Arguably, the two top items on most contest players’ annual to-do lists are to earn places in the NHC and the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge. It’s pretty neat to be able to knock both of those off in just one day. Our 2023 Players Championship winner Lucas Van Zandt and the 2018 The BIG One champ Joe Pettit each turned that trick last week.

Van Zandt’s day to celebrate was Sunday.

The Connecticut resident recorded 3 wins and 4 seconds to post victories in Sunday’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier and Monmouth Pick Your Prize play-in. His top return came from Caller ($37.40, $9.20) in race 9 at Gulfstream.

Van Zandt played those same selections back in Sunday’s NHC Low Ratio qualifier—which attracted enough interest for three Vegas packages to be handed out.

This time the Caller-led calls got Van Zandt third place, which was just fine. Ahead of him—and also punching early tickets to Vegas—were  Dave Portnoy (5 wins, 2 places) and Jeff Joffrion (3W, 3P). Caller was also the answer for Portnoy. Joffrion, meanwhile, got his biggest return from a different horse with a telephone-themed name—Poor Connection ($38.20, $14.00) in the 5th at Santa Anita.

One day earlier, it was Joe Pettit who pulled off an “NHC-BCBC-Plus one” triple.

Pettit hit 4 of the first 5 winners and 7 in all to take Saturday’s $179 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge qualifier at HorsePlayers. His biggest single-race returns were provided right at the start by Sultana ($39.20, $12.00) in race 8 at Gulfstream. 

Pettit scored even higher (by adding a place collection) in Saturday’s $155 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers. 

Joining Pettit as NHC seat winners 11 1/2 months ahead of the 2027 event were newly-minted NHC Hall of Fame Chris Littlemore, who swept the first four contest races en route to a 5-win, 2-place day, and Carmine DeSalo who stockpiled 7 winners and a runner up. DeSalo’s best selection was Irish Royalty ($14.60, $4.80) in race 7 at Santa Anita.

Pettit wasn’t done though. A mere five winners got him home first in Saturday’s Keeneland Grade One Gamble qualifier.

Eric Pineiro did Pettit one better in a sense by coming up with six winners. Irish Royalty was his heaviest lifter.

On Friday, Evan Trommer did Evan Trommer things. His score of $79.16 wasn’t close to being the top tally of the day. Yet the Californian-turned-Floridian managed to gobble up five of the available grand prizes.

The most lucrative of them came in Friday’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio play-in at HorsePlayers. The biggest contributor to his victory was Russian Hammer ($33.40, $11.60) in race 8 at Tampa Bay Downs. And just for good measure, Trommer’s other entry finished in second place.

It was much the same story in Friday’s Santa Anita Derby Challenge qualifier. 

It was also much the same story in Friday’s Preakness Preview Day Challenge qualifier.

A key difference here for Trommer was that his second-place effort in this one actually got him a second seat. So he will have a pair of entries for the April 18 competition.

Seat #5 for Trommer came thanks to a second-place finish in Friday’s qualifier to this week’s $200,000 Gtd. Players Championship.

Also gaining entry into Leg 2 of the 2026 HT Champions Series here were Steven Simonivic (6 wins, 0 places), Peter Kizenko (3W, 1P) and Traci Richards (3W, 0P). Kizenko and Richards hammered Russian Hammer. Simonovic scored with Solomon’s World ($21.46, $7.06) in the 5th at Aqueduct.

The first Players Championship qualifier of the week came on Wednesday. The $2,000 seat winners were players who both did very well at the recent NHC.

The strong March continued for Ken Jordan (5 wins, 2 places) and Jim Lisowsky (2W, 2P), who both connected with Holy Synergy ($22.00, $11.80) in the final contest heat—race 10 at Parx—in this qualifier. Jordan made the final table at the NHC, and collected $85,000 for coming in eighth. Lisowsky just missed the final table in Vegas. He finished 11th, earning $39,000. On Friday and Saturday in the Players Championship, Jordan and Lisowsky will be hoping that their strong March leads in to a strong April.

