A fine first day followed up by a significantly better Day 2 proved the pathway to victory for Eldon Stivers in the second annual New York New York Challenge on June 5-6 at HorseTourneys. The Nash, Tex., resident earned $119,545 for the victory.

Guaranteed to have a $200,000 purse, the New York New York Challenge closed with a record 234 entries and a final prize pool of $319,113. The latter figure represented a 6.4% increase over the previous year’s total.

The New York New York Challenge carried a $1,500 entry fee and called on contestants to make full-card, Pick & Pray selections on Friday and Saturday of the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival held at Saratoga Race Course. Thus, players’ mythical, $2.00 win-and-place picks had to made, in their entirety, prior to the first race on each of the two days.

Friday’s Day 1 had a familiar ring to it. That’s because the name at the top of the leaderboard was Tory Cameron of Saratoga Springs, N.Y. He connected with 9-1 Copious in the first race on Friday and kept things going from there.

In February, Cameron made headlines by collecting $123,947 the first HorseTourneys “major” of 2026, the $325,499 Flo-Cal Faceoff.

Stivers, meanwhile, resided in 13th place at the conclusion of Friday’s New York New York Challenge action.

Like Cameron, his big hit of the day was New Rose in race 6, a Maiden Special Weight turf route.

On Sunday, Stivers served notice early on that he meant business. In the first race of the Belmont Stakes card, he hit My Gun’s Loaded ($38.02, $7.76). That shot him all the way up to second place.

Later, for the second time in two days, race 6 was again key for Stivers.

Once more it was one of the garden-variety races on an otherwise stakes-laden card that was crucial for Stivers. In what looked on paper like a real mind bender of a race, Stivers found his way to Buttah, He was now in the lead.

By the time 10 of Saturday’s 14 races had been completed, the lead for Stivers had grown to $29.38, and William McMillan had snuck past Cameron into second place.

And after Golden Tempo confirmed his 3-year-old superiority in the Belmont Stakes, Stivers simultaneously tightened his hold on the New York New York Challenge.

Having picked the Derby winner in the Belmont, Stivers saw his lead increase to $32.14. About an hour later, when a mere 3-1 shot won the nightcap, it was all over.

Stivers pocketed not just the $114,763 grand prize but an additional Day Money bonus of $4,872 for having the second-highest score on Saturday’s races.

Jay Johns led the Day 2 hit parade, and he received a bonus of $7,970. Eventual second-place finisher William McMillan ($2,391 bonus) and Darren Schweiger ($797) completed the Saturday top four. 

For McMillan, the Saturday day bonus — in concert with his overall second-place prize of $45,905 — meant a hefty New York New York Challenge haul of $48,296. Flo-Cal Faceoff champion Tory Cameron enjoyed another nice payday in a HorseTourneys major. He held on for third and received $30,923 ($22,953 for third place plus $7,970 for having the best Friday score).

Cameron also improved his position in the 2026 HorseTourneys Champions Tour standings.

Top finishers in the five HT Champions Series events automatically receive points for their place on the leaderboard. The winner gets 100 points, the runner up earns 99 points…and so on down to 1 point for 100th place.

At the end of the series, which concludes with the Pick & Pray Classic, the overall points leader wins seats in all five HT Champions Series tourneys in 2027. The runner up gets his or her choice of three HT Champions Series entries. The third-place points scorer gets to pick an entry into any one of the 2027 competitions.

The current points leader is Dr. Ronald Tang, who has recorded top-30 finishes in all three HT Champions Series events thus far in 2026. It’s extremely tight between John Nichols, Cameron and Linda Rodriguez in second, third and fourth, Just a single point separates each of them.

The next HT Champions Series tournament is the Spa & Surf Showdown—a Live-format test that requires players to make full-card selections for two days at Saratoga and Del Mar.

The dates for that one have been set for Saturday and Sunday, August 29 (Travers Day) and August 30. The entry fee is $2,500, and the purse is guaranteed at $400,000.

Congratulations to all of the New York New York Challenge winners—and sincere thanks to you for making it a record-breaking event.

Come back to this space tomorrow…when we’ll get to know this past weekend’s champion Eldon Stivers.