If you’re lucky—and skillful—one day here can change your whole year. That was the case for two different players last Friday.

John Tipton certainly checked off the “skillful” box.

He recorded 8 winners and 2 runners up in Friday’s 10-race HT Tour competition, our $15,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which closed with a final pot of $20,189. The best of Tipton’s uninterrupted collections was Michael’s Cove ($21.66, $14.68) in the 10th at Keeneland. His reward was a well deserved $9,085.

If you want to nitpick Tipton’s outstanding performance, you could point out that he neglected to select the day’s highest-priced winner—Serenas Ghost ($47.44, $19.72) in race 8 at Keeneland. Thomas “Return to” Mayberry didn’t miss that one.

Serenas Ghost was one of six Friday winners uncovered by Mayberry on the way to taking Friday’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier at HorsePlayers. With the Breeders’ Cup now less than four weeks away, there were enough entries in this one for three $10,000 entries to be awarded. The other two went to fellow Serenas Ghost believers Edward Enborg (3 wins, 2 places) and David “Slick” Watts (also 3W, 2P).

The day didn’t end there for Mayberry…or for John Tipton.

Using their same picks, they each added NHC seats to their Friday hauls by finishing fourth and third, respectively, in the day’s four-seat, $70 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers. Also punching their tickets to Vegas here by running one-two were Serenas Ghost fans Andrew Weiss (6 wins, 0 places) and Steve Arrison (6W, 1P). 

On August 30, Mike Yurczyk won $196,057 for capturing the Spa & Surf Showdown. He has stayed hot since then, and on Wednesday, exactly a month after his memorable six-figure score, he enjoyed two more victories.

Thanks to 4 firsts and 2 seconds that were highlighted by Stella Fortuna ($29.24, $12.24) in the 8th at Belmont, Yurczyk bagged the up-top money of $3,141 in Wednesday’s Live-format, $5,000 Guaranteed cash game, which closed with a final purse of $6,981. 

Yurczyk lost one of his place collections to the Pick & Pray format of Keeneland Fall BCBC/NHC Challenge qualifier…but that didn’t really matter.

He won that one too, earning a $3,500 entry into the Keeneland contest which takes place this coming Saturday.

Wednesday’s other featured-tourney victor was Frank “Plaster of” Paros.

Paros hit Holding Power ($13.22, $8.24) in the first contest race, the 5th at Belmont, and he added 3 more winners and 3 runners up thereafter to earn a $1,500 berth in the $200,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray Classic here on December 5th and 6th. The Pick & Pray Classic serves as the fifth and final leg of the 2026 HT Champions Series (with bonuses on the line!). 

Thursday’s Pick & Pray Classic qualifier went to “Pistol” Pete Acocella (2 wins, 3 places). 

Acocella’s list of top-returning horses was led off by Kwan ($12.20, $6.40) in race 8 at Delaware.

The big bomb of the day on Thursday was Egyptian Mau ($64.10, $21.72) in race 5 at Belmont. Egyptian Mau did not avoid the detection of Geoffrey Schutt (2 firsts, 2 seconds).

Schutt collected the $3,110 first prize in Thursday’s $6,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which was ultimately worth a total of $6,912.

Tom Lenberg’s best return on Thursday came courtesy of Absolute Miracle ($12.80, $7.00) in the 8th at Thistledown.

Lenberg secured the $3,500 entry in Thursday’s Keeeneland Fall BCBC/NHC Challenge qualifier.

On Friday, there were two Keeneland Fall BCBC/NHC play-ins.

Jeffrey Pesot (5 wins, 1 place) and Kirk Rockwell (4W, 0P) each came up with victorious Keeneland 22-1 shot Serenas Ghost en route to finishing one-two in Friday’s multi-track Keeneland qualifier.

There was also a $3,500 Keeneland seat up for grabs in a qualifier that focused solely on the full, opening-day card at the Lexington, Ky., oval.

Mike Castagnoli (4 firsts, 1 second) prevailed here. The star of his stable was Kingside ($15.56. $8.44) in race 6.

For this year’s New York New York Challenge champion Eldon “Breaking Bad” Stivers, the heaviest lifter was Michael’s Cove ($21.66, $14.68) in race 10 at Keeneland.

Stivers (3 wins, 2 places) reeled in the $1,500 entry in Friday’s play-in to the Pick & Pray Classic.

Evan Trommer (5 wins, 1 place) took Saturday’s Pick & Pray Classic qualifier.

Classic Q ($20.08, $8.52) in the 8th at Keeneland was the horse that did the most to improve Trommer’s chances.

Trommer utilized the same selections in taking Saturday’s $5,088 Big Bucks Pick & Pray.

He received $3,562 for coming out on top in this one.

Saturday’s other featured cash game was our richest tourney of the week—our $25,000 Guaranteed event, which paid out a total of $27,436 and served as the day’s HT Tour competition.

