John Nichols has never NOT been around the racetrack. His mother and father took him to Churchill Downs for the first time in 1975 — when he was four days old. Dad was a horseshoer and a skilled horseman. John’s uncle Jimmy Nichols was a prominent jockey who later was instrumental in the sales purchase of eventual 1988 Preakness and Belmont Stakes winner Risen Star. The racetrack life was the only life John knew, and that largely holds true today.

There was a highly influential cap horse out there on Sunday—Harcyn, who survived a stewards’ inquiry and took race 5 at Del Mar at odds of 40-1. If you had the bomb you had a chance to do well. If you used Harcyn and played in multiple featured tourneys, you had a chance to do very, very well. Several players did just that.

One of them was Sean Nolan.

Dylan Donnelly has qualified for the NHC each of the past six years. In the five most recent renewals, he has played two entries. That will again be the case in 2026. This year, however, he is bidding for an NHC Tour championship.

Sunday was a chalky day around here. The day’s top winner among 12 contest races returned just $11.40 in the win hole.

Stephen Spinelli didn’t even have that 9-2 victor—and yet that didn’t stop him from having a banner afternoon.

The daily grind can be a mundane, soul-crushing pursuit…a pie-eating contest for which the prize is more pie. Unless, of course, you’re Eldon Stivers.

David Nelson made three really good decisions on Saturday. He hit the day’s biggest price—Concrete Glory ($25.60, $11.20) in the 10th at Saratoga; he played multiple featured tourneys; and perhaps most importantly, he used the same picks on all of his entries…even though most of the marquee games were conducted in Live format.

When the smoke had cleared, Nelson had scored six lucrative victories.

Friday may have been our nation’s 249th birthday, but for 2018 The BIG One champion Joe Pettit, Saturday was truly the day to celebrate.

One players who will be sorry to see the month of June come to an end tomorrow is Sean O’Malley. Two weeks ago, he treated HorseTourneys like his own, private “Pick Your Prize” tournament, capturing the richest cash game of the week, while also securing rich seats to the BCBC, NHC, Del Mar Summer Challenge and Kentucky Downs King of the Turf Challenge.

Last Friday, he was back for more.

We’re all familiar with “Lather, Rinse, Repeat”. On Saturday, Sean O’Malley took it several steps further…as in “Lather, Rinse, Repeat, Repeat, Repeat, Repeat”.

Featured tourneys are like Lay’s Potato Chips for Evan Trommer. When he partakes, he tends not to enjoy just one.