On Friday and Saturday, David Nelson turned a couple of strong handicapping days into a couple of exciting contest months to come.

Nelson picked three winners on Friday, highlighted by bomb Amigo G A ($117.60, $27.00) in the 3rd and Del Mar. That effort landed Nelson the $2,500 entry in the day’s Kentucky Downs King of the Turf Handicapping Challenge qualifier.

On Saturday, Nelson came up with 5 wins and 2 places, and he bagged the $10,000 entry in Saturday’s $179 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge at HorsePlayers. 

Hector Ramirez got a $5,000 partial BCBC seat for reporting home in second position. For Nelson, the biggest hit of the day was Prime Connection ($30.26, $12,94) in race 12 at Saratoga.

Nelson also took part in Saturday’s full-card, Saratoga-only qualifier to the $400,000 Gtd. Spa & Surf Showdown, which takes place here this Saturday and Sunday. You can bet that he had Prime Connection in race 12.

In all, Nelson recorded 3 wins and 3 places here, besting all except fellow Prime Connection fan Edward Enborg (5W, 2P). They both earned spots in this weekend’s Leg 4 of the HT Champions Series.

When the featured-tourney week began on Wednesday, it was Michael Odorisio (5 wins, 2 places) and Amber Pereira (4W, 3P) who added their names to the Spa & Surf Showdown roster of participants.

Odorisio’s best pick was Special Sauce ($15.20, $6.60) in the 7th at Horseshoe Indianapolis. Pereira’s was Greyjoy ($10.90, $4.96) in race 7 at Saratoga.

Special Sauce was also the key ingredient in Glen Gottlieb’s winning recipe.

Gottlieb (4 firsts, 4 seconds) pocketed the up-top money of $3,421 in Wednesday’s $5,000 guaranteed cash tourney, which closed with a final prize pool of $7,603.

Thursday’s cash-game hero was Dale Hatfield (7 firsts, 2 seconds).

Hatfield won the feud—and the $3,950 that went with it—in Thursday’s $6,000 Gtd, Pick & Pray, which closed with a final pot of $8,778. He swept the final four contest races, ending with the day’s biggest price—Rodrigoknows ($21.00, $8.00) in the 7th at Del Mar.

Curtis Brodzina also knew to play Rodrigoknows.

Brodzina (2 wins, 4 places) punched his ticket to Vegas in Thursday’s $120 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers.

Terry Jerge will be playing a strong hand this weekend in the Spa & Surf Showdown.

Jerge (4 wins, 0 places) and Edwin Peinado (4W, 2P) ran one-two in Thursday’s two-seat Showdown qualifier. Jerge scored with Rodrigoknows, while Peinado’s most lucrative return came from Victoria’s Rocket ($10.60, $6.00) in the 5th at Del Mar.

The next day, Jerge came back and won seat #2.

Ivar Cuellar (1 win, 3 places) led the way in this three-seater. He nailed cap horse Amigo G A. Jerge (4W, 2P) checked in second. He and fellow $2,500 seat recipient Mickey Hopkins (4W, 0P) both did best with Coach of the Year ($15.16, $7.16) in race 10 at Saratoga. 

Tyler Jermann had a terrific day on Friday.

Jermann counted Amigo G A among his 4 winners and 1 runner up. He and Jamey Gjetley (5 winners topped by Coach of the Year) got the available $10,000 entries in Friday’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier at HorsePlayers. 

Jermann played the same picks back at HorsePlayers in Friday’s $70 NHC qualifier, which handed out four seats.

The top two finishers–Jay Johns and 2023 Spa & Surf Showdown champion Anthony Spinazzola– were already double-qualified and, thus, playing just for NHC Tour points. That left the Vegas berths to the 3rd- through 6th-place finishers. The other package-getters, besides Jermann in 5th place, were Patrick Runyan (2 wins, 3 places), Scott Boudreaux (3W, 1P) and Jennifer Sandore (2W, 0P). All of them managed to smoke out Amigo G A.

Amigo G A was certainly a friend to Barbara Small (4 firsts, 1 second).

Small came up big in Friday’s HT Tour event, earning $11,096 in our $15,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which paid out a total of $24,658.

For Joseph “Keith” Foulke, the big horse on Friday was Nash Potatoes ($12.54, $5.24) in race 4.

Foulke came away with the $2,500 scholarship at the conclusion of Friday’s full-card, Saratoga-only entrance exam for the Spa & Surf Showdown.

Saturday’s multi-track Spa & Surf Showdown play-in advanced a whopping five players to next weekend’s big-money proceedings.

Kudos to Jim Videtic (4 wins, 2 places), William Holmes (4W, 3P), 2023 Players Championship winner Lucas Van Zandt (3W, 4P), Jayson “Radio City” Rockett (4W, 1P) and The People’s CFO, Joe “JK” Koury (3W, 2P). All five of them had “KOD”…which, in this case, stood not for kiss of death, but for King of Dragons ($30.00, $16.60) in the 3rd at Del Mar.

