter Osella (4 wins, 2 places).

The star of Osella’s Thursday stable was East Jabip ($20.40, $12,80) in race 8 at Gulfstream. Osella took home a winner’s share of $3,981 in a game that was ultimately worth a total of $8,848.

Another East Jabip fan was 2019 NHC champ Scott Coles.

Coles (4 firsts, 1 second) won a seat on Thursday to his favorite tournament—the NHC—in Thursday’s $125 Pick & Pray at HorsePlayers.

East Jabip was part of a 3-win, 3-place day for John Schimpf.

Schimpf picked up a $2,000 entry on Thursday to Leg 2 of the 2026 HT Champions Series—the $200,000 Gtd. Players Championship.

Friday’s Players Championship qualifier saw NHC Hall of Famer Steve Wolfson Jr. and 2023 Players Championship victor Lucas Van Zandt garner $2,000 berths.

Wolfson, the 2003 NHC champ, recorded 4 wins and 1 place. His best pick was Wicked Finn ($19.20, $12.20) in Friday’s first contest heat, race 7 at Gulfstream. Van Zandt (2W, 1P) supported Wicked Finn as well.

Wicked Finn was on the scoresheet of all of Friday’s grand-prize winners. One of those was Jim “Never” Settle.

Fresh off a three-win day the previous week, Settle nailed 3 double-digit winners and 1 double-digit runner up en route to collecting the up-top money of $9,921 in Friday’s HT Tour battle, our $15,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray. The final prize pool in this one amounted to $22,048.

Wicked Finn was one of five Friday winners smoked out by Jonathan “Kentucky” Oaks.

Oaks made off with the rich, $10,000 seat in Friday’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier at HorsePlayers.

The other Friday feature at HorsePlayers was a $75 NHC qualifier. Since the 2025 NHC Tour year is now over (Congratulations, Dave “Gambling Actuary” Nichols!), and NHC Tour Points are not part of the equation for now, one seat was guaranteed rather than the customary two.

That one seat went to David Chong Ng, who booked 3 winners and 1 runner up.

Suresh Bomman also posted 3 firsts and 1 second.

He got the $2,000 entry in Friday’s Monmouth Pick Your Prize Challenge qualifier. 

Rick Vasquez did David Chong Ng and Suresh Bomman one better.

Four wins and one place added up to a $3,500 Keeneland Grade One Gamble seat for Vasquez on Friday.

On Friday, it was revealed that Ken Seeman would be one of four inductees (along with Kevin Engelhard, Mike Ferrozzo and Chris Littlemore) into the NHC Hall of Fame later this month. Perhaps still basking in the afterglow of that announcement, Seeman came back on Saturday to take our Monmouth Pick Your Prize qualifier, thanks to three winners.

Seeman’s biggest return—$29.00 to win and $14.20 to place—came in the 10th at Gulfstream. The name of the horse? Just Basking.

If there were a “Big Bucks Hall of Fame”, Howard Welsh would probably be in it.

Welsh (4 wins, 1 place) picked Just Basking on the way to grabbing the $5,699 top prize in Saturday’s $8,142 Big Bucks Pick & Pray.

Shad Walton (4 wins, 0 places) and Sean O’Malley (2W, 0P) each basked in delight after having selected Just Basking.

Walton and O’Malley will square off again next month—with paid-up $3,500 entries— in the Keeneland Grade One Gamble.

Victorious 34-1 shot Sanzio (race 7 at Aqueduct( was the top contributor for Michael Guadagno (3 wins, 0 places) and Jim Cuzzupe (2W, 3P) as they reeled in $2,000 Players Championship seats.

Guadagno and Cuzzupe were the only two players in this get-together who managed to crack the century mark.

Just Basking was the apple of Phil Matzat’s eye on Saturday.

Matzat (4 firsts, 1 second) snagged the low-cost Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge entry in Saturday’s $179 qualifier at HorsePlayers. 

Saturday’s highest scorer was Timothy Betthauser. He racked up a total of $129.96.

Betthauser (3 wins, 1 place) topped the leaderboard in Saturday’s $210 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers. He came up with both Sanzio and Just Basking en route to the winner’s circle.

You know that feeling when you hit a cap horse in the first contest race? Heady stuff! You lean back in your chair, and—with a knowing smile—you say silently to yourself, “This one’s in the bag.” 

Well if you thought that on Sunday, you had another think coming. (Or “thing” if you’re a Judas Priest fan.)

