Eddie Olczyk will happily be pulling double duty again at this year’s Breeders’ Cup. 

The NBC hockey and horse racing analyst got the gold medal in Saturday’s $179 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge qualifier at HorsePlayers. That means that Olczyk will be playing his BCBC entry while live on national TV, Friday and Saturday, October 30-31 from Keeneland.

Olczyk came over the boards breathing fire last Saturday. He cashed in each of the first six contest races (4 wins, 2 places) and finished the day with 4 wins and 4 places. His best play was cap horse Sam Stormy ($69.00, $24.60) in race 7 at Tampa Bay Downs.

Using the same picks, Olczyk also lit the lamp in Saturday’s $155 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers. 

Olczyk bested all except fellow Sam Stormy backer Jason Albano (6 wins, 1 place) in this “three-seater”. The final 2027 Vegas berth went to the only other triple-digit scorer in the competition, Matthew Wilson (4W, 2P). He, too, had Sam Stormy.

Throughout his highly distinguished 16-year NHL playing career (which started at age 18!), Olczyk came to learn that, sometimes, you just have to play hurt.

The same holds true in horse racing handicapping contests. Just ask Dave “The Warrior” Smyth.

Still feeling the effects from a lower-body injury suffered (I am not making this up) during the NHC Last Chance/First Chance Contest in Vegas while rooting one of his horses home, Smyth tossed his crutch aside, fought through the pain and captured Friday’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier. (They don’t call him “The Warrior” for nothing.) He picked three winners, starting with the biggest price of the day—New Plex ($26.60, $14.40) in the first contest race, the 6th at Tampa.

The Warrior wasn’t done. The same Friday selections brought him a $3,500 Keeneland Grade One Gamble entry. 

Thomas Michael Abinanti also doped out New Plex at the outset (plus three other winners later), and he got the other available Keeneland berth in this two-seat affair.

Handicapping really isn’t meant to be a contact sport. The best players often make it look easy. That’s what Dale Hatfield did in Friday’s $5,000 Guaranteed cash tourney.

Hatfield (6 wins, 1 place) nailed the first three contest races and the final three to take the $3,141 top prize in a game ultimately worth a total of $6,982. His best return was provided by Get Like Mike ($11.40, $5.20) in race 10 at Parx.

Frank “Plaster of” Paros also liked Get Like Mike.

That was one of six winners for Paros en route to victory in Wednesday’s qualifier for the $200,000 Gtd. Players Championship here on Friday and Saturday, April 3-4. The Players Championship serves as the second leg of the five-leg 2026 HT Champions Series.

Many times this past week (really with the exception of only Sunday), the same winning horse appeared on almost all of the successful players’ scorecards. Get Like Mike was that horse on Wednesday. Kenneth Magner had him too.

Magner (4 wins, plus one $14.00-to-place runner up) reeled in the $3,500 seat in Wednesday’s Keeneland Grade One Gamble qualifier.

James Henry, the 2013 HorsePlayers World Series champion, fired off three straight winners at the beginning of Thursday’s $6,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray and six in all.

Henry pocketed $3,753 in a game that closed with a pot of $8,364. His most bountiful return came courtesy of Play ($15.72, $7.46) in the 5th at Aqueduct.

Dane Moore and Edward Enborg also played Play.

Moore (4 wins, 1 place) and Enborg (3W, 2P) came away with the $2,000 scholarships following Thursday entrance exam for the Players Championship.

Friday’s “horse you really needed to have” was New Plex ($26.60, $14.40) in the 6th at Tampa. All of our winners nailed that one.

New Plex was the first of four straight winners picked right out of the gate by John Barney (5 firsts, 1 second) in Friday’s HT Tour battle, our $15,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which wound up paying out $21,514. Barney’s share of that came to $9,681.

New Plex was also on the scorecards of Chris Cupples (4 wins, 2 places), Sarah Wiener (4W, 0P), Carolynn Stovall (3W, 1P) and Brendan Fay (4W, 2P).

Cupples, Wiener, Stovall and Fay were the package recipients in Friday’s $70 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers.

The same picks also served Fay well in a smaller Friday qualifier.

He grabbed himself a $500 entry in Friday’s play-in to the April 18 Preakness Preview Day Challenge.

Dr. Ronald Tang (3 wins, 2 places) and Thomas Labordo (3W, 1P) will both have action this Saturday.

They got the $1,500 entries in Friday’s qualifier to the Florida Derby Challenge. 

Michael Odorisio (5 wins, 1 place) opened up his Friday proceedings with three consecutive winners. 

He and William “23” Sadoo (2W, 3P) each secured $2,000 places in the June 13 Monmouth Pick Your Prize Contest.

There were three winners of $2,000 seats in Friday’s Players Championship qualifier.

Congratulations to Craig “Home Sweet” Hom (2 wins, 3 places), Darryl Lacy (3W, 2P) and Craig Popowcer (2W, 4P).

Saturday’s near-prerequisite for success was Sam Stormy ($69.00, $24.60) in race 7 at Tampa. Our 2023 HT Tour champ Ed Peters (4 wins, 2 places), Stephen Lerma (4W, 0P) and Raj Satyan (3W, 1P) all came up with the stormy one.