King of Dragons was part of a 5-win, 2-place day for Phil Lam.

Lam secured the $2,500 entry in Saturday’s qualifier to the Kentucky Downs King of the Turf Handicapping Challenge on Sept. 5.

Another King of Dragons supporter was Bill Kellish (6 firsts, 1 second).

Kellish picked up the $1,000 seat in our first qualifier to the September 6 Saratoga Sendoff.

King of Dragons had Hayden Leibrock breathing fire on Saturday.

The 14-1 shot was one of three winners selected by Leibrock on the way to taking down the $3,562 first prize in Saturday’s $5,088 Big Bucks Pick & Pray.

Part way through Saturday’s $25,000 Guaranteed cash tourney, Jim Trepinski scored big with Prime Connection ($30.26, $12.94) in the 12th at Saratoga. Then, in the contest finale, Trepinski hit 5-1 King of Gosford in the Del Mar Mile.

That tally…with Saturday’s other victorious “King”…pushed Trepinski (6 wins, 3 places) from 2nd to 1st and delivered him a windfall of $14,815 in a game that was ultimately worth a total of $32,923.

Ed Claunch (6 wins, 1 place) managed to come up with both King of Dragons and Prime Connection.

Claunch put up the high score of the day ($150.62) in taking Saturday’s $155 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers. Runner up Tim Gavin (3 wins, 5 places) also earned passage to Vegas for his efforts. The star of his stable was Prime Connection.

There were two NHC qualifiers on Sunday at HorsePlayers.

With 5 wins and 3 places, Vaughn Bair posted the highest score of the day ($150.56) and took Sunday’s 26-entry NHC Low Ratio qualifier by more than a cap horse’s worth. Not only did he have the highest-priced winner of the day—Club Fighter ($28.80, $10.00) in the 4th at Del Mar—he had all four of the double-digit win prices available during the competition ($28.80, $24.60, $20.00 and $14.60).

Dan “Brown” Shugar had Club Fighter plus 5 other winners and 1 runner up.

Shugar reeled in the Vegas package in Sunday’s $155 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers—an event restricted to those who had yet to nail down a 2027 seat.

Thomas Grout (4 wins, 1 place) cleaned up in the other Sunday feature at HorsePlayers, a Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier.

Grout’s scorecard contained 4 winners (including Club Fighter) and 1 runner up. The second-place contestant, Frank “Plaster of” Paros, received a $5,000 partial BCBC berth.

Steve Arrison was a Club Fighter backer.

Arrison (4 firsts, 2 seconds) banked the $12,403 grand prize in Sunday’s HT Tour battle, our $20,000 Guaranteed cash tourney, which closed its doors with $27,562 in the kitty.

Paul “Morning” Kloeker (5 wins, 1 place) and “Pistol” Pete Acocella (2W, 1P) both landed resounding blows with Club Fighter.

They got the $1,000 seats in Sunday’s Saratoga Sendoff qualifier. For Acocella, it was his fifth win in the last two weeks.

Four players earned $2,500 entries in Sunday’s multi-track Spa & Surf Showdown qualifier.

They were Mark Heider (5 wins, 3 places), Gary “Finance” Brous (6W, 0P), last year’s Pick & Pray Classic champ Lawrence Kahlden (4W, 1P) and William Holobowski (3W, 3P). Heiden and Kahlden shared an appreciation for Club Fighter. The fizziest winner for Brous and Holobowski was Soda ($24.60, $7.20) in the 8th at Del Mar.

There was also a full-card, Saratoga-only Spa & Surf Showdown qualifier on Sunday. The victor was Paul Dunbar.

Dunbar selected 4 winners. A key moment came in the 2nd race when he cheered on Chief of Peace ($33.38, $8.20) and Javier Castellano to victory (although Dunbar might have thought he was cheering on Ricardo Santana).

Tom Lenberg stockpiled 3 winners and 6 runners up en route to taking Sunday’s Kentucky Downs King of the Turf Handicapping Challenge qualifier. 

His best return was the result of Tricky Business ($20.00, $6.26) capturing race 9 in the slop at Saratoga.

There’s a lot to look forward to in the week ahead. On Saturday and Sunday, we host the Spa & Surf Showdown, which requires players to make Live-format selections on every race from Saratoga and Del Mar on each of the two days. The purse is guaranteed to be at least $400,000, and $2,500 buy-ins will be available right up until Saturday’s first post at Saratoga (11:05 am ET). Last year’s champion, John Nichols, won $196,230. Qualifiers for the Spa & Surf Showdown, Leg 4 of the HT Champions Series, will continue through Friday night. 

Speaking of Friday night, that’s Charles Town Classic Night. Expect to see the West Virginia oval to be part of the Friday featured schedule.

The next day, Saturday, is Travers Day at Saratoga. It’s also opening day at Kentucky Downs, where grass races with big fields are plentiful.

We hope that you find the offerings attractive and that you can enjoy a tourney or two in the week ahead. I’ll be back next week to recap the Spa & Surf goings on. In the meantime…good luck!