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.
Entering the final race of this Live-format tourney, “Pistol” Pete Acocella found himself trailing by a little more than $18.00. In the contest nightcap, the 9th at Tampa, Acocella fired a winning shot with General’s Duty ($22.00, $6.80). The victory allowed Acocella to leapfrog Kristopher Gregory, Andrew Cormier and a couple of others, and he snatched the winner’s share of $3,421 in this $7,603 event.
It was exactly the type of Live-format ending that sometimes makes people upset. Obviously, Acocella only played that horse because of the circumstances! No way did he actually like that horse!
Of course, it would be stupid to play a short price at the end of a contest when you need a longer one. Just ask another erudite philosopher—Herman Edwards. You play to win the game.
Then again, “desperate stabs” aren’t always what they may seem.
That’s Acocella winning Wednesday’s NHC Last Chance/First Chance qualifier. It was a Pick & Pray. And there was General’s Duty at the bottom of his scorecard.
We don’t think there was much philosophy involved in Wednesday’s qualifier to the $250,000 Gtd. Flo-Cal Faceoff here on February 1-2. In any case, there were three $1,500 seat winners–Raj Satyan (3 wins, 1 place), Earl Pratt (4W, 1P) and, by 20 cents, John Kennedy (3W, 1P).
A semi-rarity did occur in this game, though. Three different horses represented the highest-yielding selection for each of the three winners. Satyan had General’s Duty at the end. Pratt connected with Likebelievingnmagic ($14.20, $6.00) in the 6th at Tampa. And Kennedy’s topper was Annelle ($13.60, $6.60) in race 9 at Gulfstream.
A big bomb dropped on Thursday’s first featured-tourney race.
That tote-shaker was Adios Papa Chico ($125.80, $31.80) in the 5th at Gulfstream, and Dan Brockman nailed him. So did two other contestants, but Brockman outdid them over the final nine races to capture the top prize of $3,235 in Thursday’s $6,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which closed with a final purse of $7,189.
No one came up with Adios Papa Chico in Thursday’s Flo-Cal Faceoff qualifier—which made for a wide-open affair.
It was Tony Calabrese who prevailed here, thanks to a well-crafted 4 firsts and 2 seconds. His best return came courtesy of Turbulent Force ($12.80, $5.60) in race 8 at Gulfstream.
An even tighter battle was Friday’s HT Tour event, our $15,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray, which paid out a total of $20,116.
By a margin of 50 cents, Randy Bauer (1 win, 4 places) made off with the up-top money of $9,052. Bauer’s big winner was one of his “losers”—King Plutus, a 73-1 shot that provided Bauer with a max $22.00 place return for his runner-up finish in the 7th at Tampa.
There was a trio of winners in Friday’s play-in to the Flo-Cal Faceoff.
Congratulations to NHC Hall of Famer Dennis Decauwer (4 wins, 2 places), Bernard Reilly (5W, 0P) and Jeff Higgins (also 5W, 0P). All three used Dr. Perry ($9.80, $5.00) in race 6 at Tampa. Dr. Perry was the day’s single largest win price.
The two players to score in the 60s were the two to depart with $6,500 packages in their pocket at the conclusion of Friday’s Pegasus World Cup Betting Championship qualifier.
Dr. Perry was among Peter Kizenko’s 4 wins and 2 places. The heavy lifter for Tom “Hit ‘em where they” Arndt (2W, 5P) was King Plutus.
The bar to clear in Friday’s $75 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers was $70.00, and Troy Johnson and Rob “Irish Angel” Ramirez each utilized 6 winners to reach that height.
Johnson also added a place collection along the way. He and Ramirez each had Dr. Perry on their scoresheets. For Ramirez, it will be his 12th appearance at the NHC.
After a chalky Friday, good-priced winners were back in circulation on Saturday, when the highest of the high scorers was NHC Hall of Fame member Paul Shurman (4 firsts, 1 second).
Shurman pocketed $14,137 in our richest tourney of the week, our $25,000 Guaranteed game (an HT Tourney event), which closed with a pot of $31,416. All four of his winners were of the double-digit variety, and two of them paid $34.00+. One of those was Seat at the Table ($35.80, $14.20) in the 8th at Tampa Bay Downs.
William “23” Sadoo earned $5,654 for finishing closest to Shurman. It turned out to be just one part of what was a very nice day for Sadoo.
Using the same picks as in the cash feature, Sadoo (3 wins, 4 places) led the way in our first qualifier to the Feb. 21-22 Tampa Bay Downs Last Chance/First Opportunity Contest. Also receiving a $1,000 scholarship in this one was one of the previous week’s HT heroes, Evan Trommer (4W, 4P). Sadoo and Trommer shared an appreciation for Seat at the Table.
Sadoo was also one of five players to reel in Flo-Cal Faceoff seats on Saturday.
Sadoo bested all except Peter Duca (3 wins, 5 places). The other $1,500 entry recipients were the three other triple-digit scorers—Matthew Walsh (3W, 3P), Diane McClyment (3W, 2P) and Jay Donaldson (3W, 1P). Walsh top horse was Bernietakescharge ($34.40, $9.80) in race 7 at Aqueduct. The others were all led by Seat at the Table.
Sadoo capped off his fine day with a pair of NHC Last Chance/First Chance seats. (A full rundown of those events appears at the bottom.)
Tim Yohler (4 wins, 1 place) managed to smoke out both Bernietakescharge and Seat at the Table.
Yohler showed the way in Saturday’s Pegasus World Cup Betting Championship qualifier. Also picking up a $6,500 package for a week from Saturday was second-place finisher David Guberman (6W, 1P). Bernietakescharge was Guberman’s primary springboard to success.
