It has to be a big weekend when we can put together a 12-race featured schedule consisting entirely of stakes races, and that’s the case this Saturday when our main events will be geared around four stakes each from Aqueduct, Keeneland and Santa Anita—including the Wood Memorial, Toyota Blue Grass Stakes and Santa Anita Derby. And the odd thing is that, at least at HorseTourneys and HorsePlayers, Sunday may be an even bigger day than Saturday.
The weekend gets rolling on Friday with our $7,500 Guaranteed game. As usual on Fridays, it is a Pick & Pray that pays $3,750 to the winner and prizes down to fifth place. There will be 10 contest races—the 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th from the opening day card at Keeneland; Oaklawn’s 7th, 8th and 9th; and Santa Anita’s 1st and 5th. The entry fee is $190.
On Saturday, it’s time for the all-stakes, 12-race featured tourneys.
For cash game aficionados, we have a $25,000 Live-Format event with $12,500 to the winner and prizes down to 8th. Contest races for this and the other featured games this day are the 7th through 10th at Keeneland, the 4th, 5th, 6th and 8th at Santa Anita and the 8th through 11th at Aqueduct.
Also on Saturday are qualifiers for the Treasure Island Wager to Win event on Preakness weekend, along with Pick & Prays for the Keeneland Spring Challenge and Santa Anita Spring Challenge. Sounds challenging!
We’re not done talking about Saturday yet. Over on HorsePlayers.com, there’s an NHC qualifier with one seat guaranteed and up to two awarded.
Then on Sunday over at HorsePlayers, there’s a 2-seat Guaranteed qualifier for the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge.
There’s also a 5-seat-guaranteed free NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers available to all NHC Tour members. So if you have any friends who are NHC Tour Members who aren’t regular readers of this blog, first berate them, and then let them know about the free qualifier. Here’s a visual of the key goings-on at HorsePlayers this weekend:
HorseTourneys has an NHC qualifier of its own on Sunday. It’s not free, but two seats are guaranteed and it’s a Pick & Pray. That NHC qualifier is just the tip of the Sunday HorseTourneys iceberg:
We also have a $10,000 Guaranteed game, and qualifiers for the Kentucky Derby Betting Championship, The BIG One, the Santa Anita Preakness Challenge, the Keeneland Grade One Gamble, the Monmouth “Pick Your Prize” tourney, and the Wynn Handicapping Challenge.
Lastly, but never leastly, regular readers of this blog will know that Sunday also includes our $1,500 Guaranteed Exacta game. Unlike the majority of the weekend’s featured competitions, this one will be conducted using a live format.
And, getting back to HorsePlayers, here is an exciting new development:
On Friday, April 21, HorsePlayers will offer a first-of-its-kind combo qualifier with one tourney offering the winner(s) entries to BOTH the NHC and BCBC. In one day, you can check off the two most frequently-seen items on contest players’ bucket lists.
Not only that, starting Friday, April 7, you can play low-cost feeders where you can win your way into that highly-desirable April 21 combo competition. Imagine qualifying for both the NHC and BCBC for just $38!
There’s a lot going on around here for sure. I’m very excited for the three Kentucky Derby preps and the 12-race featured schedule on Saturday at HorseTourneys and HorsePlayers. I’m looking forward to the mind-numbing array of action on Sunday with all of the important contests. Heck, I’m even pumped for the Masters, and I don’t even like golf.
Perhaps that is because I played a couple of future bets in Vegas last weekend on who would win the Masters. Let that be a lesson to us all. All things are more enjoyable with action attached.
Good luck this weekend.