Sometimes you’re good, sometimes you’re lucky and sometimes you’re both. On Sunday, Jimmy Cosenza was definitely good.

He had 6 winners and 1 place out of 12 races to win a Vegas package in Sunday’s $155 NHC qualifier here at HorseTourneys. Also punching their tickets to Vegas in this three-seater were Lynn “Amazing” Grace (6W, 3P) and Tom Ryan (5W, 2P). Cosenza and Ryan each had their biggest hit with Follow the Fellow ($12.00, $5.20) in the 7th at BAQ, while Grace prospered most from Nic’s Bro ($11.20, $5.00) in the first contest race, the 6th at Gulfstream.

On Monday, June 15, Cosenza was also good…but he was lucky too.

Cosenza and Patrick Kane both hit 8-1 Chromeflash at the end to nab NHC berths in a special $120 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers. Cosenza (and Kane, too, for that matter) were lucky, though, because this qualifier was not originally supposed to take place. You may recall that our Thursday featured schedule got knocked out on June 11 due to a power outage at Santa Anita. This kayoed—among other things—a planned $120 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers. Since Santa Anita said they were planning to make up the lost date on Monday, the 15th, the NTRA asked us to reschedule their $120 qualifier for that same date.

And that’s how Jimmy Cosenza wound up winning two seats last week instead of one (and Patrick Kane got one instead of none). The one “victim” in all of this may be Brandon Leigh at Lone Star Park. With Cosenza and Joe “Tex” Scanio now both double-qualified for the NHC, Leigh may need to walk around the track with a sandwich board during his lunch hours to help drum up attendance for upcoming tournaments and fill the void created by the early double-qualification of two of his most loyal contest players/frequent flyers.

A couple of days after Cosenza earned seat #1 to the 2027 NHC, Jeff Tracy won his way in to the $400,000 Gtd. Spa & Surf Showdown here on August 29-30.

Tracy hit 4 of the first 5 winners and finished with 4 wins and 2 places in all. The winner that made the most noise for Tracy was Silence ($21.20, $5.80) in the 7th at Thistledown.

Michael Bailey also let out a whoop when Silence won.

Bailey (6 firsts, 2 seconds) pocketed the up-top money of $2,519 in Wednesday’s $5,000 guaranteed cash tourney, which paid out a total of $5,599.

Silence also helped Sean O’Malley (3 firsts, 2 seconds) silence his opponents in Wednesday’s Haskell Challenge qualifier.

O’Malley garnered a $1,000 seat to the July 18 contest for his performance, but that wasn’t his only success of the week.

O’Malley (3 firsts, 1 second) also snagged a $500 entry on Friday in our first qualifier to the June 27 Canterbury Northern Stars Challenge. On this day, his best choice was Bite and Strike ($21.86, $9.82) in race 7 at BAQ. 

On Thursday, Nick “48 Hrs.” Noce landed a spot in Leg 4 of the 2026 HT Champions Series, the Spa & Surf Showdown.

Smiling Roșie ($20.54, $10.42) in the 8th at BAQ was the star of Noce’s 4-win, 2-place stable.

Smiling Rosie also had Jamey Gjetley smiling.

Gjetley (4 firsts, 2 seconds) banked $3,359 for taking Thursday’s $6,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which closed with a final purse of $7,465.

Three days later, Gjetley came back to win a larger prize.

Gjetley (5 firsts, 1 second) came up with the day’s biggest price—Sail With the Wind ($14.68, $5.84) in the 8th at BAQ—and he took home the $10,000 berth in Sunday’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier at HorsePlayers. Happily for David Browning, there were enough entrants attracted for second place to be worth a $5,000 partial BCBC entry.

Daniel Edwards doubled his pleasure on Friday.

Edwards (6 wins, 1 place) swept the final four contest races, including a nice hit with 9-1 Bite and Strike at BAQ (BAS at BAQ) in race 7. Edwards collected the $8,638 first prize in Friday’s HT Tour battle, our $15,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which closed with a pot of $19,196.

The same picks delivered Edwards a $2,500 Spa & Surf Showdown seat.

