It’s hardly your typical featured schedule at HorseTourneys this weekend. We’ll have plenty of action on Saturday—Derby Day—but since we don’t have the ability to use Churchill Downs races in our tourneys, and since the Derby card is (understandably) what the majority of people will be following on Saturday, we will be offering our top featured events only on Friday and (primarily) Sunday this week so that no one misses out on important tourneys they would otherwise want to play.
We know our Friday fans wouldn’t think of missing our enhanced Friday Pick & Pray.
Now worth up-to-$12,500 Pick & Pray with $7,000 guaranteed, this Friday favorite sold out yet again last week. So enter early. The entry fee remains at $190, and there will again be a 10-race contest menu: the 5th, 6th, 7th and 9th from Laurel; 7th, 8th and 9th from Belmont; and the 4th, 6th and 7th from Santa Anita. With over an hour in between the later races at Churchill on Friday, we thought we’d offer Oaks Day fans something fun to do during their downtime!
Looking ahead to Sunday, our featured schedule is extra robust. In crass, commercial terms…we’re giving out more money.
That’s because our up-to-$30,000 Pick & Pray—normally held on a Saturday—is offered on Sunday this week. Win this $260 buy-in event and you will have forgotten the Derby was even held this weekend.
Another Sunday Pick & Pray of special note is our 2-seat-guaranteed qualifier to The BIG One at Laurel. Although, to call these prizes “seats” doesn’t do them justice. All qualifiers to The BIG One receive all-inclusive packages including travel, hotel, welcome dinner and full open bar and buffet during both days of the competition. Perhaps best of all, it’s an intimate event with a maximum of 57 players (one entry per player) and a total of 30 NHC, BCBC and Horse Player World Series entries awarded, in addition to cash prizes. That’s why we consider The BIG One to be the year’s “High Expectation Tourney.”
Since you may be in a Triple Crown state of mind this weekend, you may want to compete for a $10,500 package to the Belmont Stakes Handicapping Challenge on June 8-9. One in 25 entries will move on to “The Sidewalks of New York.”
If you prefer a less urban setting, then our Saratoga and Monmouth qualifiers are for you. The Saratoga tourney is a Pick & Pray ($164 entry fee) while the Monmouth Pick Your Prize qualifier ($117) will be run in live-format mode. In each contest, one entry per 25 will win a top prize.
Of course, no HorseTourneys Sunday is complete without our Sunday Exacta tourney. It’s an up-to-$5,000, live-format game with a $72 buy-in and $2,000 guaranteed. Hit enough $1 exacta boxes—or hit a big enough one—and you win.
Over at HorsePlayers, it’s a typically lucrative Sunday with both NHC and BCBC spots up for grabs.
The NHC qualifier is a “regular” one, with two seats guaranteed and entries costing $165 each. One per 65 move on.
The BCBC qualifier, meanwhile, is a “Low Ratio” game. The entry fee is $500, but the winning ratio for each $10,000 BCBC entry is one in just 23. And one BCBC entry is guaranteed to be awarded even if the tourney attracts fewer than 23.
Last but not least, I probably shouldn’t be doing this…but I wanted to remind you to play our $7 Jackpot Survivor games. They are offered Wednesday-Sunday.
I shouldn’t be telling you this because people have been hitting the $500 Jackpot left and right since we started offering them a week or two ago. And when people hit the jackpot, we lose money.
Perhaps I also shouldn’t be telling you to enjoy the Derby, since we can’t run tourneys with it. But the Derby is an intrinsic part of the sport we all love. It is horse racing history and, therefore, it is part of us.
So…enjoy the Derby! We’ll be right here when you get back.