The handicapping marksmanship of “Pistol” Pete Acocella was on full display last weekend. He hit the target two times on Saturday and twice more on Sunday.

Saturday’s biggest price—My Kid Syd ($49.60, $18.00) in the 9th at Parx—did not go undetected by Acocella. That one was part of a 2-win, 2-place day for Acocella, who accounted for the $2,500 entry up for grabs in Saturday’s Kentucky Downs King of the Turf Handicapping Challenge qualifier.

Acocella fired off the same rounds in Saturday’s multi-track Spa & Surf Showdown qualifier, and he wound up in second place in what turned out to be a three-seat play-in to the $400,000 Guaranteed event here on August 29-30.

Also advancing to the fourth leg of the 2026 HT Champions Series here were leaderboard-topper Raj Satyan (3 wins, 3 places) and William “23” Sadoo (4W, 0P). Like Acocella, Satyan backed My Kid Syd. Sadoo, who won a whopping five tourneys here the previous Sunday, started slowly but finished strongly. He swept the final three contest heats, including a big hit with Fibonacci’s Ride ($36.80, $13.00) at the very end in the 6th at Del Mar.

Acocella came out with guns blazing again the next day.

The big horse for Acocella (4 wins, 1 place) on Sunday was Funny Factor ($48.40, $17.64) in the 8th at Saratoga. When the smoke cleared, he had won $14,765 in Sunday’s HT Tour shootout, our $20,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which closed with a final total purse of $32,812.

The identical selections landed Acocella on top of the heap in Sunday’s $155 NHC qualifier as well.

There were enough entries attracted for three Vegas packages to be awarded, and the other two went to Mark Wilgard (3 wins, 1 place) and Kevin Willett (5W, 3P). Wilgard and Willett also connected on Funny Factor…as did almost all of Sunday’s successful competitors.

As for Acocella, it was roughly a $25,000 weekend for him—and it was a very nice one for Wilgard too.

Wilgard will now have action out at Del Mar this Saturday after copying and pasting his NHC-qualifier choices into Sunday’s Pacific Classic Challenge qualifier. Brian “BC” Chenvert will be out there as well. Chenvert had Funny Factor plus 3 other winners and 1 runner up, and he finished second to Wilgard in this two-seater.

The $4,000 Pacific Classic Challenge seat represented just a fraction of Chenvert’s Sunday winnings, however. 

Chenvert added an extra place collection to his scorecard in Sunday’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier at HorsePlayers, and he came away with a $10,000 seat—as did runner up Angelo Partipelo, who counted Funny Factor among his 2 wins and 3 places.

Chenvert also showed the way in Sunday’s multi-track Spa & Surf Showdown qualifier. 

The victory upped the value of Chenvert’s “Sunday seats won” to $16,500. Bob “Snow” White (5 wins, 1 place), Alan “Bert” Lahr (2W, 3P) and Bryan “Quarterback” Sacks (3W, 2P) were the others to land $2,500 Showdown entries here.  White and Lahr each came up with Funny Factor. Sacks had the unique distinction of being the only Sunday grand-prize winner who so prospered without smoking out Funny Factor. His best pick came at the very start of the tourney with Thankfulness ($34.60, $9.80) in race 7 at Monmouth.

Our featured-tourney week got off to a delayed start due to a Wednesday cancellation at Horseshoe Indianapolis that knocked out our multi-track schedules. Happily, conditions were favorable on Thursday—although big prices were in short supply.

Matthew Abbott (3 wins, 3 places) experienced his best return from Dane the Great ($8.60, $5.00) in the 6th at Del Mar. Abbott banked the $4,168 first prize in Thursday’s $6,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which closed with a final pot of $9,262.

The 2022 NHC Tour champ Jay Johns hit two runners up on Thursday followed by five winners.

The best of those winners was Brit’s Tiger Magic ($13.60, $8.60) in the 7th at Del Mar. That one helped propel Johns to the top in Thursday’s $120 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers.

For Max Schnepf (4 wins, 3 places) and Marc Racenstein (3W, 5P), the big Thursday horse came at the very end—Van Gogh Style ($10.20, $6.80) in race 8 at Del Mar.

Schnepf and Racenstein claimed the two $2,500 entries that were at stake in Thursday’s Spa & Surf Showdown qualifier.

Almost one year ago, John “The Clocker” Nichols won $196,250 in the 2025 Spa & Surf Showdown. Nichols is clearly pretty serious about defending his title.

Mascara ($7.64, $4.60) was running for Nichols in race 6 of Thursday’s full-card, Saratoga-only qualifier to the August 29-30 Spa & Surf Showdown. So were 3 other winners and 3 runners up. 

Nichols certainly seems to have the “Spa” half of the Spa & Surf Showdown sized up pretty well right now—because he also prevailed in Saturday’s Saratoga-only qualifier for the Showdown.

Math Tutor ($10.50, $5.66) in race 1 helped the numbers add up for Nichols (4 firsts, 3 seconds) in this one. He is now assured of double-barrel action when he seeks a repeat triumph in a little less than two weeks.

Hopping back to Friday action, Jayson “Radio City” Rockett put up 5 winners—highlighted by Humidity ($21.60, $7.80) in the last contest race, the 8th at Del Mar.

