As the summer racing schedule moves on to Alabama-Pacific Classic weekend, HorseTourneys is ready with 14 featured tournaments that—with just one exception—are all Pick & Pray competitions. So if you like the “set-it-and-forget-it” nature of Pick & Prays, this is a great weekend for you.
The action starts on Friday.
Once again, top billing on Friday goes to our up-to-$12,500 Pick & Pray with $5,000 Guaranteed, regardless of how many sign up. It’s $190 to play and there is a limit of 75 entries overall that will be accepted.
Contest races for the Friday feature are the 7th through 10th from Saratoga; the 8th and 9th from Woodbine; and the 8th through 10th from Woodbine—10 races in all.
Using the same races, HorsePlayers gets cranked up on Friday with a Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio Pick & Pray.
This one costs $500 to play. That entry fee buys you a terrific winning ratio for winning a $10,000 BCBC seat…just one in 23.
Saturday offers a nice mix of cash tourneys and qualifiers, including one free game that all NHC Tour members will want to play—because it’s free!
At HorseTourneys, the schedule is led by Saturday’s up-to-$30,000 tourney with $17,500 Guaranteed. Like almost all of the weekend events, it’s a Pick & Pray. This one carries an entry fee of $260 and there’s a maximum of 133 entries allowed in.
The Saturday HorseTourneys qualifiers are topped by an NHC Low Ratio, $500-buy in tourney. The entry fee gets you a 1-in-21 shot at getting your ticket punched to the big dance in Vegas next February.
A smaller Vegas dance—though a fun one—is the Orleans Fall Classic on October 11-13. For $79, you can play our Saturday Pick & Pray qualfier in which one in 15 will earn a $1,000 package ($500 entry fee plus $500 for travel) to The Orleans this autumn.
Contest races Saturday are the 7th through 10th from Saratoga (including the Alabama Stakes); the 9th, 11th and 12th from Gulfstream; the 2nd through 4th from Del Mar, where there’s a nice Pacific Classic Day card; and the 10th and 11th from Woodbine (including the final jewel of the Canadian Triple Crown)—12 races altogether, including four stakes.
The same race menu will serve as the challenge for the featured schedule at HorsePlayers on Saturday, including a special, free qualifier to the NHC.
The free NHC qualifier, which will offer three guaranteed berths to Vegas, is free of charge but open only to currently-registered members of the 2018 NHC Tour. If you’re a member, sign up before you forget. If you’re not a member, go to NTRA.com and fix that! Membership is just $50.
There’s also a “regular” BCBC qualifier at HorsePlayers on Saturday with a $179 entry fee and one $10,000 entry guaranteed. One entry per each 65 will win.
Also on Saturday, keep an eye out for our nighttime tourney with $500 guaranteed and a purse of up-to-$3,000. It’s a quick, 8-race event closing at 8:10 p.m. ET, and half of those eight races will come from Del Mar, including the Pacific Classic (9:43 p.m. ET post time).
Sunday is another fun mix of cash and qualifying tourneys, including one “Last Chance” event.
The “Last Chancer” is our final qualifier for next Saturday’s Monmouth Park Super Qualifier. At Monmouth, players will be competing for two BCBC entries, seven NHC spots plus cash. You can qualify for it here on Sunday for just $80 and one in 15 will earn a $1,000 package to the Jersey Shore track.
It’s not quite a “Last Chancer”…however, just 10 online seats now remain for the Sept. 22-23 The BIG One at Laurel where 10 NHC seats, 10 BCBC entries and 10 Horse Player World Series entries (or $1,500 cash awards) will be up for grabs. Two all-inclusive packages are guaranteed in this Sunday qualifier.
Keeneland is on the Sunday schedule too with a qualifier to its October 14 Keeneland NHC/BCBC Challenge. One in 25 entries will earn a $3,500 package to the Lexington, Ky., tournament. Winners receive a $3,000 entry fee and $500 for travel to Bluegrass country (though don’t be fooled, the grass will still look green to you there.)
Cash gamers have two nice options.
One is our up-to-$20,000 tourney with $10,000 guaranteed. This Pick & Pray carries an entry fee of $195 with a maximum of 118 entries permitted.
The one weekend featured event that isn’t a Pick & Pray is our Sunday Exacta tourney (which is always run in live-format). It offers $2,000 Guaranteed with a possible pot of up to $5,000 depending on participation. It’s $125 to enter, and players pick a three-horse exacta box in each of the 12 contest races. The winner is whoever achieves the highest total overall return based on a $1 three-horse exacta box play in each race. Unlike our win-place tourneys, there are no price caps in play in Exacta tourneys. Hit a monster, and you’ll get credited for all of it.
There are a pair of high-profile games at HorsePlayers on Sunday—one for the NHC and one for the BCBC.
The NHC competition is a “regular” qualifier for the NHC with an entry fee of $165 entry fee and two spots guaranteed.
The BCBC tourney is a Low Ratio qualifier in which you pay $500 to play, but the winning ratio is just one-in-23, so it won’t necessarily take the handicapping day of a lifetime to win. One prize is guaranteed in this Pick & Pray. Sunday contest races are TBD as of press time (for the very good reason that they haven’t been drawn yet!)
That’s the featured HorseTourneys/HorsePlayers weekend lineup. Before we sign off, we want to wish good luck to the HorseTourneys qualifiers on either coast who will be doing battle in either the Laurel Champions Tournament or Del Mar’s Pacific Classic Betting Challenge this Saturday. Make us proud!
And win or lose, may you all have a great weekend.