The final margin of victory wasn’t much—just 24 cents—but that scant difference delivered a monstrous payday of $196,057 to Mike Yurczyk in the 8th annual Spa & Surf Showdown here at HorseTourneys.

This year’s Spa & Surf Showdown attracted 245 entries that were either won via qualifiers or purchased for $2,500. Players were required to make mythical $2.00 win-and-place selections on every race from the Saratoga and Del Mar cards on both Saturday and Sunday, August 29-30. The final prize pool for the event totaled $533,984—easily surging past its $400,000 guarantee. First place in the two-day battle was worth $192,056.

Yurczyk, a 43-year-old sandwich shop owner from Bloomington, Minn., started off very nicely. Playing just one entry, he compiled the third-highest scoring total on Saturday’s first day of competition.

On top of the Day 1 heap was Charles Welch.

Welch pocketed a nice “advance” of $13,337 for having the highest Saturday score. Ted “Forbidden” Apple got $8,002 for finishing closest to Welch. Then came Yurczyk, who received $4,001. The final Saturday “Day Bonus” earner was Alan Lahr ($1,334) in 4th place. Each of the top three on Saturday enjoyed their biggest success with Manee ($41.00, $13.60) in the 6th at Del Mar. Lahr’s best winner was 10-1 Leading Change in the Travers at Saratoga.

The first part of Day 2 on Sunday favored Mike Yurczyk.

Yurczyk wrested the lead from Welch in that first Sunday race at the Spa. A couple of hours later…not a whole lot had changed.

With just two races remaining in the tourney, Yurczyk was still in front. Now, however, his closest pursuer was 2023 HT Tour champion Ed Peters, who was having a very big Day 2. Charles Welch, meanwhile, had faded back to fifth place. Perhaps this wasn’t going to be his weekend after all.

Then came race 9 at Del Mar. Here’s what the leaderboard showed right after the gates sprang open for race 9:

Both Yurczyk and Peters had chosen 6-1 proposition Mirahmadi. Welch was going with 19-1 outsider Arrowthegreat…who hadn’t run in a year.

When Arrowthegreat captured the 9th by half a length, it seemed as though Welch might recapture the lead he took with him into the start of Day 2. Mirahmadi had run dead last, so Yurczyk and Peters weren’t gaining anything. Welch went into the race trailing Yurczyk by $54.04, and Welch was going to get at least $40.00 for the win portion of his play. Place money on a 19-1 shot in a 9-horse race had to be worth at least $14.20…right?

Wrong.

The good news for Welch was that the win mutuel on Arrowthegreat turned out to be a fat $41.60. The bad news: 6-5 favorite Privman ran second, soaking up enough of the place pool to leave Welch still 24 cents short of Yurczyk.

There was, however, one race left.

When the starter pressed the button on the 10th at Del Mar—and Spa & Surf Showdown picks appeared immediately thereafter—we learned that Yurczyk had gone with 3-1 favorite Midway Lane. That horse wound up nowhere, finishing 8th. Welch hitched his wagon to 4-1 third choice Call Me Sir. A second-place finish would have gotten him the Spa & Surf Showdown title.

Call Me Sir finished third, beaten half a length for second by 15-1 Hothead. The winner was a 12-1 shot—Tribal.

No one within shouting range had Tribal, and so Yurczyk held on. That 24 cents had meant $114,293 to him. That was the difference in prize money between first and second places.

(One side note—Tribal was not a popular selection at all. In fact, you had to drill all the way down to reigning NHC champ Dylan Donnelly in 74th place to find someone who picked Tribal. The win moved Donnelly up to 33rd at the end.)

Here is a look at how Yurczyk’s two days went:

Yurczyk put up a very solid number of $128.92 on Day 2. That was 17th best for the day. Combining the Day Money bonus ($4,001) he picked up on Saturday and his first-place overall prize ($192,056), Yurczyk won $196,057.

And here is a look at the Top 25 in the final standings:

Mega kudos go out, of course to Charles Welch, who played a fantastic tournament and who, frankly, didn’t seem to have a lot of luck on his side towards the end. He collected $13,337 for achieving the top score on Saturday and another $76,822 for coming in second. Grand total: $90,159.

Here’s what Sunday’s “Day 2 only” leaderboard looked like: 

Craig “Home Sweet” Hom got the $13,337 Day Money bonus on Sunday. Then came Ed Peters ($8,002), Jared Henry ($4,001) and Thomas Kolschowsky ($1,334). 

As for Yurczyk, he also garnered 100 points in the HT Champions Series bonus standings. The Spa & Surf Showdown was Leg 4 in the five-race series that concludes with the Pick & Pray Classic on December 5-6.

Check back to this space on Wednesday…when we’ll offer up a profile of the latest HorseTourneys “major” winner, Mike Yurczyk.