I’m not sure when the last time was that we saw so many players reel off grand-prize heists on consecutive days. At the top of this list last weekend was David Nelson.

Saturday seemed like one of those days where you just needed to remain patient—because if you missed the longshot that just came in, another one was going to hit shortly.

Five of the day’s 12 contest winners paid $20.00 or more in the win hole—and since this was a Pick & Pray weekend around here, it meant that if you were hot, you could have an extra nice day. Just ask Thomas McClenin.

It’s obviously very early still in 2025, but key pushes in the HorseTourneys Tour standings can absolutely come at any point in the year. Take, for example, the exploits this past week of Darryl Lacy.

Last year, Eric “Skeet” Boyd set a HorseTourneys record by capturing nine featured weekend cash tourneys. The remarkable showing of excellence and consistency led to him being crowned 2024 HorseTourneys Tour Champion.

Last weekend, though, Boyd enjoyed his biggest victory yet, taking home a total of $144,519 for topping a field of 286 entrants in the two-day Flo-Cal Faceoff—an event that required contestants to make mythical $2.00 win and place selections on each race of the Saturday and Sunday cards from Gulfstream Park and Santa Anita Park.

Last year, HorseTourneys unveiled a four-race series of its top events, the Flo-Cal Faceoff in January, the Players Championship in April, the Spa & Surf Showdown in August and the brand new Pick & Pray® Classic in November. Known as the HorseTourneys Grand Slam, the series awarded bonuses to those who, based on a points formula, performed best throughout the four marquee tourneys.

This year, there’s another addition.

HorseTourneys is introducing a fifth competition to the series: the $250,000 Guaranteed New York, New York Challenge. The resulting five-contest sequence will be known, collectively, as the HorseTourneys Champions Series.

Dave “Gambling Actuary” Nichols picked 4 winners and 1 runner up across the 12-race featured schedule on Sunday. One of his victors was a whopper—Go Jocelyn Go ($52.00, $26.80) in the 9th at Tampa Bay Downs. The final scoring total for Nichols was $101.20.

That total wasn’t the highest of the day. A small handful of players did better. But no one accomplished more with what they had, thanks to Nichols’s aggressive multi-tabling.

No sooner was Eric “Skeet” Boyd crowned 2024 HorseTourneys Tour champion then the 2025 edition of the HT Tour got underway. Again, it will be a year-long competition concluding on December 31st. Here’s how it works:

Our first featured tourney of the week, Wednesday’s $5,000 Guaranteed cash game, reminds us of a powerful lesson perhaps espoused most effectively by noted philosopher Felix Unger.

Never assume.

We’ve often amused ourselves in recent years referring to Eric Boyd as Eric “B Connected” Boyd in a nod to the name of the Boyd Gaming players card utilized at The Orleans. However, we now feel compelled to officially change his HorseTourneys nickname to Eric “Skeet” Boyd.

Why? 

Because that is his actual nickname…and it has been such for a very long time.

If Evan Trommer made a New Year’s resolution to resume winning contests in bunches here at HorseTourneys, he is off to a very good start.