You could say that Grande ($20.60, $6.60 in Gulfstream race 7) was big in more ways than one on Saturday for 2023 Flo-Cal Faceoff champ David Wolff.
Wolff recorded 4 firsts and 1 second en route to winning $5,699 in Saturday’s $8,142 Big Bucks (Grande Bucks?) Pick & Pray.
Bob Montgomery (4 firsts 1 second) had Seat at the Table followed later by the final two contest-race winners.
The 2018 Horse Players World Series kingpin took Saturday’s $179 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge qualifier over at HorsePlayers.
The other Saturday feature at HorsePlayers was a $165 NHC Pick & Pray.
The two available Vegas berths went to first-place finisher Miguel Wenceslao (5 wins, 3 places) and 3rd-place contestant Myles Richards (4W, 1P). They both played Bernietakescharge. Runner up Peter Dresens was already double qualified and, thus, playing purely for NHC Tour points.
Seat at the Table helped give Joseph Rumfolo a seat at the Houston Betting Championship.
Rumfolo booked 3 winners and 3 runners up on the road to victory.
Twenty-four hours later, Rumfolo (3 wins, 2 places) picked up another $1,500 seat to the January 25th “HBC”.
This time there were enough entries attracted for two entries to be awarded. The other one went to runner up Matthew Blanchet (5W, 0P). Rumfolo and Blanchet each doped out the big cap horse of the day—Marvelous Lady ($60.80, $22.00) in race 7 at Tampa Bay Downs.
Marvelous Lady figured prominently in the scorecard of Sean O’Malley, who wound up as the day’s leading scorer ($162.20).
O’Malley (3 firsts, 2 seconds) hit the HT cash register to the tune of $12,403 by taking Sunday’s HT Tour battle, our $20,000 Guaranteed tourney, which was ultimately worth a total of $27,562.
Alex DeVito (5 wins, 0 places) and Rock Tocheri (3W, 4P) both landed on Marvelous Lady.
They were the two package winners in Sunday’s $165 NHC qualifier here at HorseTourneys.
For Zachary Agamenoni (3 wins, 4 places) and Robert Schintzius Sr. (4W, 1P), the big horse of the day on Sunday came in the first contest race—Pure Beauty ($31.20, $13.80) in race 6 at Gulfstream.
Agamenoni and Schintzius will square off again a week from Saturday with paid-up entries in the Pegasus World Cup Betting Championship.
Schintzius was also one of four $1,500 seat earners in Sunday’s qualifier to the Flo-Cal Faceoff.
Schintzius placed third, two spots behind Jeff Bussan (4 wins, 2 places), one behind David Barnier (2W, 3P) and one ahead of Troy Johnson (2W, 2P). The stable star for each of the top three was Pure Beauty. Johnson (who won the Friday, $75 NHC qualifier) hit it big with Marvelous Lady.
Schintzius checked in second in Sunday’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier at HorsePlayers.
The one available $10,000 seat went to John Heims (2 wins, 4 places), who had Pure Beauty at the beginning. Heims needed an $8.80 place payoff at the end, though, to wrest the lead away by 50 cents from Schintzius, who got a $5,000 partial BCBC entry. That wasn’t half bad. In fact, half good seems like a better assessment. For the day, Schintzius won two and a half seats that carried an aggregate value of $14,000.
Joe “Tex” Scanio (2 wins, 1 place) and David Nelson (6W, 1P) took differing paths on Sunday to their Tampa Bay Downs Last Chance/First Opportunity seats.
Scanio went “bombs away,” hitting a Texas-sized winner in Marvelous Lady. Nelson meanwhile “chipped away”. His biggest price was Yo Daddy ($13.80, $6.00) in the 8th at Aqueduct.
Shad Walton rattled off 4 wins (including Marvelous Lady) and 2 places from the first 6 Sunday contest races, and he finished with 4 wins and 3 runners up on the day.
Walton landed the coveted berth in Sunday’s NHC Low Ratio, non-winners-of-a-2025-seat qualifier at HorsePlayers.
Speaking of the NHC, another 54 seats flew out the door last week in qualifiers to the NHC Last Chance/First Chance Contest. Here’s who did the winning:
Tuesday: Chris Littlemore
Wednesday: Pete Acocella, Joseph Rumfolo, Bob Montgomery, Brett Wiener, Daven Turner, Todd Faro and Roman Calzadias.
Thursday: Todd Faro, Frank Story, Jay Johns, John Nichols, Ciaran Thornton, Brandon Leigh and Brendan Fay.
Friday: Kevin Engelhard, Steve Arrison, Jim Murphy, Evan Trommer, Brett Wiener, William Inman, John Kennedy, Ciaran Thornton, Leonard Peterson, Steve Taracks, Wendy Long (2 seats) and Michael Odorisio.
Saturday: William Sadoo (2 seats), Terence Channon, Evan Trommer, Howard Johnson, Tim Smith, Eric Gielata, Stephen Spinelli, Dan Brockman, Michael Marlaire, Bob Gianquitti, Corey Sainz, Stephen Thompson and Christopher Ahl.
Sunday: Jeff Higgins, Matthew Blanchet (2 seats), Steven Meier, Anthony DeCaspers, Brian Kubik, Scott Eyraud, Stephen McNatton, Joe Scanio, Bill Shurman, Steve Nemetz and Mark Detro.
Congratulations to all of last week’s winners. This coming weekend, you’ll have an extra day in which to make hay, since it’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day a week from today.
In closing, all of us at HorseTourneys send out special good wishes to our customers and other friends who reside in greater Los Angeles. Our thoughts are with you and yours.
