Sunday’s featured tourneys were sabotaged by the always-dangerous combination of heavy rain and loud music. Things were sufficiently dry and quiet on Wednesday through Saturday, however, and that meant good things for several HorseTourneys competitiors—especially our 2020 Spa & Surf Showdown champion Scott Fiedler.
The Long Island sports camp owner tackled Friday’s offerings with a vengeance, starting with the day’s HT Tour competition, our $15,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray.
Fiedler connected on 4 winners and 1 runner up to collect $9,725 in a game ultimately worth a total of $21,612. His biggest gain came on a well-designed play involving Royal Event ($49.20, $25.60) in race 5 at Aqueduct.
Fiedler ran the same 10 scripted plays back in the day’s qualifier to this coming weekend’s $350,000 Gtd. Players Championship, the second leg of the 2025 HorseTourneys Champions Series.
Also advancing to the Players Championship here were second- and third-place finishers Kevin Cox (1 win, 2 places) and Evan Trommer (4W, 0P). The heavy lifter for both Cox and Trommer was Troubled Luck ($47.80, $19.00) in race 6 at the Ozone Park, N.Y., racetrack/auto show venue.
Fiedler played a different ticket in Friday’s Low Ratio Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge qualifier.
Fiedler lost a winner and a runner up using this batch of horses, but Royal Event remained on his scorecard, and he still managed to come away with the $10,000 seat.
Fiedler wasn’t done. He was back to his “good” group of horses in Friday’s $75 NHC qualifier.
There were enough entries in this one for a whopping four Vegas berths to be awarded. (I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that before.) Leading the way with the highest score of the day was Matthew Nixon who smoked out both Aqueduct bombs—Royal Event and Troubled Luck. To that pair, Nixon added two double-digit place collections. Also gaining early passage to Vegas in 2026 were Justin Schwartz (2 wins, including Royal Event, 2 places) and Dennis Tiernan (3W, 2P). Tiernan had Troubled Luck, and he managed to prevail over NHC Hall of Famer Trey Stiles by just 20 cents for that key fourth-place position.
Thus ended a super, $25,000+ Friday for Fiedler. The next day, Mike Thomas had a pretty remarkable afternoon of his own.
Thomas picked 9 winners (and a place) out of 12 races in Saturday’s $25,000 Gtd. Pick & Pray (an HT Tour event). They weren’t all chalk either. One of his winners was Spirited Boss ($26.40, $12.80) in the 10th at Gulfstream. After that, Thomas closed out his performance with five consecutive winners. In the end, he pocketed $14,968 in a game that closed with a final prize pool of $33,264.
Since he used the same selections, there was no doubting Thomas in Saturday’s Keeneland Grade One Gamble qualifier.
John Gaspar (5 wins, 2 places) and Rich Pawlowski (4W, 3P) got the other available $3,500 berths here. They both hit Spirited Boss.
Thomas will also be a formidable presence in this weekend’s Players Championship.
He led a group of four $2,000 seat winners in Saturday’s multi-track play-in. The other happy contestants were 2018 The BIG One champ Joe Pettit (4 wins, 2 places), Jim “Never” Settle (3W, 4P) and Paul Yaffee (4W, 4P). Pettit and Settle used Spirited Boss as a springboard to success. Yaffee, meanwhile, capitalized on shorter-priced horses to play his way into the Players Championship. His top return came from Seminole Chief ($9.40, $4.80) in the 13th at Gulfstream.
Thomas obviously had an outstanding day with his nine winners in our multi-track tourneys. However, the most incredible aspect of his Saturday may have been on display in our full-card, Gulfstream-only qualifier to the Players Championship.
The 8th race at Gulfstream wasn’t part of our 12-race featured schedule. It was won by Sherlock’s Jewel ($41.20, $17.40). And, yep, Thomas had that winner as well en route to Players Championship seat #2. His score in this event was $152.00. The other winner of a $2,000 seat in this rout was Peter Grau, who finished $59.60 behind Thomas in second place.
Three players earned Players Championship berths on Wednesday when the featured-tourney week began.
Congratulations to Peter Pappageorge (4 wins, 1 place), Ken Jordan (3W, 2P) and Peter Osella (3W, 1P). Pappageorge and Jordan made noise with Mayheminthepalace ($17.40, $8.80) in the 7th at Gulfstream. Osella’s best return came with Galley Head ($14.00, $4.20) in race 6 at the Hallandale, Fla., oval.
Patrick Kennedy was a supporter of Mayheminthepalace.
Kennedy (4 wins, 3 places) captured our first cash game of the week, our $5,000 Guaranteed tourney, which closed with a final purse of $6,843. His share of that came to $3,079.
Mayheminthepalace was one of three double-digit winners selected by Jayson “Radio City” Rockett.
Rockett was also able to pocket a place collection along the way to taking Wednesday’s Keeneland Grade One Gamble qualifier.
Michael Caposio recorded 2 wins and 2 places, topped by Galley Head.
Caposio headed the class in Wednesday’s play-in to the May 31 Monmouth Pick Your Prize Challenge.
On Thursday, Kevin Engelhard spoke softly but picked Big Stick.
