There are at least two things that 2022 Flo-Cal Faceoff winner David Snyder is clearly very good at. One is his job. He is the Chief Information Officer for a major West Coast-based restaurant chain.

When David Snyder, the 2019 NHC Tour Champ, noticed on the day before the Flo-Cal Faceoff the the purse for the first leg of the Tourney Triple had reached $400,000, he decided to buy himself an entry. When he saw that the purse was nearing half a million dollars about a half an hour before the first Saturday race at Gulfstream, he plunked down another $1,500 for a second entry.

Hundreds of the best handicappers in the land will again do battle this weekend in the third annual Flo-Cal Faceoff, a two-day, $250,000-guaranteed event that calls on players to make mythical $2 win-and-place selections on every race of the Saturday and Sunday cards from Gulfstream Park and Santa Anita Park.

Between the demands of his job as a project service manager in the oil and gas industry and his status as a Houston, Texas, resident, Jorge Cruz-Aedo sometimes finds his horseplaying options a bit limited.

“I don’t really have time to look on weekdays or at smaller tracks…and there are no ADWs in Texas…THIS is where I play,” the 35-year-old said, referring to HorseTourneys.

This Saturday is the Tampa Bay Downs High Rollers Tournament Presented by HorseTourneys. That means that McKay Smith and I will be down at the picturesque Oldsmar, Fla., track to mingle with players, hand out a few goodies and perhaps help support the local parimutuel handle a bit. 

It also means that we have the wherewithal, in this instance, to offer qualifiers to this on-track contest right up until the day before. So a Last Chance Tampa play-in is a prominent part of this Friday’s featured schedule.

During a holiday weekend dominated by Pick & Pray tourneys, it may not have been surprising to see so many multiple winners. By our unofficial count, there were 15 such players this past week. What did seem surprising, however, was how many of these prolific victors did so not via same-day multi-tabling, but, rather, just consistently terrific handicapping. 

With the $250,000 Guaranteed Flo-Cal Faceoff less than three weeks away—and the new year less than three days away—we will be increasing the ways players can earn their way into the first leg of the 2022 Tourney Triple series.

The HorseTourneys Tour will be bigger, better—and longer—in 2022.

In 2021, the HT Tour began in July and ran through the end of the year. In 2022, it really IS a year-long Tour—one that begins on January 1st and concludes on, you guessed it, December 31st. Even better, HT Tour prizes in 2023 are expected to reach a total of $100,000. Here’s how it all works:

It’s hard to have a better day than Jose Giron did on Christmas Eve. Not only did Giron pick six winners (and one runner up) out of 10 races, his six tallies included the three highest-priced horses of the day.

There won’t be a creature stirring here on Saturday—not even a mouse—but we’ll have plenty of featured tourney action on Christmas Eve and on Sunday which, as many of you know, is opening day at Santa Anita.