It was another good weekend around here for NHC Hall of Famers. Two of them—Brett Wiener and 2016 NHC Tour champ Cheryl McIntyre—did a whole lot of winning here on Friday and Saturday.

Thanks in large part to Coffee at K.J.’s ($56.20, $18.00) in the 8th at Gulfstream, Wiener (2 firsts, 2 seconds) pocketed the $8,117 grand prize in Friday’s HT Tour competition, our $15,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which closed with a final purse of $18,038.

Wiener used the same selections to also land a $1,500 seat in Friday’s qualifier to the $200,000 Gtd. New York New York Challenge here on June 5-6. 

Gary Machiz also advanced to the Showdown by virtue of his second-place finish. He had 3 wins and 2 places, and those three wins all came at the very end. One of them was Coffee at K.J.’s.

Getting back to Wiener, he also picked up his second Monmouth Pick Your Prize entry in as many weeks.

Joe “Tex” Scanio was the other player who emerged happy from this one. Scanio (3 wins, 1 place) was another who perked up when he saw what Coffee at K.J.’s did.

In Friday’s $70 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers, Wiener was one of four players who pulled down Vegas packages.

Wiener finished behind Mike Langthorne (2 wins, 2 places) and ahead of Wayne Eigelbach (4W, 1P) and Mark Feld (2W, 1P). Coffee at K.J.’s was common to all of their scorecards.

For Cheryl McIntyre, the big day was Saturday.

McIntyre (5 wins, 0 places) and Kirk Tesar (4W, 1P) each garnered $1,500 Spa & Surf Showdown berths for their one-two finish in Saturday’s qualifier for Leg 3 of the 2026 HT Champions Series. McIntyre’s top gun was J.T.’s Watch ($53.00, $21.40) in race 3 at Santa Anita. Tesar’s biggest move came in race 8 at Gulfstream with Bolero Bay ($37.00, $17.40).

McIntyre’s five winners also played in Saturday’s play-in to the June 13 Monmouth Pick Your Prize tournament. 

Joining McIntyre in that field will be runner up G.T. Nixon, whose 4-win, 3-place scoresheet included J.T.’s Watch.

The first Monmouth Pick Your Prize qualifier of the week took place on Wednesday, which was Day 1 of the featured-tourney week.

Topping the leaderboard was Vineet Sharma, who recorded 1 win and 4 places. One of those runners up, 37-1 The Myth in the 9th at Tampa, provided Sharma with his biggest return of the day—a $22.00 capped place payoff. William McMillan (3W, 1P) also garnered a Pick Your Prize entry. In the final contest heat, the 8th at Horseshoe Indy, McMillan hit Mr. Sledge Hammer ($10.20, $4.00). That allowed McMillan to sneak into second place by 40 cents.

Kirk Rockwell (4 firsts, 3 seconds) was the lone $1,500 entry winner in Wednesday’s Preakness Challenge play-in.

Rockwell’s top return came from Miguel’s Belle ($10.60, $5.00) in the 8th at Tampa.

There was one gigantic longshot hiding out there on Wednesday—and Michael Bailey smoked it out.

That was El Bailador ($137.80, $52.80) in race 7 at Tampa. Bailey had that bomb plus two other winners and one runner up to claim the $2,581 first prize in Wednesday’s $5,000 guaranteed cash tourney, which closed with a pot of $5,737.

Pete Manzo (3 wins, 3 places) and 2024 Pick & Pray Classic champion Mark Stillmock (2W, 2P) both managed to come up with El Bailador.

They were the two players to reel in $1,500 berths in Wednesday’s qualifier to the New York New York Challenge.

On Thursday, 2018 The BIG One champ Joe Pettit and Sam “Split” Sample added their names to the roster of participants for the New York New York Challenge.

Pettit (4 wins and 3 places) and Sample (3W, 3P) both covered the 6th at BAQ well with Tarpaulin ($20.58, $10.64).

Evan Trommer (4 firsts, 3 seconds) made his biggest Thursday collection in the initial contest race of the day.

Trommer scored with King’s Remark ($15.90, $6.54), and that got him off to a flying start in Thursday’s $6,000 Gtd, Pick & Pray, which was ultimately worth a total of $9,815. The winner’s share for Trommer came to $4,417.

We noted earlier that William McMillan (barely) won a Monmouth Pick Your Prize seat on Wednesday. On Friday, he added a Preakness Challenge entry to his burgeoning portfolio.

McMillan only had one winner—and one collection!—all day…but it was a good one. It was 27-1 Coffee at K.J.’s in the 8th at Gulfstream.

