It’s always a heady feeling to hit a 50-1 winner. Can you imaging hitting two in one day…over the course of just 12 plays?
Andy Asaro can.
Sunday was a day in which our contest races contained not one but two victorious $100 horses. Success was largely predicated on having at least one of the two. Asaro (3 wins, 2 places) made things simple, though, by nailing them both—Austonian ($102.40, $35.20) in the 7th at Gulfstream and First Pitch ($102.50, $61.50) in race 9 at Aqueduct.
The result was a $49.60 victory at HorsePlayers in Sunday’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier. The distant second-place finisher was Philip Webber, who received a $5,000 partial BCBC entry for his efforts.
In Sunday’s qualifier to the $350,000 Gtd. Players Championship here on April 5-6, the margin of victory was closer…but not a whole lot closer.
This time, the Asaro cushion was $42.60. The good news for those who were in “closest” pursuit was that there were enough entries for four $2,000 Players Championship seats to be awarded here. Those other three went to William McKinney Jr. (3 wins, 2 places), 2021 HT Tour champion Jorge Cruz-Aedo (3W, 2P) and Jon “Hurricane” Hurd (3W, 3P). McKinney and Hurd were aggressive in the count and connected on First Pitch. Cruz-Aedo’s top pick was Austonian.
Asaro also took a swing at the Keeneland Grade One Gamble qualifier on Sunday—and the results were similar.
Here, the runner up was $41.50 in arrears of Asaro. But at least that runner up, Braden Selvig (4 wins, 1 place), was well compensated. He and Asaro both scooped up $3,500 berths in this “two-seater”.
It was only in Sunday’s HT Tour event, our $20,000 Guaranteed cash game, that Asaro found himself with a real tussle on his hands.
Sean O’Malley put up quite a fight, finishing with a score of $137.90, but he wound up $8.80 shy of Asaro and had to settle for second money of $5,118 in a tourney that paid out a total of $28,437.
That left the winner’s share of $12,796 to Asaro, whose overall haul for the day amounted to $28,296.
As impressive as Asaro’s run was, it is rather surprising that he didn’t have the top score of the day. That honor went to Dan Brockman.
Like Asaro, Brockman also managed to pull off the Austonian-First Pitch “double”. He also recorded two other winners on the way to a score ($158.90) that topped Asaro’s by $12.20. This all came in Sunday’s $165 NHC qualifier here at HorseTourneys, where it was $50.50 back to the other Vegas package earner, Dennis Klein (3 wins including First Pitch, 3 places).
On Saturday, there were no $100 horses—but there WAS another prolific winner among the HorseTourneys competitors doing battle.
That would be jockey agent-turned-Fanduel-employee William “23” Sadoo (2 wins, 3 places). In Saturday’s Monmouth Pick Your Prize Challenge qualifier, Sadoo employed the unassailable strategy of having his two winners be the day’s two best–Joyful Lass ($52.20, $21.20) in the 9th at Gulfstream and Atitlan ($20.20, $7.40) in the race 7 at Santa Anita.
Sadoo’s Saturday score improved by a $5.00 in the day’s Keeneland Grade One Gamble qualifier.
Also securing himself a $3,500 seat in this one was Terry Jerge (2 wins, 3 place). Jerge came up with Joyful Lass, and he later got up for 2nd thanks to having Runamileinmyshoes ($14.40, $5.60) in the contest finale, race 9 at Santa Anita.
Saturday victory #3 for Sadoo came in our Players Championship qualifier.
Once again, Jerge played Alydar to Sadoo’s Affirmed. John Gaspar (2 wins, 2 places) got the final available $2,000 berth for reporting home 3rd.
Nicholas Nagy got his week—and our featured-tourney week—off to a good start in Wednesday’s $5,000 Guaranteed cash tourney.
Nagy had 3 straight winners at the beginning and 2 wins and a place at the end. His reward was $2,923 in a game that closed with a prize pool of $6,497. Nagy’s hit parade was topped by Letmeknowbeforeugo ($63.40, $20.40) in race 9 at Tampa Bay Downs.
