Almost all of the Saturday and Sunday Featured Tourneys last weekend were conducted in Live format. However, when Temecula, Calif., car dealer Michael Caposio plays Live games here, he typically treats them like Pick & Prays. On Sunday, that method worked extremely well for him.

Caposio (3 firsts, 1 second) saved his best winner for the end.

Having Out of the Fog ($32.38, $16.06) in the final contest race, the 9th at Saratoga, got him the $6,500 package in Sunday’s guaranteed qualifier to the July 25-26 Del Mar Summer Challenge.

It was much the same story in Sunday’s Kentucky Downs King of the Turf Handicapping Challenge qualifier.

In Sunday’s Haskell Challenge play-in, Caposio topped a leaderboard that sent three ahead to the July 18 contest.

Joining Caposio in the field will be Matt “The Fly” Tietze (2 wins, 2 places) and Kevin Willett (5W, 2P). Like Caposio, Tietze played Out of the Fog. Willett was notable in that he was the only player on Sunday to earn a grand prize without having picked Out of the Fog.

Caposio could only manage a second-place finish in Sunday’s $155 NHC qualifier here at HorseTourneys—but that effort “paid” just as well as a winning one.

Caposio bested all except George Novick, who hit the final two winners and wound up with 3 firsts and 3 seconds on the day.

Caposio also enjoyed a highly-productive runner-up performance in Sunday’s qualifier to the $400,000 Gtd. Spa & Surf Showdown here on August 29-30.

Leading the way in this competition was John Behnke, who racked up 4 wins, 2 places and a final score of $122.42.

Behnke didn’t score quite as well in Sunday’s qualifier to the NYRABets handicapping tournament on August 1, but he won that one too.

Getting back to Caposio, he drove off on Sunday with five tournament seats/packages worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $18,500. That’s pretty great mileage out of one set of picks.

The highest-octane performance on Wednesday belonged to Dr. Ronald Tang.

Fueled by 4 wins and 3 places, Tang’s final tally was $74.80, and he won Wednesday’s Haskell Challenge qualifier. His big horse was Magnus Gold ($18.60, $5.40) in race 9 at Horseshoe Indianapolis. There were enough entrants signed on for two additional $1,000 entries to be awarded. Those went to Joseph Rich (3W, 2P) and Rafael Lopez (5W, 1P). They both connected with Magnus Gold as well.

Using the same picks, Tang and Lopez ran one-two in Wednesday’s Spa & Surf Showdown qualifier. They each received $2,500 entries into Leg 4 of the 2026 HT Champions Series.

Wednesday’s cash-game hero was another Magnus Gold backer—Timothy Jacobs.

Jacobs amassed 3 wins and 4 places en route to collecting $2,626 in Wednesday’s $5,000 Guaranteed cash tourney, which closed with a final purse of $5,253.

Thursday was all about Dane Moore.

Iron Palace ($57.14, $20.28) in the 9th at Saratoga was one of three Thursday winners smoked out by Moore—out of what were just eight contest races after a weather cancellation at Delaware Park.

Moore bagged the up-top money of $3,266 in Thursday’s $6,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which closed with a pot of $7,258.

He rode the same three winners to victory in Thursday’s other two featured events.

Moore has now punched his ticket to Vegas for the 2027 NHC—and also to the $400,000 Gtd. Spa & Surf Showdown.

Thursday’s NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers awarded just the one seat won by Moore. Friday’s, a $70 affair, bestowed four.

Those were accounted for by Edward Enborg (2 wins, 3 places), Tarik Koutchaf (4W, 2P), Chris Bertolucci (3W, 2P) and Michael Barrow (2W, 4P). Sippin Pretty ($55.18, $17.42), the winner of race 9 at Saratoga, the Victory Ride Stakes, appeared on each of their scorecards.

Thanks in part to Sippin Pretty, current HT Tour leader John O’Brien will likely increase his lead when the standings get updated later this week.

O’Brien (5 firsts, 1 second) pocketed $8,936 for taking Friday’s HT Tour skirmish, our $15,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which was ultimately worth a total of $19,858.

William “23” Sadoo was another who was sittin’ pretty after nailing Sippin Pretty.

Sadoo (1 first, 3 seconds) grabbed the $2,500 entry in Friday’s qualifier to the Kentucky Downs King of the Turf Handicapping Challenge qualifier.

Rob Ramirez (5 wins, 1 place), Anthony DeCaspers (4W, 1P), NHC Hall of Famer Roger Cettina (2W, 3P) and R. Paul Capone (3W, 1P) were the four players who won $1,000 entries in Friday’s Haskell Challenge qualifier. 

The biggest contributor to all their scoresheets was Jordan’s Love ($19.72, $10.30) in the 6th at Saratoga.

The two players to eclipse the $70.00 mark—or the $60.00 mark, for that matter—were the two to emerge with $2,500 seats in Friday’s Spa & Surf Showdown qualifier.

Congratulations to Michael Sussman (3 wins, 1 place) and Tom Lenberg (2W, 1P). Sussman’s three winners came consecutively, beginning with Jordan’s Love. Lenberg’s main love was Sippin Pretty.

Jordan’s Love was the Friday stable star for Scott Feldkamp (4 wins, 1 place).

