We’re in a weird stretch of the calendar when a normal Friday-Saturday-Sunday weekend is the exception rather than the rule. Two weeks ago was Christmas. Last week was New Year’s. Next week is Martin Luther King Jr. weekend. This weekend, though, we’ll all have to make due with just three days of featured tournaments. But we feel we are up to the task.
There are a couple of special events coming up on Saturday/Sunday. But first comes Friday.
And what’s Friday without an up-to-$10,000 Pick & Pray with $6,000 Guaranteed? The entry fee is $190 with total entries limited to 60. For contest races, we’re obviously sticking to the warmer weather locales. Races will be the 7th, 8th and 10th from Gulfstream; the 8th and 9th from Tampa Bay Downs; and the 3rd through 7th races from Santa Anita—10 races in all.
We’ll use the same 10 heats for Friday’s Horse Player World Series entry-only qualifier. (This one is just $87 to play and one in 20 earn a $1,500 entry.) And also for the day’s Treasure Island NHC Last Chance qualifier. The entry fee here is $58, and one in 10 earns a $500 entry to the February 8 day-before-the-NHC competition. Once again: The top three finishers among those February 8 players already double-qualified for the 2018 NHC will win a seat to the 2019 NHC. Contact Michele Ravencraft at the NTRA if you have any additional questions about this February 8 tournament at Treasure Island.
On Saturday, the major event comes over at HorsePlayers:
It’s the annual NHC Final Five tournament. It’s an important tournament not just because five seats are guaranteed to be awarded; or because the entry fee is $100—but because this tournament represents your last chance to earn NHC Tour Points for the 2017 Tour year.
So if you’re already double-qualified, this is a final opportunity to improve your position in the 2017 NHC Tour standings. And if you’re not double qualified for 2018 yet, this could be a good contest to play because many of your opponents WILL be double qualified—and, thus, ineligible for one of the five (or more?) NHC seats on offer. Something to think about.
Contest races for this—and our other featured Saturday competitions at HorseTourneys—are the 7th, 9th, 10th and 11th at Gulfstream; races 7 and 8 at Tampa; and the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th at Santa Anita—a dozen races all together.
Speaking of the Saturday featured tournaments at HorseTourneys…
Our Saturday up-to-$30,000 cash game will be run in live format this week and guaranteed at $20,000 no matter how take part. (Though entries are capped at 133 at $260 each.)
There’s also a Saturday full-package qualifier to the Horse Player World Series at The Orleans. It’s $117 to play and winners (one per each 25 entries) will earn a $1,500 berth plus four nights’ hotel and another $500 for travel.
Then there’s your second (of three on the weekend) opportunity to win a $500 entry to the Treasure Island NHC Last Chance qualifier. Again it costs $58 to play with one in 10 emerging victorious.
There are a half-dozen featured tournaments at HorseTourneys and HorsePlayers on Sunday (New Year’s Eve).
There’s plenty more cash and seats to be won on Sunday—including a seat to one of the most lucrative cash tournaments on the 2018 schedule.
For an entry fee of $480, you can play in our direct qualifier to the January 26-27 Pegasus World Cup Betting Championship at Gulfstream (where the entry fee is $12,000). Thanks to our low-cost feeder program, this qualifier is already guaranteed “to go” and we’re continuing to run these feeders through which you could qualify for as little as $24 (on Friday) or $107 (on Saturday).
There’s also another opportunity to qualify for the NHC via a “regular,” $165 qualifier on Sunday. No Tour points available starting today, but two 2018 NHC spots are guaranteed. Note that this event is one of the few Pick & Prays during the course of Saturday/Sunday.
And, for the third consecutive day, you can take a swing at winning an entry to the Horse Player World Series.
On the cash side of the schedule, we’ll be hosting an up-to-$20,000 game with $12,000 guaranteed. This toll here is $195 with a maximum of 118 entries allowed in.
There’s also Sunday’s up-to-$5,000 Exacta contest with $2,000 guaranteed. This one costs $72, and the nice thing about these games is that, with no price cap, you’re never out of contention even if there’s just one race left and you haven’t hit a thing.
Over at HorsePlayers on Sunday, there’s a twin-bill on tap.
The main event is an NHC Super Qualifier with one in just 21 advancing to the 2018 NHC on February 9-11.
The Sunday HorsePlayers co-feature is another Treasure Island NHC Last Chance qualifier. Playing in the Treasure Island Last Chance is the next best thing to playing in the NHC. And if you get lucky, you might just get to have your cake and eat it too.
One of the great things about HorseTourneys action is that all you need to play is an entry fee (of as little as $5) and a reliable internet connection. With all the cold temperatures and high winds in the eastern half of the country, perhaps this second prerequisite isn’t such a given right now. But if you do have power, then you also have the power to win. We’ll even supply the past performances for you free of charge. The weekend may be shorter than that to which we have grown accustomed of late. But we promise it will be a fun one. Good luck!