Big Stick ($16.20, $5.20) won the 4th at Turf Paradise and helped Engelhard (5 wins, 1 place) earn a $2,000 seat in Thursday’s multi-track qualifier to the Players Championship. Engelhard had the winner in each of the final four tourney races here.
There was also a full-card, Gulfstream-only qualifier on Thursday pegged to the Players Championship.
Jose Giron (4 wins, 1 place) and Sabrina Smith (3W, 1P) came away with the $2,000 scholarships in this competition. They were the only two players to crack the $40.00 mark.
Thursday’s cash-game victor was 2013 Horse Players World Series champ James Henry.
Henry put up a score of $111.00, built on 3 firsts and 4 seconds. In the opening contest race, the 6th at Mahoning Valley, Henry nailed cap horse Kerri’s Miracle ($60.20, $20.40).
We mentioned earlier that Evan Trommer picked up a Players Championship entry on Friday for finishing 3rd to Scott Fiedler. Trommer also secured himself a $2,000 Monmouth Pick Your Prize berth on Friday.
This time, it was a second-place finish that did the trick for Trommer (4 wins, 0 places). He and leaderboard leader Rocco Lombardi (1W, 3P) both had good luck with Aqueduct race 6 longshot Troubled Luck.
In other Friday action, NHC Hall of Famer Paul Shurman (3 wins, 3 places) and Zachary Agamenoni (2W, 2P) were the two to top the century mark…and the two to earn $3,500 places in the April 12 Keeneland Grade One Gamble.
Shurman and Agamenoni each had Troubled Luck along with Damage ($29.00, $6.40) in race 8 of a Friday Aqueduct card that featured several big prices.
On Saturday, Evan Trommer grabbed his third and fourth contest seats of the week.
Trommer (5 wins, 3 places) placed second behind William Mauer (7 winners) in our first qualifier to this Saturday’s Santa Anita Derby Challenge. Mauer’s best catch was Canani ($13.60, $7.60) in the 4th at (where else?) Santa Anita. Trommer swept the first four contest races—a quartet that was capped off by Spirited Boss ($26.40, $12.80) in race 10 at Gulfstream. He will need to stay focused on Saturday as the Santa Anita Derby Challenge will take place concurrent with Day 1 of the Players Championship. (Trommer won seats to the Players Championship and Keeneland Grade One Gamble on Friday.)
Peter “Sharp Dressed Man” had a very nice Saturday.
Spirited Boss was among the 4 winners and 4 runners up picked by Dresens on the road to victory in Saturday’s $179 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge at HorsePlayers.
The same selections earned Dresens an early package for the 2026 NHC.
Here, Dresens bested all except Jeff Higgins (4 wins, 3 places), who edged him by 70 cents. Higgins also backed Spirited Boss.
Another double winner on Saturday was John Vail (5 firsts, 2 seconds).
Helped by Spirited Boss, Vail got the top spot in Saturday’s Monmouth Pick Your Prize qualifier. The other available $2,000 entry went to G.T. Nixon, who counted Canani among his 6 wins and 3 places.
Vail will also have action on April 19 in the Preakness Preview Day Challenge.
Vail reported home in second place in this four-seat qualifier behind only Jim Murphy, who connected on 8 winners out of the 12 contest races. One of his hits came with Spirited Boss. The final two seats went to Evan Trommer (his fourth entry won in two days) and Jim Cuzzupe.
Scott Prestridge (8 wins, 1 place) and Phil Hoedebeck (5W, 2P) were the only two players to scale the $80.00 plateau (or the $70 plateau, for that matter) in last Saturday’s qualifier to the April 19 Lone Star Spring Betting Challenge.
The big horse for both of them was Canani at Santa Anita.
Another Canani fan was Steven Simonovic (4 firsts, 2 seconds).
Simonovic bagged the $1,500 berth in what turned out to be our final qualifier for this Saturday’s Texas Two Step Championship at Sam Houston Race Park.
Our 2023 Spa & Surf Showdown champion Anthony Spinazzola hit Spirited Boss plus 4 other winners and 4 runners up.
Spinazzola was the winner of Saturday’s NHC Low Ratio Pick & Pray at HorsePlayers.
Gary Machiz (3 wins, 4 places) reeled in the up-top money of $5,699 in Saturday’s $8,142 Big Bucks Pick & Pray.
Gary’s most macho collection came courtesy of Implementation ($10.80, $4.40) in the 11th at Gulfstream.
Reminder #1: the $350,000 Gtd. Players Championship is set for this Saturday and Sunday (with racing from Keeneland joining our mix each day). The entry fee is $2,000 and players will be tasked with making 15 live-format plays each day from among an expected 30 contest races each day (for a total of 30 plays out of an expected 60 races). Qualifiers, at $156 per entry, will continue to be offered through Friday.
Reminder #2: Those who finish in the top 100 in the Players Championship will automatically receive points in the 2025 HorseTourneys Champions Series (which will be completed later in the year by the New York, New York Challenge in June, August’s Spa & Surf Showdown and the second annual renewal of the Pick & Pray Classic). Good luck to all those who will be competing!
