Saturday was Fourstardave Day at Saratoga, but here at HorseTourneys, it was Fivestarbrian day.
Brian “BC” Chenvert won four different tourneys on Saturday and also scooped up a grand prize in another one in which he didn’t finish first. One of the Minnesotan’s triumphs came in Saturday’s qualifier to the Travers Day Challenge at Monmouth/Xpressbet.
Both Chenvert and fellow $800 seat winner Ted “Forbidden” Apple enjoyed a great start after connecting with L.J.’s Emma in the first contest race, the 7th at Saratoga.
Chenvert also won our first play-in to the October 14 Keeneland BCBC/NHC Challenge.
Here, Chenvert was joined on the victory podium by Christopher Maiello, who got there thanks in no small part to having Stressed ($11.40, $6.20) in the final contest race, the 7th at Del Mar.
Chenvert will also have action this Sunday.
He and Dr. Ron Tang were the two winners in Saturday’s Woodbine King’s Plate Challenge qualifier. They both came up with Talent for Gold ($28.00, $12.00) in race 5 at Del Mar.
In another conquest, Chenvert got himself three days of handicapping fun/excitement/stress.
Chenvert and runner up Raj Satyan both secured their places for each day of the three-day (August 31, September 3, September 9) Kentucky Downs Turf Handicapping Challenge.
In our first qualifier to the Del Mar Pacific Classic Challenge on September 2, Chenvert defeated all but Steven Burnite, whose 7 wins and a place added up to $167.50, which was the highest score of the day.
Burnite and Chenvert each receive $4,000 seats, which they can fill either on-track at Del Mar or online at TVG.com on the first Saturday in September.
Clearly inspired by Chenvert, Joseph Zuer went on a multi-table run of his own the following day.
Zuer picked 6 winners, topped by Closethegame Sugar ($41.00, $16.00) in the Mahony Stakes at Saratoga, and added a place collection, to earn $12,600 in Sunday’s HT Tour event, our $20,000 Guaranteed Pick & Pray, which closed with a purse of an even $28,000.
Zuer’s bank account (or at least his HorseTourneys account) grew further after our $7,000 Guaranteed Big Bucks game.
Here, he added another $4,986 to his coffers.
Zuer also, by a margin of just 40 cents, prevailed in Sunday’s Pacific Classic Challenge qualifier.
Total Sunday winnings for Zuer: $17,586 in cash plus a $4,000 Del Mar entry. Well done!
The featured-tourney week began on Wednesday, when Kenneth Arnerich won $2,737 in our $5,000 Guaranteed cash game.
Arnerich picked 4 winners and 2 runners up in this game that closed with a purse of $6,083. His top return came with Callie’s Passion ($20.20, $12.40) in the 5th at Horseshoe Indy.
Thursday’s cash feature went to Shawn Turner (3 firsts, 1 second).
Turner had Suerte ($27.20, $11.60) in the 9th at Saratoga and Dominant Soul ($16.20, $8.00) in the 8th at Del Mar among his four collections, and he won $3,421 in our $6,000 Guaranteed Pick & Pray, which paid out a total of $7,603.
Suerte was central to the winning efforts of G.T. Nixon (4 firsts, 2 seconds) on Thursday.
Nixon was the one—to punch his ticket to Vegas—in the special $125 NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers.
Friday’s NHC play-in at HorsePlayers was the always-popular $75 buy-in game.
Robert Salzano (5 winners, including all 4 Friday double-digit victors) and third-place finisher Jimmie O’Nail (6 winners) came away with the two available seats. O’Nail won a tiebreaker for the second seat over a hard-luck Chris Bertolucci by virtue of having 6 winners to Bertolucci’s 5. The second-place finisher, Gregg “Sky” Kingma, was already double qualified, which is why the second seat dropped to O’Nail.
In addition to winning an NHC entry last Friday, Robert Salzano also landed himself a paid-up entry for this Saturday’s Laurel Champions tournament.
As in the $75 NHC qualifier, Salzano’s best winner out of his five came in the first contest race, the 5th at Monmouth, where he connected with Extreme Access ($18.80, $8.20).
Robert Scangarello also used Extreme Access.
That was one of 6 winners that Scangarello selected en route to winning a $10,000 seat in Friday’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier at HorsePlayers.
The 2013 Horseplayer World Series champ James Henry (4 wins, 1 place) captured Friday’s HT Tour game, our $15,000 Guaranteed Pick & Pray.
Henry had Extreme Access at the beginning, but he got up for the “W” at the end with Lemon Sushi ($15.20, $6.60) in the 4th at Del Mar. He earned a winner’s share of $9,650 in a game that ultimately paid out a total of $21,446.
Steven Meier was the ruler in Friday’s King’s Plate Challenge qualifier.
His 2 firsts and 4 seconds included three very nice place collections that returned $20.20, $6.00 and $9.20, respectively.
The 2015 NHC champ, John O’Neil, was the champion of Friday’s Travers Day Challenge qualifier.