Gary Lee Russell also let us know that he liked Letmeknowbeforeugo.
Russell (3 wins, 1 place) departed with the $2,000 entry at the conclusion of Wednesday’s Monmouth Pick Your Prize Challenge qualifier.
Tony Calabrese (3 wins, 2 places) and 2013 BCBC champ Peter Behr (3W, 1P) both smoked out Letmeknowbeforeugo.
They each secured $2,000 spots in Wednesday’s qualifier to the Players Championship, which serves as Leg 2 in the 2025 HT Champions series.
For Brian O’Kane, the big horse on Wednesday was McAvoy ($22.20, $6.20) in race 8 at Tampa.
O’Kane was the victor in Wednesday’s Keeneland Grade One Gamble play-in.
Rick Broth (2 wins, 1 place) authored a complete-game victory in Wednesday’s Florida Derby Challenge qualifier.
The ace of Broth’s staff was Seaver ($18.40, $4.60) in the 8th at Gulfstream.
On Thursday, Geoffrey Schutt only picked one winner…but it was a good one.
Schutt scored big with Measureofdevotion ($51.20, $23.60) in race 5 at Turf Paradise. To that bomb, Schutt added two place collections, and he bagged the up-top money of $2,768 in Thursday’s $6,000 Gtd, Pick & Pray, which closed with a final purse of $6,152.
Drew Keaton also believed in Measureofdevotion.
Keaton (2 wins, 2 places) prevailed in Thursday’s Players Championship qualifier.
There were two big prices lurking among the 10 contest races on Friday. In our Players Championship qualifier, NHC Hall of Famer Brett Wiener (2 wins, 1 place) had one of them—Notable Exchange ($35.00, $14.60) in the 7th at Tampa.
Jeff Bussan (3 wins, 1 place) got the second of the three available berths. All three of his winners went off at 5-1. The other $2,000 seat went to Evan Trommer, who had the grand total of one collection all day—Naa Dudette ($58.00, $18.60) in race 8 at Tampa.
Ryan Tyreman (3 wins, 2 places) and Phil Lam (3W, 0P) both profited from Naa Dudette.
Tyreman and Lam will be doing battle against each other again on April 12 in the Keeneland Grade One Gamble.
Steven Meier had to be loving Tampa Bay Downs on Friday. He struck with Notable Exchange in race 7 there…and again 30 minutes later with Naa Dudette at the Oldsmar, Fla., oval.
Meier (2 firsts, 1 second) carried the day—and carried off $9,127—in Friday’s HT Tour battle, our $15,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which closed with a final pot of $20,282.
John Vail said “Yes” to Naa Dudette.
Vail (2 firsts, 2 seconds) won Friday’s Monmouth Pick Your Prize Challenge qualifier.
Friday was a good day for Dr. Ronald Tang.
Tang 3 firsts, 1 second) had Naa Dudette, but he needed the 5-1 winner of the final contest race to get himself up and over Eric “Skeet” Boyd in Friday’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier at HorsePlayers.
The same picks also landed Tang on top of the heap in Friday’s Florida Derby Challenge play-in.
Things weren’t quite as close in this skirmish. Tang got the “W” here by $34.30 over Cory “Jersey” Shorr (3 wins, including Notable Exchange, 0 places). Shorr was fine with that, though, since he also got a $1,500 entry for this Saturday.
Friday marked the first $75 NHC qualifier of the 2026 NHC Tour campaign. (If you missed it, there are still 50 more of these to come!)
There were three early winners of NHC spots in this HorsePlayers competition. Congratulations to 2022 NHC Tour champion Jay Johns (5 wins, 3 places), Jeff VanDrie (3W, 1P) and Matthew Blanchet (4W, 0P). All three hit Notable Exchange. VanDrie and Blanchet played Naa Dudette as well.
Blanchet has a shot to earn a second 2026 NHC seat in the April 19 Lone Star Spring Betting Challenge.