Feldkamp reeled in the $10,000 seat in Friday’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier at HorsePlayers. Chip Armbruster finished second—good for a $5,000 partial BCBC berth.

After a big week last week, Evan Trommer again put himself in the scoring column on Friday.

Trommer counted Baby Sassicaia ($15.72, $6.26) in the 8th at Saratoga among the 3 wins and 2 place tallied on the way to earning a $500 entry in Friday’s Xpressbet Whitney Day Challenge entry.

Our 2023 The BIG One champ Brendan Fay got his largest Friday boost from Capturing ($16.06, $8.32) the narrow winner of race 7 at Saratoga.

Fay (2 firsts, 2 seconds) earned the $1,000 ducat in Friday’s qualifier to the NYRABets handicapping tournament on August 1.

One of David Nelson’s three winners on Friday was Jordan’s Love.

That 8-1 winner helped Nelson get into the end zone of Friday’s Retama Betting Championship (July 25) qualifier.

Nelson came back the next day and did some winning.

Nelson scored with Manor Park ($27.94, $9.50) in the 11th at Saratoga. That was part of a 5-win, 1-place day for Nelson that resulted in a $9,973 victory for him in Saturday’s $14,248 Big Bucks Pick & Pray.

Nelson wasn’t the only Friday winner who came back on short rest to taste Saturday success. So did Brendan Fay.

Fay (4 wins, 3 places) led the way in Saturday’s two-seat Spa & Surf Showdown qualifier. Also snagging a $2,500 berth in the August 29-30 get together was Frank Okasaki (3W, 3P). The heavy lifter for both was Seminole Chief ($30.60, $16.80) in race 10 at Horseshoe Indy.

“Battlin’” William Smith also used Seminole Chief as a springboard to Saturday success.

Smith (4 wins, 1 place) did all of his scoring over the final six contest races. He scooped up the $13,855 top prize in Saturday’s HT Tour event, our $25,000 Guaranteed cash game, which was ultimately worth a total of $30,789.

There was also a $5,000 Guaranteed All Optional Live cash tourney. It didn’t come close to reaching its guarantee from an entry-count standpoint, and that meant a nice 28% overlay proposition for those who did take part.

The primary beneficiary of our misfortune was John W. Matviko (3 firsts, 3 seconds). His best hit on the way to the $2,500 victory was with Manor Park ($27.94, $9.50) in the 11th at Saratoga.

NHC Hall of Famer Steve Wolfson Jr. (3 wins, 2 places), Brody Wolfgram (3W, 3P) and Thomas Flores (3W, 1P) all came up with Manor Park.

They got the three available $1,000 seats in Saturday’s Haskell Challenge qualifier.

The two players who cracked the century mark were the two to pick up Vegas packages in Saturday’s $155 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers.

The skillful duo was comprised of Frank “54-40 or Fight” Polk (5 wins, 1 place) and David Atwell (3W, 2P). Polk scored with Manor Park. Atwell’s best pick was Seminole Chief.

Jay Coatta (5 firsts, 2 seconds) connected with Seminole Chief and later finished strong with 3 straight winners at the end to take the $10,000 entry in Saturday’s $179 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge qualifier at HorsePlayers.

Brendan Fay, the earlier-noted Spa & Surf Showdown and NYRABets seat winner, finished second and obtained a $5,000 partial BCBC entry.

Chris Podratz (2 firsts, 2 seconds) did all of his scoring during the second half of the featured-tourney day. 

The best of those scores came courtesy of Seminole Chief. That helped Podratz take home the $6,500 package in Saturday’s Del Mar Summer Challenge qualifier.

Michael Bench (3 wins, 3 places) also used Seminole Chief.

Bench will now be in the starting lineup for the NYRABets handicapping tournament on August 1.

Also backing Seminole Chief on Saturday was Mark “Santana” Tabakman (4 wins, 2 places).  

Tabakman earned the $2,500 scholarship in Saturday’s entrance exam for the Kentucky Downs King of the Turf Handicapping Challenge.

Moving on to Sunday, there was a small number of featured events not dominated by Michael Caposio and/or John Behnke.

One of them was Sunday’s HT Tour game, our $20,000 Guaranteed cash tourney, which ended up paying out $24,500. Kyle Glynn banked $11,025 of that amount by hitting Out of the Fog at the end and 5 wins and a place before that. (Michael Caposio settled for 4th-place here.)

Out of the Fog was one of five winners detected by Matthew Cortez.

Cortez exited with the $10,000 seat in his pocket at the conclusion of Sunday’s Breeders’ Cup Low Ratio qualifier at HorsePlayers. (Caposio was second.)

The other Sunday feature at HorsePlayers was an NHC Low Ratio play-in.

Stephen Diaz will now be part of the intimate gathering at the Horseshoe events center next March. He recorded 3 winners and another 3 runners up.

Time to check in on the two Saratoga Super Survivor tourneys going on right now. There are seven live entries remaining in the $50 game (winner-take-all purse of $6.556). Meanwhile, six remain in the $250 test ($14,520 to the winner).

Travis Pearson is holding a nice hand at the moment. The 2022 HT Tour champion has two entries still alive in each game.

I’ll be off for the next couple of Mondays, so I’ll next see you in this space in August. In the meantime, enjoy the Del Mar racing which (as you probably know) kicks off on Friday—and good luck in all of your tourney escapades!