That trio was rewarded with $2,000 entries into the April 3-4 Players Championship.

Michael Caposio had the Tampa bomb plus one other winner.

Caposio drove off with a $1,500 seat in Saturday’s Santa Anita Derby Challenge qualifier.

A 2-win, 0-place day also worked out nicely for Jimmy Cosenza. 

Cosenza won a $500 Preakness Preview Day Challenge seat.

Cap horse Sam Stormy was one of four Saturday winners unearthed by David Nelson.

The victorious four guided Nelson to the winner’s circle in both our Monmouth Pick Your Prize and Lone Star Spring Betting Challenge qualifiers.

Jim Cuzzupe took Saturday’s Florida Derby Challenge qualifier.

He did so on the strength of 5 firsts and 1 second.

Wendy Long (3 wins, 1 place) and John Schimpf (2W, 3P) were also all aboard the Sam Stormy train.

They garnered the $3,500 berths in Saturday’s Keeneland Grade One Gamble qualifier.

We mentioned earlier that Jason Albano was the only one to do better than Eddie Olczyk in Saturday’s NHC qualifier. Albano (6 wins, 1 place) was also atop the leaderboard in Saturday’s HT Tour skirmish, our $25,000 Guaranteed tourney.

Albano bagged $12,620 from what was a final overall purse of $28,046.

Only Evan Trommer managed to win a Saturday grand prize without the “services” of Sam Stormy.

It helps, of course, that Trommer only had four opponents. He put up 3 winners and 3 runners up to obtain the $3,562 first prize in Saturday’s $5,088 Big Bucks Pick & Pray. Trommer’s heaviest lifter was Lotsa Trouble ($12.22, $6.02) in the 9th at Aqueduct.

Sunday was a nice day for Steven Meier (3 wins, 2 places).

Meier and The People’s CFO Joe “JK” Koury (3W, 1P) each came up with the day’s two biggest prices—Nashville Slew ($36.40, $21.80) in the 9th at Tampa and Snipsnippitysnip ($36.20, $15.80) in the 10th at Gulfstream—and they ran one-two in Sunday’s two-seat qualifier to the Keeneland Grade One Gamble.

Meier also led a pack of four $2,000 seat winners in Sunday’s Players Championship qualifier.

The other three who advanced to April 3-4 were Brian “BC” Chenvert (4 wins, 1 place), Max Schnepf (2W, 2P) and Derek Isenberg (4W, 2P). Chenvert had Nashville Slew. Snipsnippitysnip helped Schnepf make the cut. Isenberg, meanwhile, got the job done without either of the 17-1 shots. His big horse was I’m Sam ($16.80, $5.80) in the 6th at Gulfstream. (Surprising that players named Sam didn’t do better this weekend. Maybe we don’t have many of those.)

Brian Chenvert (5 wins, 1 place here) scored even higher in Sunday’s Florida Derby Challenge qualifier.

Chenvert and contest veteran Darwin Labordo (7 wins, 1 place) got the $1,500 seats in this one. Labordo came out smoking with 5 of the first 6 winners, including I’m Sam at the outset.

Using almost completely different picks, Darwin’s son Thomas got the $1,500 berth in Sunday’s Santa Anita Derby Challenge qualifier.

Thomas counted Snipsnippitysnip among his 2 wins and 3 places. It was his second grand prize of the week. On Friday, he picked up a Florida Derby Challenge entry. So he’ll have plenty of action the next couple of weekends.

Another Snipsnippitysnip fan was Corbin Blumberg (4 wins, 3 places).

Blumberg earned the $10,000 seat in Sunday’s only featured tourney at HorsePlayers, a $500 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier.

For Peter Rogers (5 wins, 1 place), the Sunday springboard to success was Nashville Slew in the 9th at Tampa.

And a nice springboard it was. Rogers pocketed $12,895 for prevailing in Sunday’s HT Tour get-together, our $20,000 Guaranteed cash game, which closed with a final pot of $28,656.

There were three winners in the $155 NHC qualifier here at HorseTourneys.

Congratulations to Michael Foster (3 wins, 1 place), Christopher Wilhite (3W, 4P) and John O’Brien (4W, 1P). Foster sleuthed out both Nashville Slew and Snipsnippitysnip. Wilhite had the former. O’Brien scored with the latter.

Friendly Sam Houstonian Mike Steindler snagged a Monmouth Pick Your Prize entry on Sunday.

His 2 firsts and 2 seconds were highlighted by Nashville Slew.

The two players who eclipsed the $80.00 mark were the two to prosper in Sunday’s Preakness Preview Day Challenge qualifier.

Those two were Chip “Snipsnippitysnip” Armbruster (3 wins, 2 places) and James “Nashville Slew” Michael (3W, 1P).

Qualifiers for this Saturday’s Florida Derby Challenge will continue here right through Friday. We also want to remind you that the upcoming weekend will be the final one in which to qualify (without having to pony up a full entry fee) for the $200,000 Gtd. Players Championship and the Santa Anita Derby Challenge. 

Good luck to all…and thanks very much for playing last week.