Triple Crown prep season is always one of the most exciting times on the racing calendar—and this year, even more so as the time coincides with several new contests and developments here at HorseTourneys. With so much new going on over a relatively short period of time, it seems like a good time to run it all down for you.
Money talks, and we’ll be communicating loud and clear with our richest tourney ever on Florida Derby Day, Saturday, March 31.
It’s an up-to-$150,000 live-format tourney with $100,000 Guaranteed regardless of participation. Entries are $695 each with a maximum of two per account and 240 overall. Our Round 2 feeder for $159 takes place one day prior on March 30, but you can qualify any day before then for as little as $37 via our daily feeders.
Normally, we like to take a breather in between our big-money games, but not this time around—not with the Wood Memorial, Toyota Blue Grass Stakes, and Santa Anita Derby coming just a week later. So we’ll be right back at you on Saturday, April 7 with an up-to-$75,000 live-format tourney with $50,000 Guaranteed.
Same entry fee: $695. But here you can have up to three entries per account. Overall entries will be capped at 121. Warning: If you like playing cheap claiming races, this may not be your day!
One of the year’s most popular onsite competitions is now available for qualifying at HorseTourneys: It’s the Saratoga Challenge on August 10-11 at Saratoga Race Course. Note that, for the first time ever, the Saratoga contests—run as two separate one-day tournaments—will be run during a weekend (Friday/Saturday) rather than during midweek.
The Friday tourney at Saratoga is called the Saratoga Challenge and carries a $1,000 entry fee. It’s a live-bankroll contest with a minimum first-place prize of $15,000. Also up for grabs are one seat to the 2019 Belmont Stakes Challenge and three seats to the 2019 NHC.
The Saturday tilt will be called the Fourstardave Challenge, in honor of the Sultan of Saratoga. It carries an entry fee of $2,000 , with a guaranteed top cash prize of $25,000 (plus your bankroll earnings). Seats on offer are one to the 2019 Belmont Stakes Challenge and five to the 2019 NHC.
Of course, if you qualify to Saratoga here at HorseTourneys, you will be good to go on both days up at Saratoga. Plus we kick in an extra $500 for your travel. (Hotels can be pricey up there!). Our first direct qualifier is this Sunday, March 25.
We just referenced the 2019 Belmont Stakes Challenge above. Perhaps we were getting ahead of ourselves a little—because starting on Sunday, April 8, you can qualify at HorseTourneys for the 2018 Belmont Stakes Challenge.
This year’s renewal is a two-day tournament taking place on Friday, June 9 and Saturday, June 10. In addition to cash, players will compete for one 2019 Belmont Stakes Challenge seat, two 2018 BCBC entries and four 2019 NHC seats. The Belmont Stakes Challenge costs $10,000 to enter with $7,500 going to your live bankroll and $2,500 to the prize pool. However, you can qualify directly at HorseTourneys for $495…or even less via our low-cost feeders. And if you do qualify for us, we’ll again kick in $500 for travel. (Hotels are pricey in downstate New York too.)
Okay, so the Keeneland Grade One Gamble isn’t exactly a new offering at HorseTourneys. We’ve been running (very well attended) qualifiers for the April 15 tournament for several weeks now. But what IS new is that we are now offering three qualifiers for it each weekend—one on Friday, one on Saturday and one on Sunday.
Also…a quick note about the Wynn Handicapping Challenge, since many have asked:
In short, the Wynn has told us that they will, indeed, be running a tournament this year, but they have been behind schedule in finalizing their dates. Once those dates are set, you can be sure we will be running qualifiers.
Last, but not least, you will soon see a cleaner, sleeker, faster HorseTourneys. The user experience will be as great as it ever was, only easier and better (in our opinion!). We can’t wait to show it off to you. Stay tuned. And thanks for your interest in our tourneys—both old and new!