The calendar flips from June to July during a HorseTourneys weekend that again offers a robust menu of 17 featured events, plus feeders to two special tourneys the following weekend. It all gets rolling on Friday.
Dollar-for-dollar one of the most popular tourneys each week is our up-to-$12,500 Pick & Pray with $7,000 guaranteed. It carries an entry fee of $190, and the total number of entries is limited to 75. Results will be determined based on the outcome of 10 races: the 7th through 10th from Laurel; the 6th, 7th and 9th from Belmont; and the 6th, 7th and 8th from Los Alamitos, where it will be opening day of their three-week Thoroughbred meeting.
On Saturday, there are six featured events, including opportunities to qualify for the NHC, the BCBC, Saratoga, the Orleans Fall Classic and more. Or could just shoot for cold, hard cash.
The NHC tourney is a “Lower Ratio” contest (live-format, as are most of the top Saturday and Sunday events) where you pay a little more ($240) but the winning ratio is lower (1 in 45, rather than 1 in 65). Two berths are guaranteed to be awarded regardless of how many (or few) sign up.
One of the premier brick-and-mortar events on the summer contest calendar is the Saratoga Challenge (run as two single-day competitions) on Friday and Saturday, August 10 and 11. You can qualify for it here on Saturday for $164 with one in 25 earning a $3,500 package for both days at the Spa.
For cash-game enthusiasts, our richest tourney of the weekend takes place Saturday with our up-to-$30,000 cash game. There is a guaranteed minimum prize pool of $17,500, and entries, at $260 each, are limited to 133.
There are also live-format qualifiers for the Orleans Fall Classic in October (a week or so before baseball’s fall classic), and for the July 27-28 Hawthorne OTBs Summer NHC Qualifier. Winners of our Hawthorne OTBs qualifier get a $400 bankroll for each of the single-day competitions held at any of 10 Club Hawthorne OTBs. There are no additional entry fees involved. The first-place finisher each day in Illinois gets a $1 million bonus opportunity in addition to his or her NHC seat.
Our 12-race, featured-event contest schedule for Saturday includes six stakes races. The dozen races are the 7th through 9th from Belmont (including the Mother Goose); the 9th through 11th at Monmouth (all stakes including the United Nations); the 12th through 14th at Gulfstream (topped by the Princess Rooney and the Smile); and the 5th, 7th and 8th from Los Alamitos.
That same array of contest races will serve as the structure for the featured tourney at HorsePlayers on Saturday.
It’s a ‘regular” BCBC qualifier with one $10,000 entry prize guaranteed and a 1 in 65 winning ratio. This BCBC event is a live-format game with an entry fee of $179.
We have another 10 featured tourneys on tap this Sunday, eight at HorseTourneys and two at HorsePlayers.
Our qualifiers to The BIG One are now weekly, which means we’ll be awarding another two (guaranteed) all-inclusive packages to the September 22-23 “high expectation tourney” at Laurel. A field of no more than 57 will compete for 10 NHC seats, 10 BCBC entries and 10 Horse Player World Series entries, plus cash bonuses. All The BIG One packages include travel, hotel, welcome dinner, open bar and buffet at Laurel and transfers between Laurel and the host hotel.
Qualifiers for the July 28-29 Del Mar Handicapping Challenge are also now weekly at HorseTourneys. One skillful player per each 25 entries in this Pick & Pray will earn a lucrative $8,500 package to compete where the Turf meets the Surf.
We’re trying again with our qualifier for the Woodbine Mile Horseplayers Tournament. Note that, this week, one grand prize is guaranteed. The Woodbine event, held on Woodbine Mile Day, carries an entry fee of $3,500 (Canadian). Winners receive a package covering the entry fee plus $500 in U.S. greenbacks for travel. The Woodbine Mile event offers a prize pool that includes two BCBC entries and four NHC berths. By all accounts, the staff at Woodbine also does a terrific job of hosting a tournament.
Sunday cash players take note—our up-to-$20,000 Sunday tourney is back up to a $12,000 guarantee. The entry fee, as per usual, is $195 with an overall limit of 118 entries.
Sunday is also your LAST CHANCE to earn a $500 entry to the July 7 Stars and Stripes Challenge at Belmont, where a bountiful feast of internationally-flavored turf races will be offered. Entries to this 1-in-10 winning ratio game are just $59.
Any chance is a good chance to play for a spot in the 2018 Keeneland NHC/BCBC Challenge, which will be held on October 14. One entry per 25 will receive a $3,000 entry plus $500 for travel.
We also offer another entry-only qualifier to the Stars of Texas tournament at Lone Star Park on July 15 (suddenly just two weeks away). This one costs just $41 to play and one in 10 will win a $350 entry fee, which goes directly into your starting live bankroll on the 15th.
For all you Exacta tourney fans, note that our up-to-$5,000 Sunday contest continues to have a $2,000 guarantee, and that the entry fee is now $125 with a limit of 46 entries total. This live-format game is always a good one to keep an eye on as “post time” for the first race approaches. Last week’s tourney went off at a 46% overlay to players!
Sunday offers a pair of key qualifiers at HorsePlayers—one for the BCBC and one for the NHC.
The NHC qualifier is a “regular” live-format tourney with two packages definitely awarded and an entry fee of $165 (one in 65 winning ratio).
The BCBC competition is a “Low Ratio” contest with an entry fee of $500 and winning ratio of just one in 23. Note that both of these HorsePlayers qualifiers (like the Del Mar qualifier) are Pick & Prays this week.
Not that you don’t already have plenty to focus on this weekend, but we want to remind you of two special events NEXT weekend that you may wish to take a shot at THIS weekend.
On Saturday, July 7, in honor of Stars and Stripes Day at Belmont, we will be offering a $50,000 Guaranteed Pick & Pray with no limit as to the upside of the purse. Even if we hit 150 entries, we’ll keep accepting more. The more that play, the more we pay. Feeders continue all weekend long ahead of the July 7 “finals.”
On Sunday, July 8, you can play in our first direct qualifier to next January’s Pegasus World Cup Betting Championship at Gulfstream.
This is a high-end, live-money contest in which each player starts out with a bankroll of $12,000. It’s a particularly player-friendly tournament in that The Stronach Group and Gulfstream fully funds a separate prize pool that will be at least $435,500. It’s a great target to aim at, and you can play Round 1 feeders or direct feeders this weekend. Our Round 2 feeder is set for July 7, a day before the direct qualifier.
We hope you will find something among the above that is to your liking. We always strive to have games for almost any style and any budget. Have a great weekend—and July!