A couple of weeks ago, John Fasola channeled his inner Vince Lombardi (“What the HELL are you doing?”) in helping to will Tory Cameron across the finish line first in the Flo-Cal Faceoff. Since then, it has been Fasola’s turn to hoist trophies.

Unlike most people, Lucas Van Zandt found that the truly super day last week was Saturday. 

It wasn’t a terrific day for scoring. The total for Van Zandt, our 2023 Players Championship winner, was $68.20. He did have the day’s biggest price in Neshume ($18.20, $7.20), who took the 8th at Tampa, but he was not the day’s top scorer. Nevertheless, the day turned into a potential “year-maker” for him.

It had already been a good week for Tory Cameron. Six days earlier, he finished up work and went home to cheer on his lifelong-favorite football team, the Seattle Seahawks, as they advanced to the Super Bowl. Now, it was time for the the 49-year-old bartender to indulge in one of his other loves—handicapping. 

On Sunday night, the drinks were on Tory Cameron. 

The 49-year-old bartender from Saratoga Springs, N.Y., put together the third-best score on Saturday’s Day 1 and the sixth-highest on Sunday’s Day 2 to earn the $117,115 grand prize in the 7th annual Flo-Cal Faceoff — a $200,000 Guaranteed tournament at HorseTourneys that required participants to make mythical $2 win-and-place selections for every race of the Gulfstream Park and Santa Anita Park cards on Saturday, January 31 and Sunday, February 1. The final, all-cash prize pool for event settled at $325,499.

On a Pegasus World Cup Day replete with good-priced winners, Michael Caposio put two of them together—plus another winner and a small place collection—and made quite a day for himself.

Goofus wins one NHC seat in a day and brags that you can’t do any better than that. Raymond Gallant Jr. wins two NHC seats in one day.

Unburdened from having to watch any more Las Vegas Raiders games for a while, Evan Trommer was able to devote his full attention to horse racing last weekend. As is often the case, that boded poorly for his tourney opponents.

Last week, we paid tribute to 2025 HT Tour champion Dave Nichols. Clearly, Edward Enborg said, “Enough of that!”

Dave Nichols’s 2025 might best be encapsulated by his success in qualifying for the most recent Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge (BCBC).

There’s nothing like ending the year on a high note. Just ask Eldon Stivers—who may be disappointed to see 2025 nearing a conclusion.