O’Neil picked 5 winners (and no places) to win an $800 spot in the August 26th contest, where he will also face Alexander Calzi (4W, 1P), who finished second behind him here. They both nailed Extreme Access in the contest lid lifter at Monmouth.
The richest tourney of the week, Saturday’s $30,000 Guaranteed Pick & Pray, was captured by Mark Aylward.
Aylward compiled 4 firsts and 3 seconds, including LJ’s Emma ($36.20, $14.20) in the 7th at Saratoga, to pull in $14,553 from a total final pot in this HT Tour event of $32,340.
Saturday’s other featured cash tourney went to Ron Tang.
Also the earner of a Woodbine seat on Saturday, Tang picked 4 winners and 1 runner up here in our $10,000 Guaranteed Big Bucks Pick & Pray to pick up the winner’s share of $8,549 in this high-end game that had a final prize pool of $12,213. Tang’s big horse was 13-1 Talent for Gold in race 5 at Del Mar.
Steve Arrison also liked Talent for Gold.
That was one of 3 winners on the day for Arrison, who came out on top in Saturday’s Guaranteed qualifier to The BIG One at Laurel Park on October 21-22.
Two more Talent for Gold fans were Dino Herrera (5 wins, 4 places) and Kris Andaur (4W, 3P).
They were the two to earn spots in Vegas in Saturday’s $165 NHC qualifier here at HorseTourneys.
There was also a $500 Low Ratio NHC qualifier on Saturday over at HorsePlayers.
David Nelson picked 4 winners—all of the double-digit variety—and 1 runner up to secure his place in the big dance next March.
The other Saturday feature at HorsePlayers was a $179 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Pick & Pray.
Our 2022 Flo-Cal Faceoff champion David Snyder was the king of the hill here. He counted both LJ’s Emma and Talent for Gold among his 3 firsts and 4 seconds. Finishing closest behind Snyder was Tim Kindlon, who earned a $5,000 partial BCBC seat for his efforts.
Moving on to Sunday, Joseph Zuer wasn’t the only one really on his game that day. So was George “Ki-“ Bosch.
Bosch detected 3 winners and 2 placers from the 12 Sunday races, and he was one of three players to grab $800 Travers Day Challenge seats this day, along with Carol Trageser (1W, 4P) and Sean O’Malley (2W, 1P).
In Sunday’s Laurel Champions tournament play-in, George really put the kibosh on his opponents.
Bosch finished first here with $34.80 to spare. Runner-up Kevin Engelhard (6 wins, 2 places) also got himself a Laurel seat.
Though he used quite a few different horses in Sunday’s qualifier to the Woodbine King’s Plate Challenge, Kevin Engelhard also earned a seat (worth $1,000) to that event too.
Leading the way in this one was John Kimove with 5 wins and 2 places. He and runner up Chris Goodall (2W, 1P) both hit Closethegame Sugar ($41.00, $16.00) in the 10th at the Spa. Then came Engelhard in third. Having now earned seats to both the Laurel Champions tournament and the King’s Plate Challenge, next weekend figures to be a busy one for Engelhard!
Corey Lonberger’s big horse among 4 winners was Highestdistinction ($23.20, $10.60) in race 9 at Monmouth.
Lonberger will now be one of no more than 57 participating for a $200,000 Guaranteed all-cash prize pool on October 21-22 at The BIG One at Laurel Park. As an online qualifier winner, Lonberger also receives a $500 bonus plus hotel and full amenities, including lunch and open bar at the track during both days of the event.
Sunday’s play-in to the Keeneland Fall BCBC/NHC Challenge was a close one.
Adam Lewis (5 firsts, 1 second) emerged with the $3,500 entry after outfinishing Michael Caposio by just 40 cents.
Both the 2020 Spa & Surf Showdown champion Scott Fiedler (2 wins, 3 places) and the 2017 NHC hero Ray Aresenault (3W, 0P) used Mahony Stakes victor Closethegame Sugar as a springboard to Sunday success.
Fiedler and Arsenault were the two recipients of $1,700 in entry fees in Sunday’s play-in to the three-day Kentucky Downs Turf Handicapping Challenge.
Over at HorsePlayers, Derek Collett collected an assist from the Del Mar stewards in Sunday’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio Pick & Pray.
Collets biggest collection among 3 firsts and 2 seconds was with Reiquist ($56.80, $17.80) in race 8 at Del Mar, who got moved up to first via disqualification after finishing second. According to Twitter, the DQ was either a no-brainer or a complete outrage. In any event, Benjamin Posen reported home in second place, and he got a $5,000 partial BCBC entry.
The other Sunday feature at HorsePlayers was the year’s first NHC qualifier that was restricted to those who had yet to earn a 2024 seat.
Raymond Gallant Jr. nailed down his spot in Vegas thanks to 4 firsts and 1 second. Earlier in the day, he hit 19-1 Closethegame Sugar at Saratoga, but the seat wasn’t his for sure until he landed a $4.80 place collection in the contest finale, the 10th at Del Mar, to get up for the victory.
Thanks to all for making last week another exciting week of summer racing and contest play. More of the same coming your way again, starting on Wednesday. We hope you can be part of the fun once again.