In The Money Telegraph
Friday, September 25, 2026 · By ITM Staff
Eight Spots Left: The Tour Hits Its Penultimate Week
This is it — the next-to-last chance. Week 17 of the In the Money HorsePlayers Tour runs today, and with only two feeders left in the regular season, there are just eight playoff spots still up for grabs. It’s the same easy, high-value formula: a $20 Pick & Pray at HorsePlayers.com, all Belmont Park this week (the all-Belmont format was a hit for the new track’s opening weekend, so it’s back), with the house cut going to Breeders’ Cup Charities. Finish in this week’s top four and you’re into the Playoffs; crack the top 10% and you also earn a spot in Saturday’s BCBC qualifier.
And it keeps paying off. Last week made it six players this season who parlayed a $20 Tour feeder into a Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge seat — the latest being Togo Travalia. From here, the road runs straight to the money: the two remaining feeders (today and the October 2 finale, which lands on Keeneland’s Fall opening day) fill out a 72-entry playoff field, which is cut to 36 in the First Round on October 9, to 10 in the Second Round on October 16, and to a single winner at the October 23 Final Table — who walks away with a $10,000 BCBC seat. Get in at HorsePlayers.com; PTF and Matt Bernier preview today’s Belmont card below.
The Gramm Case Moves to November
Disclosure: Marshall Gramm is a friend, and his Ten Strike Racing was the first commercial sponsor In the Money Media ever had. The Jockey Club, quoted in PTF’s reporting below, is an ITM client. We’ve kept the account straight and attributed.
Contrary to what was widely reported, Marshall Gramm will not face a HISA hearing in September. In agreed orders signed September 11, the two disciplinary cases against him were taken off the calendar and consolidated into a single hearing, now set for November 9–10, because the matters share common questions of fact and law. Gramm agreed to remain provisionally suspended — under the terms he accepted in August — through the process, a trade HISA CEO Lisa Lazarus framed as bridging the gap between HISA’s wish to move quickly and Gramm’s team wanting more time.
PTF’s piece also digs into the question that’s hung over the story since the charges: who else can see horse health data. By Lazarus’s account, roughly a dozen to fifteen people at HISA can view full treatment records, along with the outside call-center representatives who staff its help desk; no board members have access, and the sport’s roughly 1,400 registered veterinarians are scoped to their own horses. Notably, HISA confirmed in writing that a member of its Anti-Doping and Medication Control Committee — identified on the record by Gramm, and confirmed by HISA, as owner and bloodstock agent David Ingordo — took part in the initial interview in the investigation.
On the security failure itself, Lazarus was candid about the alert that was supposed to flag unusual access but didn’t: “We didn’t set the parameters right.” HISA is now moving up its annual IT audit and bringing in one of the big three firms, and the question of who leaked the charges to the media has been referred to law enforcement. The full report has much more. Read PTF’s full piece →
Looking Ahead: Joe Hirsch Turf Classic Day
Belmont’s first big Saturday of the fall lands tomorrow, headlined by the Grade 1, $500,000 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic. It’s backed by two more graded races with Breeders’ Cup implications — the Grade 2, $500,000 Flower Bowl, a “Win and You’re In’’ to the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf, and the Grade 2, $250,000 Gallant Bloom. A weather note: a nor’easter is forecast for the weekend, so some turf racing could shift to the synthetic — keep an eye on the changes.
Friday’s Cards
Santa Anita. The fall meet opens today and runs through November 1. Dean Keppler makes Mrsaintpatrick his best bet in Race 5. Keppler’s card →
Monmouth at the Meadowlands. A six-race, all-turf card at 7:00 p.m. ET — assuming the weather holds. Eric Solomon has it. Solomon’s card →
Laurel Park. Will Humphrey has top picks and trip notes across the card. Humphrey’s tips & trips →
ITM Plus
One Week to the Finale — and Keeneland
The Tour’s regular season ends next Friday on Keeneland’s opening day, the playoffs run through October, and the Breeders’ Cup is closing fast. ITM Plus members get daily written selections, the members’ bet share, exclusive shows, and full coverage all the way to Keeneland.
More all weekend at inthemoneypodcast.com and on the ITM YouTube channel, with premium coverage on ITM Plus.
