Sometimes just one horse can get you where you want to be in a tournament. That was the case on both days of the just-completed July 30-31 weekend, though the two days had somewhat different complexions.
To have much chance at success on Saturday, it was a good idea to play the maiden Laoban in Saratoga’s Race 10, the Jim Dandy Stakes. Laoban paid $42.00 to win (for contest purposes with the 20-1 win cap in effect) and $17.20 to place. There were only six horses in the Jim Dandy, which means that plenty of players in our tourneys had him. And there were three tournament races that followed Laoban’s upset — leaving the final results of our games largely dependent on how players did AFTER hitting Laoban.
For Michael Sussman, Laoban was the first winner he had all day. But he then nailed the next two as well, including Del Mar 12-1 shot Conquest Cobra. His “turkey” won him the $7,000 top spot in our $15,000 Guaranteed game.
Ronald Peltz and Robert Gilbert each tabbed Laoban and Conquest Cobra, and that was sufficient to put them at the top of the heap in our Monmouth qualifier. They’ll both be heading to the Jersey Shore on August 13.
Laoban was also a veritable “must have” in Saturday’s Wynn Blowout, which offered five entries to the $200,000 guaranteed tournament next weekend in Las Vegas. Saturday’s “Wynn 5” were Mark Streiff, Lynn McGuire, David Browning, Joshua Chavez and Geoffrey Schutt.
And in our $2,000 Guaranteed Exacta Box game (which went off at a handsome overlay of nearly 20% to the players), the Laoban-Governor Malibu exacta was one of five winning exactas registered from among 12 mandatory plays by J. Streve, whose HorseTourneys account is now $750 higher.
Sunday was all about Snow Cloud (IRE) in Del Mar’s 6th race…and not just because the 41-1 shot paid the maximum contest prices of $42.00 to win and $22.00 to place.
Del Mar’s 6th race was the last race of our multi-track contests on Sunday, most of which were Live Format affairs. If you didn’t have Snow Cloud, there were no races left from which to make up your deficit.
So congratulations to our two The BIG One package winners, Dan Flanigan and Robert Schintzius Jr. And to our five Battle of Saratoga winners: Anthony Kite, Jonathon Kinchen, Ed Sehon, Lucas Van Zandt and Paul Shurman (we already have a HorseTourneys roster of 22 two-day package qualifiers to Saratoga, and that number will grow with our Last Chance Spa Tourney this Saturday). Three cheers for Chuck Browning, the winner of $3,750 in our $7,500 Guaranteed Sunday game. Congrats also to John Northern who won a package to Hawthorne and to David Brownfield and Bill Zvara, who won two entries each to Indiana Grand’s first-ever NHC qualifier later this month.
What did all 11 have in common? You guessed it. They all had Snow Cloud.