Eldon Stivers woke up on Saturday morning in a panic. 

After Friday’s Day 1 of the $319,113 New York New York Challenge, Stivers was in 13th place—$61.92 behind leader Tory Cameron. Stivers—a 62-year-old retired mechanic who resides in Nash, Tex., close to Texarkana—was excited. 

“I had never been better than 50th before,” he said. “Not in one of your big-money, two-day tournaments anyway.”

Stivers coaches his grandson Mason’s “8-and-under” Little League team, and on Friday night, they had a doubleheader. 

“I didn’t get home until about 10:00 or 10:30, and I said to myself, ‘I still have three or three-and-a-half hours of handicapping to do,” he recalled. “Plus I still had all the adrenaline running through me because of the contest. I stayed up until 3:30, and, even then, I had trouble getting to sleep.”

Stivers got all of his handicapping done, and, wisely, he put in his picks for the Pick & Pray contest’s second day before going to bed. He wanted to check the scratches the next morning, though, and possibly make a change or two before the first race went off at 11:00 am ET.

The problem was…11:00 am ET meant 10:00 am where Eldon lives (about 90 miles southeast of Oaklawn Park)—and when he woke up the next morning and looked at the digital clock by his bed, it read “10:08”

“Oh no!” Eldon exclaimed aloud. 

He rushed to his computer, punched up the scratches and, to his relief, there was only one change that affected him. He could live with that. 

A minute or so later, Eldon realized something else. The first race had already gone off! He needed to see how his horse did!

That first play of his — in what had scratched down to a seven-horse field — was a longshot, My Gun’s Loaded.

“I know he was 15-1 in the morning line,” Eldon explained, “but I never expected a first-time Chad Brown horse…in a maiden race…at Saratoga…with Manny Franco up…in an eight-horse field…coming in off a bullet work…with first-time Lasix…to go off that high. I did like her, though.”

Imagine Eldon’s feeling when, just 10 minutes after waking up, he saw the results.

Even the horse’s name suddenly had him amped up.

“I thought, ‘My Gun’s Loaded…it sure is! I’m comin’ for you now!’ That win got me all the way up to second place.”

Five races later, there was another longshot that Eldon liked. In sprint races, he likes to pay special attention to the speed rating and track variant that are listed in DRF PP’s, and those pointed him to Buttah.

The cap-horse victory put Eldon in front.

At that point, he was feeling very confident because he thought the remainder of the Saturday card figured to be fairly chalky—with the possible exception of Golden Tempo in the Belmont Stakes.

“For some reason, he just reminds me of one of my favorite horses, Risen Star,” Eldon said with a smile, referring to the 1988 Preakness and Belmont winner. “I had Golden Tempo in the Derby, and I thought his odds would be higher in the Belmont than they should…with the public not realizing that he’s a great horse and instead sticking with Chief Wallabee, Commandment and the others. That victory turned out to be the difference between me winning and losing.”

Indeed, Eldon wound up defeating runner up William McMillan by $19.57—and Golden Tempo had returned $14.00 to win and $7.32 to place after capturing the Belmont. 

For Eldon, it was the biggest score of his life—$119,545, including his Day Money bonus of $4,872 that was earned on Saturday. For a moment, he lost his head.

“Mason was at our house that day, and he was waiting for me to go in our swimming pool with him. Of course, while the contest was going on, I was too nervous to do that, but then when I won, I ran right outside and jumped straight into the pool with him. The only problem was that I forgot to take my hearing aids out. One of them stayed in my ear. That one still works. The other one went to the bottom of the pool. Mason had to go down and pull it out. That one needs to be fixed.”

Though the hearing aid loss was unfortunate, a celebration was definitely in order. Eldon has loved racing as long as he can remember. His grandfather—and namesake—Eldon Malone lived in California and did the picks for Los Alamitos in the Orange County Register in the 1970s.

Always mechanically inclined, Eldon plunged into his work as a mechanic as an adult, reaching the level of Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) Master Tech. He always made time to go to the track, though, especially if he knew there was a Pick Six carryover somewhere. He hit a bunch of those over the years. 

One of Eldon’s favorite track memories, however, has nothing to do with money won. It was in 1988 during a trip to Oaklawn. Bill Shoemaker was in town to ride Jeanne Jones in the Fantasy Stakes, and he was signing autographs for fans the night before in a local restaurant. Eldon went there to get Shoemaker’s autograph for his grandfather, and, wouldn’t you know–he wound up hitting it off with the legendary jockey. The two spent several hours together that evening—prior to Shoemaker winning aboard Jeanne Jones the next day. 

A few years later, Eldon left the public sector and joined the Department of Defense, where he was employed for 24 years as a Heavy Mobile Equipment Leader. That period included a couple of deployments to Kuwait and Iraq—where the focus of his work was not on Lincolns and Oldsmobiles but, rather, on trailers and heavy tactical trucks.

His work had taken him all around the country, but in 2001, he moved “back home” to Arkansas, and that turned out to be his best year ever because that’s when he met the love of his life and his wife of the last 24 years, Cathy. The two see eye to eye on just about everything—except horse racing.

“She’ll say to me, ‘You’re gambling.’ But I don’t consider [playing on HorseTourneys] gambling. I tell her those NASCAR and PGA guys all have to put up entry fees too. They’re not gambling. They’re competing. They’re competing to be the best.

“Anyway, she knows I’m good. She’s just always been adamant against it—until this weekend. She’s behind me now…I think.”

One thing Eldon does not dispute is that he spends a lot of time at HorseTourneys. 

“I play pretty near everyday,” he admitted. “I bet no one has bought more $12 cash-game entries than I have.”

Eldon first learned about the site from a table-mate at the 2017 Horse Player World Series in Las Vegas, and suddenly a light bulb went on in his head.

“I realized I don’t have to drive 70 miles each way to the track anymore, like I had been doing, going back and forth to my closest track, which is Louisiana Downs. I can play at HorseTourneys. So that’s what I did.”

On December 26th and 27th of last year, Eldon won our $15,000 and $25,000 Guaranteed cash games on back-to-back days. Now, having prevailed in his first HorseTourneys “major”, his sights are set not on the BCBC or the NHC, but on a different goal. 

“I want to be HorseTourneys Tour champion someday,” he said. “I think your Tour is phenomenal.”

In the nearer term, Eldon also has a somewhat less lofty goal. He’s hoping to have the nickname “Breaking Bad” bestowed upon him for HorseTourneys recaps and blogs such as these.

Why “Breaking Bad”?

“I’ve been mistaken out in public a few times for Mike,” he explained. “One guy even asked me for his autograph, and he couldn’t believe it when I told him I wasn’t who he thought I was.”

Eldon was referring to the wary cop-turned-fixer character Mike Ehrmantraut, played by Jonathan Banks.

“At any rate, I’m just ecstatic over this win last weekend,” he exclaimed, “and I can’t wait for the Surf and Turf in August!”

Eldon was then reminded that the big-money tourney in August that he had referenced is actually called the Spa & Surf Showdown.

“Ah, yes, the Spa & Surf,” he laughed. “Tell everyone that ‘Breaking Bad’ Stivers will be comin’ for them!”