No Del Mar racing last week. No NYRA racing either. That made it sort of a “tweener” week around here, but there was still plenty of action—and, on Friday, New Englander Geoffrey Schutt took full advantage.

On a day without many big prices, Schutt came up with the biggest—Kaboom ($14.00, $6.40) in the 9th at Horseshoe Indianapolis. That one plus three other winners and two places fetched Schutt the $8,340 grand prize in Friday’s HT Tour competition, our $15,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which paid out a total of $18,534.

The same picks turned Friday’s Pick & Pray Classic qualifier into an open-and-shut case for Geoffrey.

There were enough entries in this first qualifier to the Dec. 5-6, $200,000 Gtd. Event for a second $1,500 seat to be awarded. That one went to runner up Curtis Brodzina, whose best pick among five winning selections was B Grayson ($10.20, $4.00) in the 6th at Los Alamitos.

Schutt wasn’t done yet, though. He also played his 4-win, 2-place choices in Friday’s $70 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers—a game that ultimately awarded three Vegas packages.

Schutt managed to claim the third of those three. The only two who outdid him were Jim Orban, who only came up empty once while stockpiling 5 wins and 4 places, and Mitch Schuman (5W, 2P). Orban hit B Grayson, while Schuman made the most noise with Kaboom.

The featured-tourney week began on Wednesday…the day that the Kentucky Downs meet ended.

Howard Raines (3 wins, 3 places) came up with Ms. Jay Dee Em ($79.38, $29.30) in race 6 at the Franklin, Ky., course. Raines pocketed the $2,768 first prize in Wednesday’s $5,000 guaranteed cash tourney, which closed with a final purse of $6,152.

Thursday’s cash-game star was Cristino Pontecorvo.

Pontecorvo booked 5 firsts and 2 seconds to bag the $2,706 top prize in Wednesday’s $6,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray. His big horse was Turkish Pistachio ($29.00, $13.40) in race 3 at Horseshoe Indy.

Chris Weikel (4 wins, 2 places) came away with the Vegas package at the conclusion of Thursday’s $120 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers.

Weikel’s heaviest lifter was Doc’s Miracle ($15.60, $3.80) in the 6th at Delaware.

Mike Puglisi picked six winners to punch his ticket to the BCBC in Friday’s Low Ratio qualifier at HorsePlayers.

Puglisi’s most explosive winner was 6-1 Kaboom in the 9th at Horseshoe Indianapolis.

B Grayson was the star of Joe “Tex” Scanio’s stable in Friday’s Laurel September Challenge qualifier. 

Scanio selected 5 winners and 2 runners up en route to grabbing the $500 entry for September 26.

Peter Rogers (4 wins, 2 places) and Evan Trommer (3W, 1P) secured the $3,500 berths in Friday’s qualifier to the Oct. 10 Keeneland Fall BCBC/NHC Challenge.

Rogers realized his best return from B Grayson. Trommer’s highest-yielding horse was Sly Guy, who provided a max $22.00 place payoff by running second at 28-1 in what turned out to be the final contest race, the 10th at Horseshoe Indy. 

Trommer came back 24 hours later and won a $500 seat in Saturday’s Laurel September Challenge qualifier. 

Trommer only picked one winner all day, but it was a good one—Starship Athena ($42.80, $9.60) in the 9th at Delaware, the George Rosenberger Stakes. Trommer augmented his scoring total with five place collections.

Ken Kieras (4 wins, 2 places) nailed Starship Athena.

Kieras prevailed in our richest tourney of the week, Saturday’s $25,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray (an HT Tour event). His reward was $11,250.

Another Starship Athena fan was John Schimpf.

Schimpf (3 firsts, 3 seconds) led the way in Saturday’s Keeneland Fall BCBC/NHC Challenge.

Starship Athena was one of four straight winner fired off at one point by Kevin Olson.

Olson (4 firsts, 1 second) garnered the low-cost Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge entry in today’s $179 qualifier at HorsePlayers.

The other Saturday feature at HorsePlayers was a $195 NHC qualifier that guaranteed two seats.

Mark “Doctor” Detro finished first—and second—in this one. His two scores were just a dollar apart despite having five different picks across the two entries. Of course, NTRA rules dictate that players may only win one seat in any given contest, so the second NHC berth went to Razorback Tanya Taylor (3 wins, 4 places). She and Detro (4W, 3P) both connected with Starship Athena.

Aaron Bernstein (3 wins, 3 places) was another who saw the merits of Starship Athena.

Bernstein and Terry Jerge (5 wins, 1 place) were the two who obtained $1,500 entries in Saturday’s qualifier to the Pick & Pray Classic (the fifth and final leg in the 2026 HT Champions Series). Jerge was the only Saturday grand-prize winner who managed to prosper without having Starship Athena. His most productive selection was Dune Road ($15.80, $6.20) in race 10 at Gulfstream.

Ted “Forbidden” Apple (5 wins, 2 places) recorded a pair of authoritative victories on Sunday.

Apple smoked out Kool Kay ($99.60, $20.20) in the 9th at Laurel en route to a $54.70  triumph over Rafael Lopez (5W, 5P) in Sunday’s Pick & Pray Classic play-in. Happily for Lopez, this was a “two-seater” so he got a $1,500 entry along with Apple. Lopez’s best idea was playing Post Command ($30.40, $10.40) in the 7th at Monmouth.

While all that was going on, Apple captured Sunday’s Laurel September Challenge qualifier by an even greater margin.

This time the cushion was $67.80. The distant second-place finisher in this one was NHC Hall of Famer Kevin Engelhard, who counted Post Command among his 3 firsts and 4 seconds.

Kool Kay was Elizabeth Canning’s springboard to Sunday success.

Canning (5 firsts, 2 seconds) pocketed $9,843 for topping the leaderboard in Sunday’s  HT Tour battle, our $20,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray. It had a final pot of $21,875.

We noted a few paragraphs earlier that Rafael Lopez had posted 5 wins and 5 places from Sunday’s 12 contest races. Jeannie King also amassed 10 collections on Sunday. Six of them were winners.

King (6 wins, 4 places) and Ronald Guffee (6W, 3P) reeled in the two available Vegas packages in Sunday’s $155 NHC Pick & Pray at HorsePlayers. The most lucrative selection for both was Post Command. 

Tom Lenberg also came up with Post Command.

Lenberg (5 firsts, 4 seconds) received the $10,000 entry after the dust had settled in Sunday’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier at HorsePlayers. Frank “Bedtime” Story reported home in second position…which was good for a $5,000 partial BCBC seat.

David Bennett whiffed on the first seven contest races on Sunday, but that didn’t stop him from succeeding.

Bennett generated 2 wins and 2 places from the final five heats to lead the way in Sunday’s Keeneland Fall BCBC/NHC Challenge qualifier. He got his big boost from Kool Kay. Eric Pineiro (5W, 2P) got the second spot—and the other $3,500 seat that was up for grabs. Pineiro’s best return came courtesy of High Lateen ($13.00, $5.00) in the 7th at Gulfstream.

Don’t look now, but the rebuilt Belmont Park opens up this Friday—and the 2026 Breeders’ Cup is now less than seven weeks away. Some fun times are ahead—and we hope to make them just a little bit more fun for you. Thanks to all of you for your business and your trust. We don’t take any of that lightly.