Joining Edwards in the Spa & Surf starting gate will be runner up Bruce D’Agostini (3 wins, 4 places). D’Agostini’s most rewarding selection was Into the Light ($33.20, $13.64) in race 5 at BAQ.

Into the Light was the first and best winner on Friday for Eric Pineiro (3 wins, 3 places).

Pineiro reeled in the $10,000 entry in Friday’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier at HorsePlayers. Chris Inman reported home in second position to secure a $5,000 partial BCBC seat.

Vance Normand was also an Into the Light fan.

Normand (2 firsts, 5 seconds) snatched up the $1,500 berth in Friday’s Lone Star Summer Betting Challenge qualifier.

Howard Blumberg (5 wins, 2 places) and recent NHC Hall of Fame inductee Kevin Engelhard (4W, 4P) came away with the $500 seats at the conclusion of Friday’s DeFrancis Dash Day Challenge qualifier.

Blumberg hit 4 of the first 5 contest-race winners, including Into the Light. Engelhard’s heaviest lifter was Bold Diversion ($15.80, $6.40) in the 7th at BAQ.

On Sunday, June 14th, Tom Lenberg won four featured tourneys here. On Friday, the 19th, he took our Haskell Challenge qualifier.

Lenberg compiled 3 winners and 2 runners up that were highlighted by Bite and Strike at BAQ.

Four players earned low-cost NHC seats in Friday’s $70 qualifier at HorsePlayers.

Congratulations to Vishnu Kwalsingh (6 wins, 1 place), Samuel “Kiss of” Dearth (4W, 1P), NHC Hall of Famer Trey Stiles (5W, 3P) and Michael Marlaire (5W, 1P). Kwalsingh and Dearth connected on both Into the Light and Bite and Strike. Stiles had the latter. Marlaire smoked out the former.

A couple of weeks ago, Eldon “Breaking Bad” Stivers won $119,545 in the New York New York Challenge and said that he’d love to win the HT Tour someday. On Saturday, he took another step to that end.

Thanks in part to Shared Success ($32.98, $15.30) in the 6th at BAQ, Stivers bagged the $13,855 grand prize in Saturday’s HT Tour competition, our $25,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which closed with a final prize pool of $30,789.

The same Pick & Pray selections also left Stivers on top of the leaderboard in Saturday’s Spa & Surf Showdown qualifier.

There were enough entries for two $2,500 entries to be awarded here, and the other one went to runner up Don Wolfrom (5 wins, 2 places). Wolfrom’s best return was provided by Strategic Profile ($26.40, $7.20) in race 9 of the Ohio Derby Day card at Thistledown.

Evan Trommer had a very nice Saturday.

Trommer counted One Bid ($33.00, $12.60) in the 7th at Monmouth among the 3 firsts and 4 seconds that got him the $2,849 top prize in Saturday’s $4,071 Big Bucks Pick & Pray.

By altering his picks somewhat, Trommer upped his score in two other Saturday features.

Trommer finished with 6 wins and 2 places—and a final score of $104.74—in taking both our Haskell Challenge and Canterbury Northern Star Challenge qualifiers on Saturday.

Gregory Lewis secured the $1,500 berth in Saturday’s Lone Star Summer Betting Challenge play-in.

Lewis (7 wins, 1 place) realized his most lucrative return from Nessuna Pagina ($21.58, $10.34) in race 7 at BAQ.

The same dozen selections worked nicely for Lewis in Saturday’s DeFrancis Dash Day Challenge.

Lewis finished second in this three-seater, thus guaranteeing himself double-barreled action (Lone Star + DeFrancis) this coming Saturday. Edging out Lewis in this qualifier was NHC Hall of Fame member Stanley Bavlish (5 wins, 2 places). Also advancing to the “DDD” Challenge was third-place contestant Keith Van Lanen (3W, 3P). Bavlish’s gaudiest payoff came from Shared Success. Van Lanen’s day was brightened the most by One Bid.

Saturday’s $179 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge qualifier was won by our 2024 Pick & Pray Classic champ Mark Stillmock.

Stillmock recorded the highest score of the day, $146.90, on the strength of 4 winners (one of which was Shared Success) plus 2 places.

