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.

Creating a private tournament at HorseTourneys is easy. Please follow the steps below:

IMPORTANT NOTES:
-Players must be logged-in to the site to view the link to Create Private Tournaments
-The Private Tournaments Setup Wizard is only accessible via desktop (not available on mobile site)

Get Started: Click on the “Create Private Tourney” button found on the home page in the Filter section

Step 1: Choose the date of your private tourney. Please note that only HT schedules that are active (i.e., have races imported) are available for selection. Most schedules will be available 24 hours in advance of the tournament start time

Once you have chosen a date, the list of available track schedules will be presented. Choose which schedule you wish to use.

Step 2: Choose the type of tourney you wish to create

You may choose from the standard Pool Style (normal cash games), Exacta, Survivor, Winner Take All (limited to five entries) or H2H (limited to two entries) setups.

Step 3: Choose the format of your tourney

Choose from Live (selections may be made for each race during the event) or Pick & Pray (selections lock for all events once the first race has started) formats.

Step 4: Choose the price of your tourney

Designate the cost per entry of your tourney. For Winner Take All and H2H tourneys, you must choose from a list of pre-selected fee amounts. For other events, you may designate your custom amount (minimum entry fee = $10).

Step 5: Name your tourney

Enter a name for your tourney (up to a maximum of 32 characters).

Step 6: Review and Confirm your tourney details

Review the details of your tourney. Once you have confirmed, you will be presented with a special link to tour tourney. Your guests must access the tourney via your special link. The link is also accessible under the tourney listing in the “My Entries” section of the tourney creator.

Questions should be directed to HorseTourneys Support at support@horsetourneys.com.

Good luck!

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.