Rockett bagged the up-top money of $10,127 in Friday’s HT Tour event, our $15,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which was ultimately worth a total of $25,319.

He also grabbed himself a low-cost NHC seat thanks to the same picks.

Rockett finished second in Friday’s four-seat, $70 qualifier at HorsePlayers. The only one who outdid him was fellow Humidity lover John Beckford, who nailed the first 3 winners and 7 in all. Kenneth “Big” Bhallah (3 wins, 2 places) also dealt successfully with Humidity in order to finish third. Fourth-place finisher Mitch Jensen couldn’t handle Humidity. Instead, he racked up 7 wins and 2 places from the 10 contest races. His best return came with Contrary Thinking ($7.42, $4.78) in the 8th at Saratoga. That race took place while Jensen was busy hitting four straight winners at the outset of the tourney.

Friday’s full-card, Saratoga-only qualifier to the Spa & Surf Showdown went to Glen Gottlieb (3 firsts, 1 second).

Gottlieb lit the lamp with Ovechkin ($25.62, $12.92) in race 5.

There were three $2,500 seat winners in Friday’s multi-track qualifier for the Spa & Surf Showdown.

Congratulations to Paul Sadler (4 wins, 4 places), Peter Kizenko (3W, 2P) and Chris Podratz (4W, 3P). The three players had three different horses as their respective “heaviest lifters”. Sadler’s most lucrative choice was Luz de Guia ($12.66, $6.08) in the off-the-turf race 10 at Saratoga. Kizenko was feeling Humidity at Del Mar. Podratz got his biggest boost from Lucky N Smart ($11.20, $4.80) in the 6th at Del Mar.

Podratz lost a tad off his score in Friday’s Pacific Classic Challenge play-in, but he wound up finishing first in that one.

He will be joined in the Pacific Classic Challenge field by Michael Caposio, who finished second in this qualifier. Like Podratz, Caposio (3 wins, 2 places) scored with Lucky N Smart. 

Slow and steady (and maybe lucky and smart too) won the race for Kirk Rockwell (5 wins, 2 places) in Friday’s Kentucky Downs King of the Turf Handicapping Challenge qualifier.

Rockwell’s single biggest return en route to the $2,500 entry came from Got’m Cot’m ($8.00, $3.20) in the 7th at Del Mar. As it turned out, Rockwell needed every bit of that dime breakage in the Got’m Cot’m race. He wound up edging Michael Caposio by 16 cents.

There were two winners of $10,000 seats in Friday’s Low Ratio qualifier at HorsePlayers to the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge.

It wasn’t the heat but Humidity that helped Bernard “Benjamin” Moore (4 wins, 3 places) to the winner’s circle. Brandon Leigh (4W, 3P) finished second to secure the other available BCBC berth. Luz de Guia was Leigh’s top contributor. 

Saturday’s HT Tour game was our $25,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray. It carried a final prize pool of $31,399 and a first-place prize of $14,129.

The victor was Louis Constan, who recorded 5 wins and 3 places, including Fibonacci’s Ride ($36.80, $13.00) at the end of the contest in race 6 at Del Mar. 

Tyler Jermann (3 wins, 2 places) was another who saved his best for last with Fibonacci’s Ride.

Jermann earned the $3,562 grand prize in Saturday’s $5,088 Big Bucks Pick & Pray.

Fibonacci’s Ride was Jermann’s only winner in a different Saturday victory.

He got the $2,500 seat in Saturday’s full-card, Del Mar-only qualifier to the Spa & Surf Showdown.

Andrew Yaretsky (5 wins, 1 place) came up with Fibonacci’s Ride.

Yaretsky picked up the $10,000 entry in Saturday’s $179 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge qualifier at HorsePlayers. Lindsi Gjetley reported home in second position—good for a $5,000 partial BCBC entry.

Barbara Small’s sole Saturday winner was My Kid Syd ($49.60, $18.00) in the 9th at Parx. She supplemented that hit with three place collections.

Small came up big in Saturday’s Pacific Classic Challenge qualifier, garnering a $4,000 berth for this Saturday.

Robert Gregory (3 wins, 1 place) and Amy Brantley (5W, 0P) both connected on My Kid Syd.

They snagged the Vegas packages in Saturday’s $195 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers.

Despite the many splendored exploits of Pete Acocella, Brian Chenvert and Mark Wilgard, the high scorer of the day on Sunday—with a mark of $172.74—was Tomas Johnson.

Johnson booked 5 winners and 3 runners up en route to taking Sunday’s Kentucky Downs King of the Turf Handicapping Challenge qualifier. He undoubtedly felt giddy after seeing Funny Factor ($48.40, $17.64) take the 8th at Saratoga.

Terry Jerge (3 firsts, 1 second) punched his ticket to the Spa & Surf Showdown by capturing Sunday’s full-card, Saratoga-only qualifier to the $400,000 Guaranteed competition.

Jerge served noticed that he would be tough in this one after he collected with Let Em Know ($34.26, $18.90) in race 6.

As noted earlier, the Pacific Classic Challenge takes place Saturday at Del Mar. Qualifiers continue here through Friday. And the upcoming weekend will be your final one in which to qualify for the August 29-30 Spa & Surf Showdown. Thanks to all for your participation—and for your trust.