David “Norm” Snead (3 wins, 2 places) and NHC Hall of Famer Sally Goodall (5W, 1P) emerged with the two available Vegas spots in Saturday’s $195 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers.

Snead and Goodall shared an appreciation for Shared Success. Snead managed to outdo Goodall (despite two fewer winners and one fewer collection) because both of his runners up paid a capped $22.00 in the place hole. So even his places played like winners.

On Sunday, we hosted our first qualifier to the 2026 Kentucky Downs King of the Turf Handicapping Challenge. 

Terry Jerge (4 places followed by 2 winners) and Tom Cooper (5W, 2P) were the first two to earn the right to compete for the coveted championship belt. Jerge had the day’s biggest price horse in Sail With the Wind ($14.68, $5.84) in the 8th at BAQ. Cooper had a different approach. The top winner of his five returned $6.44 to win.

Sunday’s highest scorer was Chris Weikel (6 wins, 1 place).

Weikel hit the first three contest races, and later he nailed Sail With the Wind on the way to winning Sunday’s Haskell Challenge qualifier.

Brian “BC” Chenvert (3 firsts, 1 second) also backed Sail With the Wind.

Chenvert picked up the hefty $6,500 package after prevailing in Sunday’s guaranteed Del Mar Summer Challenge qualifier.

There were three $500 seat winners in Sunday’s DeFrancis Dash Day Challenge qualifier.

Congratulations to Frank Foss (5 wins, 0 places), G.T. Nixon (4W, 2P) and, by 28 cents, James Michael (4W, 1P). Foss and Nixon scored with Follow the Fellow ($12.00, $5.20) in the 7th at Monmouth. The stable star for Michael (who whiffed on the first four tourney races) was Sail With the Wind.

Nixon used the same 12 plays to finish first in Sunday’s Spa & Surf Showdown qualifier.

The two who finished closest to Nixon—and thereby also earned $2,500 entries—were Peter Rogers (4 wins, 3 places) and Joel Wincowski (4W, 2P). Rogers hit the first three race winners, including Nic’s Bro ($11.20, $5.00) at the outset in the 6th at Gulfstream, but he needed a $10.00 place collection at the end from Claudee Boy, the 16-1 runner up in the 10th at Laurel, to get himself up and into “the money”. Meanwhile, Wincowski—like Nixon—got his biggest boost from Follow the Fellow.

Mark Simonovic hit Nic’s Bro at the beginning and did the bulk of his damage early on.

Simonovic stockpiled 4 wins and a place over the first 5 races and added 2 more winners later on to capture Sunday’s Lone Star Summer Betting Challenge qualifier.

Last but certainly not least, Troy Robertson made it a very happy Father’s Day, indeed, by taking Sunday’s HT Tour event, our $20,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray.

Robertson pocketed $11,025 in a game ultimately worth a total of $24,500. Follow the Fellow gave him his best return among 4 winners and 3 runners up.

The week ahead figures to be a fairly momentous one. Not only will it be your final chance to qualify for Saturday’s DeFrancis Dash Day Challenge and Canterbury Northern Stars Challenge, it will also be your final chance to gamble in any way, shape or form on Aqueduct. After Sunday, the Big A is no more.

A lot of people have been—understandably—waxing poetic lately about Aqueduct. I’ll miss it too…but only a little. (I definitely won’t miss rides to the track on the Van Wyck Expressway.)

Those who have walked some of the less forward-facing parts of Aqueduct know that its builders relied heavily on Cold War-era cinder blocks. This always reminded me of my elementary school—where cinder blocks, often adorned by “Fallout Shelter” signs, were also quite prominent. It wasn’t always easy for inquisitive 7-year-olds to understand the responses they got when they asked teachers what the Fallout Shelter signs meant.

Anyway…it’s pretty common to hear people my age say that the old days were the better days, but I’m not sure that’s true as often as people think. Thank you for your service, Aqueduct (and BAQ), but new racetracks are pretty rare these days, and I’m really looking forward to seeing what the new Belmont Park looks like. 

No cinder blocks, I trust.