That’s because he won our Sunday qualifier to the on-track event in suburban Dallas. His 3 wins and 3 places included First Pitch ($102.50, $61.50) in race 9 at the Big A.
There was also a Lone Star Spring Betting Challenge qualifier on Saturday.
Phil Hoedebeck emerged with the $1,000 scholarship in this one. His 4 wins and 2 places included Atitlan ($20.20, $7.40) in the 7th at Santa Anita.
Atitlan was one of two Saturday winners for David Nelson.
The wind was blowing in during this $7,124 Big Bucks Pick & Pray. No one turned a flat-bet profit, and Nelson earned the $4,986 grand prize with a score of $34.50.
The other, richer cash feature on Saturday (the richest one of the week actually) was our $25,000 Guaranteed tourney, which double as the day’s HT Tour event.
Derek Collett collected the $14,414 top prize thanks to 4 wins and 1 place. His best return came with Joyful Lass ($52.20, $21.20) in the 9th at Gulfstream, and he also got a boost from Atitlan. The total final purse for this one came to $32,032.
Joyful Lass was common to the scorecards of Kerry Bassore (2W, 2P) and William Holobowski (4W, 0P).
Bassore and Holobowski were the only two players in Saturday’s Preakness Preview Day Challenge qualifier to score in the 100s (or the 90s or the 80s, for that matter), and they took the two available $500 entries for April 19.
Jim Cuzzupe (2 wins, 3 places) and Evan Trommer (1W, 3P) grabbed the $1,500 spots in Saturday’s Florida Derby Challenge qualifier.
Cuzzupe enjoyed the victory by Joyful Lass. The lone winner for Trommer was Atitlan. It was the second straight day that Trommer earned a grand prize despite selecting just one winner.
There was a $179 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge qualifier on Saturday over at HorsePlayers.
The $10,000 seat went to Brian “BC” Chenvert on the strength of 4 firsts and 2 seconds. Joyful Lass provided Chenvert with his best payoff.
There were two winners in Saturday’s $210 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers.
Congratulations—and good luck in 11 1/2 months—to Terrence Frank (2 wins, 2 places) and Cliff “Don” Pardo (6W, 1P). Frank had Joyful Lass. Pardo’s voice came through loudest with Atitlan.
On Sunday—the day with the two $100 horses—Zachary Agamenoni smacked First Pitch out of the park.
Agamenoni pocketed the $2,000 entry in Sunday’s qualifier to the Monmouth Pick Your Prize Challenge.
For a third consecutive day, Evan Trommer picked up a featured-tourney prize.
In Sunday’s Florida Derby Challenge qualifier, Trommer (2 wins, 3 places) held 3rd by a thin dime over an unlucky Matthew Thomas, whose runner up in the tourney nightcap paid $4.40 to place instead of the $4.60 that he would have preferred. Finishing above Trommer were fellow $1,500 entry earners David Lupo (3 wins, 1 place) and Shirley Wolff (2W, 2P). Lupo hit First Pitch hard. Wolff had the other 50-1 victor, Austonian in the 7th at Gulfstream.
Buoyed by Austonian, Antbony Laurino (2 wins, 2 places) raced off to an authoritative $40 victory in Sunday’s Preakness Preview Day Challenge qualifier.
Runner up David “Who but W.B.” Mason (5 wins, 2 places) also landed a $500 seat for April 19. His performance was notable in that he was the only Sunday grand prize winner who didn’t have one of the cap horses. His high yielder was Mommasgotagun ($15.80, $7.80) in the 8th at Aqueduct.
Congratulations to all of this past week’s winners. If you’re still hoping to grab a seat for Saturday’s Florida Derby Challenge, we’ll host qualifiers for it on Wednesday and Friday. And keep in mind that following closely on its heels is the $350,000 Players Championship, which comes up a week later. In the meantime, we hope you are able to spend a portion of your Florida Derby week here with us. Good luck!
