We think all featured-tourney wins are praiseworthy, but achieving such triumphs on consecutive days is extra impressive—which takes us to James Henry on Thursday.

It’s not a Triple Crown or Breeders’ Cup weekend…but Labor Day has seemingly evolved into an underrated, high-intensity weekend for horseplayers what with Saratoga, Del Mar and Kentucky Downs all operating at the same time. 

It was a “Share the Wealth” week with just a couple of multiple winners out there among 24 featured events and 38 grand prizes.

The Woodbine King’s Plate Challenge will be hosted this Sunday on track and at Xpressbet and HPI. Your last chance to win a $1,000 entry to it takes place here on Friday.

Saturday was Fourstardave Day at Saratoga, but here at HorseTourneys, it was Fivestarbrian day.

There’s plenty to pick from this weekend with six featured tourneys on Friday, a whopping 12 on Saturday and another 10 on Sunday. This is the final weekend in which to qualify for the Laurel Champions tournament (August 19) and the Woodbine King’s Plate Challenge (August 20), and play-ins to those are two of the six marquee games on tap for Friday.

Anthony Spinazzola has laid a lot of tile in his day. Each morning, the 59-year-old Mesa, Ariz., resident wakes up and heads to the flooring company that he has owned there for the last twenty-something years. 

Just four years removed from its first edition in 2019, the Spa & Surf Showdown has quickly become one of the most prestigious tournaments in all of horse racing. There’s a lot more than prestige on the line, though. The Spa & Surf Showdown carries a guaranteed purse of $400,000. Last year, Tim Hughes won $222,000 for winning it. And that’s chicken feed compared to what David Wolff or Lucas Van Zandt will get this year if they win with their designated, bonus-eligible entries. As the winners of this year’s Flo-Cal Faceoff and Players Championship, respectively, they will earn a million-dollar bonus if they can capture the final leg of the 2023 Tourney Triple. 

Historically, we try to choose the races for our multi-track tourneys 48 hours in advance during the “good weather” months and 24 hours ahead of time during the winter. Designed to avoid us scheduling races that later get canceled, it is a policy that has generally worked well over the years. Lately, however, the 48-hour guideline has worked…a little less well.

It was a busy week for Floridian Evan Trommer—even busier than usual.