Todd Carmody nailed Holy Synergy at the end, and that shot him all the way from 20th to 1st in Wednesday’s $5,000 Guaranteed cash tourney. Holy S—!

Carmody pocketed $3,048 in a game that was ultimately worth a total of $6,774.

Holy Synergy also created final-race fireworks for David Nelson (4 firsts, 1 second).

Nelson reeled in a $3,500 seat in Wednesday’s qualifier to the Keeneland Grade One Gamble.

NHC Hall of Famer Brett Wiener roasted (almost all of) the competition on Thursday.

In the final contest race, Wiener (3 firsts, 3 seconds) had Bad Sneakers ($16.40, $7.20) in the 7th at Turf Paradise, and, now, Wiener can buy new sneakers if he so chooses. He bagged the first-place prize of $3,546 in Thursday’s $6,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which closed with a final total purse of $7,880.

In Thursday’s Players Championship qualifier, Wiener used the same horses to best everyone except Anthony Mroz (4 firsts, 1 second).

Both players garnered $2,000 “PC” entries in this one. Mroz rallied late with the final two contest-race winners—including Bad Sneakers—to get up for the “W”.

There’s been no shortage of interest in the reduced-price (and reduced-ratio!) NHC qualifiers that we’ve been delighted to offer of late. Friday’s play-in at HorsePlayers—now carrying a $70 entry fee and a winning ratio of 1-per-126—drew enough entrants for five berths to be awarded. 

Those happy Vegas early birds were Mike Rajoppi (5 wins, 2 places), Nick “48 Hrs.” Noce (5W, 1P), 2023 Flo-Cal Faceoff champ David Wolff (4W, 2P), John Fasola (6W, 0P) and Gregg “Sky” Kingma (6W, 0P). All but Wolff scored with Solomini’s World. Wolff’s stable star was 15-1 Russian Hammer. Rajoppi and Noce nailed both Solomini’s World and Russian Hammer. Fasola, incidentally, got all six of his winners within the first seven races of the tourney.

A different past winner of a HorseTourneys “major” got top honors—and the $3,500 seat that went with them—in Friday’s Keeneland Grade One Gamble qualifier.

It was 2023 Spa & Surf Showdown champion Anthony Spinazzola. He had Solomini’s World in the opener and 3 winners and 2 runners up thereafter.

Friday’s cash-game hero was David P. Burke, who counted Russian Hammer among his 3 firsts and 3 seconds on the day.

Burke bagged $10,127 in Friday’s HT Tour competition, our $15,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which closed with a final prize pool of $22,506.

Two players secured $3,500 entries in Friday’s Monmouth Pick Your Prize qualifier.

Congratulations to Mike Steindler (2 wins, 2 places) and Kevin Gillett (5W, 1P). They both played Solomini’s World. Steindler also scored big with the day’s biggest price, Russian Hammer. So he made his winners really count.

Our 2023 HT Tour champion took a nice first step on Saturday towards a possible 2026 championship.

Ed Peters (5 wins, 0 places) won the bread—$14,275 to be precise—in Saturday’s HT Tour event, our $25,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which paid out a total of $31,724. His first winner was his best winner—Sultana ($39.20, $12.20) in the 8th at Gulfstream.

That was one of two Pick & Pray victories on Saturday for Peters.

He also grabbed a $1,500 seat for taking Saturday’s Santa Anita Derby Challenge play-in.

Stephen McNatton also used Sultana as an early springboard to success.

McNatton (5 wins, 1 place) safeguarded a $500 entry in Saturday’s Preakness Preview Day Challenge qualifier. 

G.T. Nixon, the pride of Port Jervis, N.Y., also enjoyed a double-grand-prize Saturday.

Nixon (4 wins, 1 place) was the one in Saturday’s Monmouth Pick Your Prize qualifier. He had Sultana.

Nixon was one (the final one) of six in Saturday’s qualifier to the All Optional Live-format Players Championship. 