As usual, there were 12 contest races on Sunday. The first one, the 6th at Aqueduct, was won by Ambition ($43.14, $15.64). It wasn’t quite time to light up the victory cigar, though, because the second contest race—race 8 at Gulfstream—was won by Kravitz, who bettors let…ahem…get away…at odds of 21-1.

Here’s where things really crazy: Across six featured tourneys on Sunday, there were 10 players who won grand prizes. Five of them had neither Ambition nor Kravitz.

That’s because, later in the day, Violences Ohr ($54.00, $15.80) took race 6 at Santa Anita and Clarina ($56.80, $28.00) prevailed in the 8th at The Great Race Place. 

It was a kooky day, but sometimes it’s fun to go from “I’ve got no shot” to “Hey, wait a minute…maybe I DO have a chance.” Just ask Pat Camacho.

Camacho (4 wins, 3 places) hit both of the Santa Anita bombs to score a come-from-behind victory in Sunday’s HT Tour game, our $20,000 Guaranteed cash tourney. He received $13,650 from what was a final pot of $34,125.

Christopher Olsson (3 firsts, 3 seconds) was another player who had the Violences Ohr-Clarina “double”.

Olsson came away with the $2,000 seat when all was said and done in Sunday’s Monmouth Pick Your Prize qualifier. 

Frank “Plaster of” Paros (6 wins, 2 places) did his best work early, scoring with Ambition and going on to triumph in Sunday’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier at HorsePlayers.

Before Paros could declare victory, however, he had to made a $3.20 place collection in the final contest race, the 9th at Santa Anita with favored 8-5 runner up Call Me Sir. Sometimes favorites make the difference even on days when it seems like longshots are all that matter.

Daniel Raj had a pretty remarkable day. He was Sunday’s top scorer with a tally of $193.20.

Raj led the way in Sunday’s $165 NHC qualifier here at HorseTourneys, which had enough entries for three Vegas packages to be handed out. Raj doped out both Ambition and Violences Ohr—and, on top of that, two of the payoffs supplied by his runners up paid a capped $22.00 in the place hole. Bombs away!

Also gaining a seat at the big dance in this one were Paul Parker (6 wins, 3 places) and Keith Okerson (3W, 2P). Those two each connected with Clarina in the 6th at Santa Anita. Okerson, however, might have first suspected that things were gonna go his way when he played Kravitz.

In Sunday’s Keeneland Grade One Gamble qualifier, Michael “The Coach” Goodrich and Ryan Petrunyak both profited with Clarina, but, as you might have guessed by now, they needed way more than just that.

Goodrich (4 wins, 3 places) needed a final-contest-race victory from Mysterious Husband ($9.60, $3.80) in the 9th at Santa Anita to move himself from 3rd to 1st. Petrunyak would also have been on the outside looking in had he not hit Ambition at the outset.

Mark Aylward (3 wins, 1 place) and Rick “I-65” Broth (4W, 1P) received $2,000 entries for running one-two in Sunday’s qualifier to the $200,000 Gtd. Players Championship.

Aylward’s heavy lifters were Ambition and Clarina. Broth share Aylward’s appreciation of Clarina, but he needed Mysterious Husband in the finale to get up into the second spot.

A total of 41 seats (valued at $600 each) were awarded last week in multi-track qualifiers to the NHC Last Chance/First Chance tournament on NHC Eve, March 12, in Las Vegas. They went to: Tony Garofalo, Kris Andaur, Darryl Lacy, Joe Scanio, William Inman, Myles Richards, Travis Allison, Kevin Engelhard, Suresh Bomman (2 seats), Tom Dillon, James Lisowsky, Robert Ferguson (2 seats), Gary Garnett (3 seats), Steve Wolfson Jr., Crystal Andaur, Michael Kavana, William McMillan, Gregory Lewis (2 seats), Anthony Schiavone, Josh Thorpe, Troy Bandemer, Edward Wright (2 seats), Christopher Lavezza, John Nichols, Jackson Muniz, Gus Meyers, Mike Lazarus, Raymond Carpio, Michael Foster, Chris Piper, Stephen Luca, Anthony Spinazzola, Steven Meier, Tyler Hoffman and Siva Shankar Vellanki. 

Speaking of Vegas, I’ll be there for the next couple of Mondays. I hope to see many of you again out there…or meet you for the first time, as the case may be. In any event, this “Weekly Recap” blog will be taking a brief break while I take advantage of all the low, low prices I hear Vegas has to offer these days. You can find me back in this space on Monday, March 23. In the meantime, I hope one of you reading this right now enjoys a life-changing score playing in the NHC. Good luck!