The Fourth of July is approaching on Tuesday, but we’ll be starting our fireworks early with 17 featured tourneys at HorseTourneys and HorsePlayers on Friday, Saturday and Sunday—including no fewer than 11 on Sunday, July 2. And two of those Sunday contests will represent your first chance to qualify for the July 8 Stars & Stripes Challenge at Belmont and the September 16 Woodbine Mile Handicapping Tournament.
We get things started on Friday with a $7,500 Pick & Pray offering $3,750 to the winner and payouts down to fifth place.
Entry is $190 with a limit of 44 entrants. Contest races are the 5th through 8th at Woodbine, the 6th and 8th from Monmouth; and the 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th from Belmont (they have a late card on Friday—10 races in all.
We throw a few more steaks on the featured grill on Saturday.
Here at HorseTourneys on Saturday we have our popular $15,000 Guaranteed game (a Pick & Pray this week) with $7,000 to the winner and payouts down to seventh place. Entry is $195 with a limit of 86 entrants.
There are also three featured qualifying events at HorseTourneys that could earn you a spot at the Wynn Handicapping Challenge, the Monmouth NHC Super Qualifier on Travers Day, and/or the Gold Coast Summer Classic. These three qualifiers are all Pick & Pray events so if you are feeling daring, you could attempt a triple play (or a grand slam if you count the $15,000 game). Just be sure to have a good travel website at your disposal, because if you pull off the clean sweep, you’ll have the happy duty of booking a few flights.
HorsePlayers is also in action on Saturday.
The Saturday HorsePlayers feature is a 2-seats-guaranteed, live-format qualifier to the NHC for $165. Up to three seats will be offered, depending on participation.
HorsePlayers keeps it going on Sunday…
…with a $179 live-format contest offering at least one guaranteed seat to the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge. Win this and you’ll earn a $10,000 entry (including $7,500 live bankroll) to the sport’s best two days of racing all year. And this year’s event is at Del Mar, which shouldn’t be unpleasant.
At HorseTourneys, a whopping 10 featured games are slated…
…including two Sunday favorites: the $10,000 Guaranteed game (Pick & Pray format this week) with $5,000 to the victor and prizes down to fifth place. And the Guaranteed Exacta game (live format as per usual).
But this week’s Exacta game is better than ever. Thanks to your strong participation in recent weeks, we’ve upped the stakes to a $2,000 Guaranteed affair. Buy-in is $65 and the winner will now receive $700 with prizes down to fifth place and total entries limited to 34.
That’s not all that’s new on Sunday. On this day you will have your first—and last—opportunity to win a $500 entry to the July 8 Stars & Stripes Challenge at Belmont Park. If you love high-class international grass racing, then the Stars & Stripes Challenge is for you. Our qualifier costs just $39 to play with one in 15 players earning an entry. And we’ll be running feeders throughout the weekend heading into Sunday for—get this–$9. With two NHC seats and one 2018 Belmont Stakes Handicapping Challenge seat up for grabs at Belmont on July 8, your $9 or $39 could go a very long way.
There’s yet another exciting newcomer to the HorseTourneys lineup on Sunday—a qualifier to the September 16 Woodbine Mile Handicapping Tournament. This event carries an entry fee of $148 and one entrant per 25 will receive an entry (worth $3,500 Canadian…the equivalent of about $2,700 U.S.) plus $500 for travel. The live-bankroll Woodbine Mile Handicapping Tournament is expected to offer $165,000 in cash and prizes, including two NHC seats and two BCBC seats. Feeders for this qualifier are now up and available for just $33.
Sunday’s menu also includes a pair of 2-seat-guaranteed qualifiers—one for the NHC and one for The BIG One. Both are Pick & Prays.
There’s also a one-seat-guaranteed contest for the Del Mar Handicapping Challenge, and they continue to offer winners not just a $7,500 package ($7,000 entry plus $500 travel) but a possible $10,000 HorseTourneys site credit bonus as well should you go on to win at Del Mar on July 29-30. And as you might know…or may have forgotten…all of our Del Mar feeders come with a 4% rebate built it. If you try to qualify for Del Mar anywhere else, you’re paying too much—and potentially leaving money on the table.
Elsewhere in Southern California, Surfside will be holding a big weekend of tournaments on July 14-16 and you can qualify for all three of them in one fell swoop here on Sunday for $98.
Greater Chicago will also be a prominent part of the Sunday featured schedule with a last chance qualifier to the July 8 Arlington Handicapping Challenge and an entry-only contest for the Hawthorne Summer NHC Qualifiers (August 11-12).
We also have a big Fourth of July on tap, but we’re still finalizing those plans. So as you’re enjoying the first few days of the extended holiday weekend, be sure to check the HorseTourneys and HorsePlayers home pages for the details on Independence Day excitement. It’s sure to be…ahem…explosive!
Thanks for reading and, from all of us at HorseTourneys, have a fun and safe holiday weekend.