Nixon’s fellow Americans…err, Players Championship qualifiers…here were Shad Walton (the first 3 winners, followed by 2 places), Crystal Andaur (3W, 1P), 2024 HT Tour champ Eric “Skeet” Boyd (2W, 2P), Jeff Bussan (3W, 3P) and the almost-but-not-quite 2026 NHC champ Frank “54-40 or Fight” Polk (4W, 2P). Polk’s top pick was 6-1 Irish Royalty in the 7th at Santa Anita. The others all scored with Sultana.

A score of $30.98 got it done in Saturday’s four-player Big Bucks Pick & Pray.

Zach Hinkle prevailed by 40 cents over Howard Welsh in this defensive-minded struggle thanks to 2 wins and a place. Hinkle’s most lucrative return came courtesy of Master of Arms ($13.52, $5.46) in race 7 at Aqueduct. The triumph was good for $2,849 in a game that closed with $4,071 in the kitty.

Sunday’s cash feature—and HT Tour competition—was our $20,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray.

It went to Edward Enborg (4 firsts, 3 seconds), who got a winning message from 17-1 Caller in the 9th at Gulfstream. The final purse amounted to $28,437. Enborg’s share of that was $12,796.

“Pistol” Pete Acocella also picked up on Caller.

Acocella (3 wins, 2 places) and Peter Rogers emerged with the $500 entries at the conclusion of Sunday’s Preakness Preview Day Challenge qualifier. The high-yielder for Rogers was Mr. Mo’s Magic ($28.20, $10.40) in the 7th at Tampa Bay Downs.

Peter Rinato (3 wins, 2 places) and Brooks “Was Here” Schuler (3W, 4P) made off with the $1,500 seats in Sunday’s Santa Anita Derby Challenge play-in.

The highest contributor to each of their scorecards was Poor Connection ($38.20, $14.00) in the 5th at Santa Anita.

Good prices were in abundance across Sunday’s 12-race featured schedule. The prices—in order of appearance (as they say in Playbill Magazine)—were $13.60, $28.20, $23.20, $5.00 (but with a $15.00 place horse in 2nd), $37.40, $14.80, $6.80, $38.20, $2.60 (oops), $8.60, $21.20 and $14.00.

Terrence Frank had the three biggest of those winners en route to the high score of the day—$169.60. 

Frank (5 wins, 1 place) led the way in Sunday’s Keeneland Grade One Gamble qualifier. Also achieving a robust score was runner up Steve “The Admiral” Nemetz (4W, 3P). He, too, earned a $3,500 Keeneland entry.

Last but not least, you’d have needed to order an Uber XL to transport all of the winners of Sunday’s Players Championship qualifier in one vehicle.

There were seven of them. Congrats—and good luck on Friday and Saturday—to Dan Flanigan (4 wins, including the top 3, plus 2 places), Cara Yarusso (3W, 4P), Jim Lisowsky (3W, 1P), Mike Langthorne (4W, 2P), Richard Reese (3W, 2P), Jim “Never” Settle (4W, 0P) and Bobby Shoemaker (4W, 1P).

We’re already up to 97 entrants in the Players Championship, so a purse exceeding the $200,000 guarantee seems like a good bet at this point, Qualifiers will continue through Thursday. Of course, buy-ins (at $2,000 per entry) will be accepted right up until post time of the first race of the contest—which figures to be Friday’s race 1 at Keeneland.

To review, the Players Championship requires players to make 15 mythical $2.00 win-and-place selections each day from an available pool of 30 races each day. Last year’s Players Championship winner, Brian Graziano, earned $131,250.

In case you’re wanting to get an early jump on Players Championship contest races, there’s a good chance that the Friday contest races will consist of the full cards from Keeneland, Aqueduct and Santa Anita, plus the final three races (races 7, 8 and 9) from Gulfstream. That is subject to change, however, until the race menu is posted on horsetourneys.com.

One other reminder—your local track may be closed, but we’ll be open on Easter Sunday should you care to partake. There will be a limited schedule…just Gulfstream and Santa Anita, I believe…but we’ll be here. 

Until then, good luck…happy handicapping…and Happy Easter.