Justin Kelly banked the $12,346 grand prize in this one. He scored with a place horse and five winners—the most lucrative of which was Let Em Know ($27.38, $11.54) in race 11 at Belmont.

Matt Strutzel shared an appreciation of Let Em Know.

Let Em Know was one of six winners unearthed by Strutzel on the way to capturing Saturday’s $155 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers. This get-together was restricted to those who had yet to nail down a 2027 seat.

The other Saturday featured tourney at HorsePlayers was a $179 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge play-in.

There were enough entrants signed on for the top two finishers to receive $10,000 seats. Those two were Jim “Caribbean” Crews (5 wins, 1 place) and 2024 Pick & Pray Classic champ Mark Stillmock (4W, 2P). Crews got his best return from Frizette winner Dotsy ($25.02, $7.96) in the 9th at Belmont. Stillmock backed Let Em Know.

Along similar lines, Howard Blumberg had Dotzy while George “Ki-“ Bosch came up with Let Em Know.

Blumberg (5 wins, 4 places) and Bosch (3W, 0P) ran one-two and picked up the $3,500 entries in Saturday’s multi-track Keeneland Fall BCBC/NHC Challenge qualifier.

Saturday’s Keeneland-only, full-card qualifier to the Keeneland Fall BCBC/NHC Challenge went to James Crick (2 wins, 2 places).

Crick’s best pick was Siouxse ($14.58, $6.08) in race 3.

On Sunday, we saw what I, at least, consider to be a true oddity. It might not have always been so, but it is now. It came in Sunday’s HT Tour battle, our $20,000 Guaranteed cash game, which closed with a final pot of an even $21.000.

Jay Row (5 wins, 1 place) and Jon Petoskey (4 wins, 1 place) finished in a tie. “What’s the big deal?” you ask. “Obviously you have ties from time to time. If you didn’t, there wouldn’t be any need for the involved tie-breaking procedures that you spell out at length on your rules page.”

Here’s the thing, though. Those rules were done up during a time long, long ago when there was no such thing as penny breakage. In addition to the many reasons that you may appreciate penny breakage, we like them because they help break what otherwise might have been ties in our tourneys. 

Now penny breakage would play no role in a tourney involving, say, Parx, Gulfstream and Horseshoe Indy…where penny breakage isn’t in place. This particular tourney, however, had 10 of its 12 contest races at Belmont and Keeneland where it IS in place. And other than Keeneland cap horse Overtime Rules, which both Row and Petoskey hit, they had not a single collection in common…and yet they still wound up tied. The chances of something like this happening again anytime soon are extremely small.

Ultimately, Row won the tiebreaker—and the $9,450 first prize—by having 5 winners compared to 4 for Petoskey. OK, fine.

Then again, all five of Petoskey’s collections came at penny-breakage tracks. If any one of them—other than Overtime Rules—had paid just one penny more either to win or to place, he would have been the winner. Instead, he had to settle for $4,200 (a $5,250 haircut). There are so many ways to suffer a bad beat in this game, and Petoskey just had to suffer through a different sort of one that’s specific to contest play. He’s due for some good luck, we hope, in the not-too-distant future.

G.T. Nixon never seems to need much luck. The redoubtable one wins a lot, and he was at it again on Sunday.

Nixon (3 wins, 1 place) counted Overtime Rules among his successful Sunday selections, and he got the $3,500 seat in our Keeneland-only qualifier to the Keeneland Fall BCBC/NHC Challenge qualifier.

There were two winners in Sunday’s multi-track Keeneland Fall BCBC/NHC Challenge qualifier.

Congratulations to 2022 NHC Tour champ Jay Johns (3 wins, 0 place) and Frank McCloud (also 3W, 0P). Johns smoked out Overtime Rules. McCloud’s best hit came with Funny Factor ($22.08, $11.30) in the 10th at Belmont.

Gary Machiz (6 wins, 1 place) and Steve Jerome (2W, 3P) both connected with Overtime Rules.

They snagged the Vegas packages in Sunday’s $155 NHC qualifier here at HorseTourneys.

Over at HorsePlayers, Jeff Sandler (4 wins, 1 place) and Craig Siedler (3W, 2P) were also cheering for Overtime Rules.

They landed the $10,000 entries in Sunday’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier. Gina “Gigi” Giarrusso received a $5,000 partial BCBC seat for coming home in third place. 

Rich Constantine (3 wins, 3 places) took Sunday’s Pick & Pray Classic qualifier.

Global Prosperity ($19.94, $9.26) was Constantine’s biggest springboard to success.

Qualifiers for Saturday’s Keeneland Fall BCBC/NHC Challenge (playable on-track or at Xpressbet) remain available right up to and including Friday. So don’t give up hope if you wanted to win one but haven’t done so yet.

Thanks, as always, to all of you for playing—and reading. Good luck in the week ahead.