In a popular event Saturday on DRF Tournaments, 29 entries competed for two seats to the first-ever World Horseplayers’ Tour event at Santa Anita Park on May 19-20. Ernest Hey Jr. had himself a day and prevailed with a score of $137.10, while Kevin Willett also got a seat with a total of $91.10. Hey got out of the gate strong, connecting with three nice-priced winners in stakes races right out of the gate: Warrior’s Club ($58.20 win-place combined) in the Commonwealth at Keeneland, Discreet Lover ($26.40) in the Excelsior at Aqueduct, and Fatale Bere ($25.60) in the Providencia at Santa Anita. Those points alone would have been enough for him to finish first overall, but he ran up the score with winners in the two 3-year-old preps that were included in the sequence: Vino Rosso ($14.80) in the Wood Memorial and Good Magic ($8.80) in the Blue Grass Stakes. Willett got into the game with Fatale Bere and backed that up with another $28.40 from Bound for Nowhere in the Shakertown. Five more collections followed, and he ended up well clear of third. Also Saturday, Kenneth Yingling ($113.30) and Thomas Murphy ($75.80) won into Keeneland’s Grade 1 Gamble in a 20-runner event that also awarded each qualifier $500 in travel money. Yingling hit early and often, blanking in only four races. His biggest hits were Fatale Bere and Bound for Nowhere. Murphy looked in great position early after coming up with Discreet Lover and Bound for Nowhere, but then went cold. He got back on the beam late with place points on Flameaway ($5) in the Blue Grass and Beau Recall ($16) in the Royal Heroine, the contest’s anchor leg. There were two added Keeneland qualifiers Sunday. Thomas Abinati won the first game with a tally of $57.20, securing his second $5,000 berth for next weekend’s Grade 1 Gamble (he won his first in a DRF Tournaments event March 18). He got to that total via dribs and drabs. He had seven collections throughout the 12-race sequence, the longest of which was Glorious Crown ($14) in Santa Anita’s third. In the second game, Michael Martin prevailed with a total of $90.20. Martin got off to a great start in the all-in contest, connecting with a cap horse, Necessary ($64) in Keeneland’s fourth, right off the bat. From there the rest of the field started catching up. He didn’t add a point in the next six contest races, but finished strong with three more collections to secure the win. The second and third finishers in the second game – Keith Davis and Jonathon Kinchen – both finished with high enough bankrolls that they would have won seats had those entries been played in the first game. Keeneland’s special added qualifiers are limited to fields of 10 and do not include travel money. On Friday, Brian Johnson also won a Keeneland seat in an added game. DRFT may choose to add a few final special qualifiers this week. Check back on the site later this week for more details. Friday night saw the first half of a special free contest, sponsored by Sky Racing World, centering on The Championships in Australia. Through nine races in the field of 1,268 entries, David Feldman leads with $155.50. He started with two $60-plus collections and topped up with two more hits from there. The contest will continue Friday night, with the top finisher receiving a VIP trip for two to The Everest Tournament in October. Contest action returns to DRFT on Wednesday. Next weekend’s featured events include qualifiers for the Belmont Stakes Challenge, the World Championship of Handicapping, and the World Horseplayers’ Tour/Santa Anita contest. Go to: tournaments.drf.com for more details.