There were a few Pick & Prays sprinkled in amongst the 17 featured tourneys last weekend, but most were live-format tourneys. And that led to “spread the wealth” results that saw 17 different people place first in those featured events. The action got started on Friday.
Alan Levitt didn’t bother with any second-place-finishing horses, but with winners like he had, he didn’t need to. Levitt had four winners at odds of 16-1, 7-2, 20-1 and 7-1 to win Friday’s $75 NHC qualifier with a big score of $148.40. Gloria Kahlden also picked four winners, at slightly lower odds, to grab the other NHC spot. This was good news for Gloria and great news for the Vice President in charge of Slot Machines at Treasure Island.
We don’t know whether Gloria and hubby Lawrence put their heads together on their Friday picks but, if so, Gloria held back a winner from Lawrence who only managed three successful tallies.
It didn’t matter, though. Lawrence’s three winners accounted for the top money of $4,540 in Friday’s $5,000 Guaranteed Pick & Pray, which closed with a purse of $9,080.
Robert Crowe (3 wins, 1 place) and Rick Broth (just 2 wins and 1 place) were both smart enough to use Hogan’s Holiday ($42.40 to win, but $42.00 for contest purposes, and $18.20 to place) in the 8th at Gulfstream Park West.
That put them at the top of the heap in Friday’s BCBC Low Ratio Pick & Pray at HorsePlayers. They’ll be firing away with prepaid $10,000 entries at the BCBC, now just a couple of short weeks away. Broth, who cashed for $908 by finishing fourth behind Lawrence Kahlden in the $9,000 cash game, held second by a mere 40 cents. Good thing he had that one place horse.
On Saturday, Evan Trommer really didn’t give the others a chance in our $17,500 Guaranteed cash tourney.
Trommer had three horses paying more than $25.00 to win among his overall five wins and two places to amass an eye-popping score of $192.30 and earn first-place money of $8,973. Here’s a look at Trommer’s score sheet.
It was a long way back in that cash game to Eric Kurzhal in second. His score of $127.90 was still good for a nice payday of $3,589. And those same picks of Kurzhal worked just fine in Saturday’s Horse Player World Series full-package qualifier.
Kurzhall started fast (a 15-1 winner) and closed with a bang (14-1 winner) in winning our first full-package qualifier (which includes four nights’ hotel and a travel stipend) to the HPWS. He also had three winners in between his opening and closing acts. Look for these full-package qualifiers each and every Saturday between now and next March.
Magical Man ($31.30, $14.80 in the 12th at Woodbine) was just that for John Pinder.
The last-race longshot sent Pinder to the top of the standings in our NHC Lower Ratio Pick & Pray qualifier. Kevin Udlenick (3 winners) managed to hold second and grab the other NHC seat despite not having Magical Man.
Pittsburgh pain-management physician Edward Reidy also had Magical Man.
And that sent Reidy (2 wins, 2 places) into a euphoric state at the conclusion of Saturday’s “regular” BCBC qualifier at HorsePlayers.
Magical Man’s triumph at Woodbine resulted in a tight-at-the-top leaderboard in the $1,000 BCBC qualifier on Saturday at HorsePlayers.
First-place finisher Ron Bowden prevailed even though he didn’t have the 14-1 winner in suburban Toronto. The next three finishers did have Magical Man, and two of them—Mike Sylvester and Pete Acocella—also wound up with $10,000 BCBC entries since this qualifier drew a whopping 40 entries. Keep in mind that next weekend will be your last opportunity to win a seat for the BCBC at HorsePlayers.
Sunday had a robust schedule of nine featured tourneys, and we will lead off with the one that took place at HorsePlayers, only because it shows that there is always more than one way to skin a cat.
Big scores were harder to come by on Sunday, as compared with Saturday or Friday. Brian Chenvert recorded the day’s high tally (barely) with $106.90 thanks to his 4 wins and 2 places. That got him a $10,000 BCBC seat in the day’s Low Ratio qualifier.
Getting the second available seat was Eric Pineiro with $95.60 which, of course, is an admirable feat in itself…but look at how Pineiro did it.
Two wins and six places. Yes, that last-race longshot was key for Pineiro, but without those six unassuming chip-ups, Erotic’s win in the Santa Anita finale wouldn’t even begun to have gotten him aroused. Well done!
Back at HorseTourneys, Erotic helped make Steven Meier’s and Michael Kavana’s NHC fantasies come true.
They each had the Santa Anita longshot that secured them NHC berths in our two-seats-guaranteed “regular” Pick & Pray.
Rudolph Hardin didn’t have Erotic, and didn’t really need him.
Even without the somewhat ironically-named gelding, Hardin was able to double up his competition thanks to 3 wins and 2 places. That got him top money of $7,000 in Sunday’s Big Bucks Pick & Pray, which ran at a mere 3.5% takeout to players and at a loss to HorseTourneys. Saturday’s big scorer, Evan Trommer, visited the cashier’s window again in this one, finishing second and picking up $2,000.
In our more modestly priced $10,000 Guaranteed cash game on Sunday, it was Curtis Meyer who bottomed out the field.
Meyer did all of his scoring in the first eight race, racking up three wins and two place to collect $6,040 in a game that closed with a pot of $12,080.
Although Horse Player World Series full-package qualifiers are now a Saturday staple, HPWS entry-only qualifiers are still going strong on Sundays.
Here, William Henderson (4 wins, 2 places) had the 11-1 final contest-race winner and runner-up Richard Owens (4 wins, 3 places) had the second-place finisher which paid $10.00 to place. That result elevated both into the prize-winning positions.
Brendan Fay (2 wins, 2 places) certainly found the 11-1 win in the last contest race by Erotic highly pleasurable.
The final-race hit meant a $5,000 package to Fay for the Nov. 10-11 Del Mar Fall Classic.
Michael Lazarus did not need any erotica to be stimulated by Sunday’s qualifier to the Monmouth NHC event on December 29.
His four wins and three places earlier in the tourney proved too much to come back from for his opponents. Lazarus, thus, received a $400 entry plus $500 for one of the Jersey Shore’s chillier handicapping events of the year.
It figures to be none too warm at the November 23-24 Hawthorne Fall NHC Qualifier either. Fortunately, the event is held indoors, and even if it were held outdoors, Ray Davis probably wouldn’t mind.
His four wins (including Erotic) and two places earned Davis $800 in entry fees for the two, single-day tourneys plus $500 for travel.
Last but not least, Adam Lewis connected on five exactas to take home top money of $1,272 in our $2,000 Guaranteed Exacta tourney, which closed with a final purse of $2,544.
Lewis’s biggest return of the five came in the last race when his $1.00, three-horse exacta box paid $106.50. I guess you could call that an Erotic exotic.
Thank goodness that there were no other featured tourneys on Sunday…because I’d have had a tough time coming up with any more amazingly clever Erotic puns.
Thanks for reading—or groaning, as the case may be—and may your week ahead be rated not X, but PG…as in Particularly Great.