It’s hard to enjoy a better one-two punch than Gary Brous experienced last weekend. Or was it a one-five punch?

It might be my imagination, but John “The Clocker” Nichols always seems to heat up around here at this time of year—and 2024 has been no exception.

For most players, winning a $2,000 seat via qualifier to a tourney like the Players Championship would be cause for celebration. When it happened three-and-a-half weeks ago to Matthew Bickey, however, he was pissed off.

Trailing Christian Orscher by $10.64 with one contest race remaining in the $415,418 Players Championship, Matthew Bickey boldly selected 21-1 shot British Isles. When the Richard Baltas charge got up for second in that 11th race at Santa Anita behind winning 6-5 favorite Ngannou, the result was a $12.00 place payoff for British Isles backers—and a triumph worth $149,310 for Bickey.

The second leg of the 2024 HorseTourneys Grand Slam takes place this weekend with the $350,000 Guaranteed Players Championship set for Saturday and Sunday here at HT.

Plenty of players went searching for Easter eggs on Sunday. No one did a better job of grabbing the goodies than Blake Courtney.

The Weekly Recap is back up and running after a lengthy sojourn in Las Vegas. It was great seeing so many of you out there—and meeting a good number of you for the first time. McKay and I were delighted to see a HorseTourneys regular like Mike Gillum take down the $800,000 grand prize…and proud to see several other HT regulars reach the final table. That’s not an easy feat. Then again, our players are a pretty smart bunch.

Any entertainer worth his salt knows that a key to success is to open your act strong and then finish with a bang. Clearly, that’s how Edward Enborg approached the most recent featured-tourney week.

Normally each week, we are quick to highlight players who win tourneys on multiple days, or “multi-tablers” who pile up a bushel basket full of grand prizes in a single day. This week, though, we lead with a single-tourney performance that was so remarkable that it deserves top billing.

Matthew Bickey did a very good job of smoking out longshots last week—and he was rewarded to the tune of nearly $18,000.