Cal “Frontier” Jestice enjoyed the taste that Coffee at K.J.’s left in his mouth.

Jestice (4 wins, 1 place) finished first—and second—in Friday’s qualifier to the Lone Star Million Betting Challenge.

Our 2023 Flo-Cal Faceoff champ David Wolff apparently isn’t a coffee drinker…at least not on Friday…but he had Frosty Belle ($28.20, $11.00) in the 7th at Gulfstream.

Wolff (3 firsts, 4 seconds) made off with the $10,000 seat at the conclusion of Friday’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier at HorsePlayers. It was the fifth grand prize that Wolff has won in a featured tourney here over the last three weeks.

Our richest tourney of the week was Saturday’s $25,000 Guaranteed cash game. It had a final prize pool of $24,692.

Kris Andaur was #1 in this one, and for that, Andaur won $11,111. Highlighting Andaur’s 6-win, 1-place scorecard was J.T.’s Watch ($53.00, $21.40) in the 3rd at Santa Anita.

The other Saturday featured cash game was our $6,106 Big Bucks Pick & Pray.

Utilizing the services of J.T’s Watch along with three other winners and two runners up, Mark “Santana” Tabakman came away with the up-top money of $4,274.

On Sunday, there was a cash-game offering that was kind of new. Due to the popularity of April’s Players Championship—which is run in All Optional Live format where players make a certain number of plays from a larger number of available races—we decided to offer a twice-a-month All Optional Live game with a $5,000 guaranteed. (Usually these will be on Saturdays, but we did this first one on Sunday to keep it away from Derby day.)

The parameters on Sunday was a $150 entry fee with 10 plays to be made from 25 available races. 

The winner, with 4 firsts and 2 seconds from his 10 plays was Bob White. White’s best play was his first play—Resurgo ($43.00, $12.20) in race 7 on the closing-day card at Tampa Bay Downs. When all was said and done, White pocketed $3,329 from what was a final purse of $6,659. 

Sunday’s more traditional cash tourney was the day’s HT Tour event, our $20,000 guaranteed game. It had a final pot of $26,468.

Troy Robertson made nine collections—five of them winners—out of a dozen races to commandeer the $11,910 grand prize. His best pick was Maker and Sons ($54.00, $19.80) in race 5 at Santa Anita.

Amy Mulvey (4 wins, 1 place) Nick Kochanski (4W, 2P) and Jeff “Smoking” Gunn (2W, 0P) all shared an appreciation for Maker and Sons.

They all punched their tickets to Vegas in Sunday’s $155 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers.

For David Basler (6 firsts, 1 second), the big horse on Sunday was Tulavia’s World ($26.60, $8.60) in race 7 at Santa Anita.

Basler snagged the hefty $6,500 package in Sunday’s qualifier to the July 25-26 Del Mar Summer Challenge. (Note that, unlike most of our HorseTourneys qualifiers, Del Mar Summer Challenge play-ins have a one-seat guarantee attached!)

There were three players who earned $2,000 seats in Sunday’s Monmouth Pick Your Prize qualifier. 

Congratulations to Karol Mannarino (4 wins, 2 places), Nick “529” Fazzolari (3W, 0P) and Jeff Bussan (3W, 1P). Mannarino and Fazzolari actually tied for first, but since this was a three-seater, we didn’t have to wake the hard-working HorseTourneys stewards from their afternoon nap to break the tie. Mannarino and Bussan each used Tulavia’s World. Fazzolari scored biggest with Maker and Sons.

Tulavia’s World was the Sunday star for Joseph Lindeman (3 firsts, 1 second).

Lindeman will have action a week from Saturday when he competes with a paid-up $1,500 entry in the May 16 Preakness Challenge.

Tulavia’s World was also the apple of Terrence Frank’s eye on Sunday.

Frank (4 wins, 3 places) captured the $10,000 seat in Sunday’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio Pick & Pray at HorsePlayers.

Last but certainly not least (because we’re a little bit biased), Anthony Laurino (2 wins, 1 place), Steven Meier and Chris “Army Strong” Lavezza all won $1,500 spots in the New York New York Challenge here on June 5-6.

Laurino’s heavy lifter was Maker and Sons. The top return for both Meier (3W, 3P) and Lavezza (5W, 1P) came courtesy of He’s a Gangster ($11.20, $5.60) in the 8th at Santa Anita.

Thanks to all of you for spending a portion of your Derby week here with us. It is much appreciated.