The HorseTourneys team, including this reporter, is already ensconced at Laurel Park in preparation for this Saturday and Sunday’s The BIG One, where we will be joined by 56 (at latest count) of the nation’s best tournament players. You can get updates and progress reports on the competition throughout each day via Twitter at @horsetourneys . For those of you who won’t be at The BIG One—and even those of you who will—we have put together a nice assortment of weekend tourneys that will award at least $34,500 in cash, four NHC seats and three BCBC entries.
The action gets under way on Friday (known this week as The BIG One eve).
The Friday feature is our up-to-$12,500 Pick & Pray with $5,000 Guaranteed no matter how many sign up. It’s $190 to enter and the field is limited to 75 entries.
Contest races for the Friday featured tourneys are the 5th and 9th from Woodbine; the 5th 7th and 8th from Gulfstream; and the 6th through 10th from Belmont—10 races in all.
Using the same 10 races, HorsePlayers is again offering a Friday Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio Pick & Pray.
This entry fee here is $500, which buys you a winning ratio of just 1 in 23 to pick up a $10,000 BCBC seat.
Saturday is Pennsylvania Derby Day at Parx, plus Laurel moved several of its big stakes (including the DeFrancis Dash) from last Saturday to this Saturday. So eight of the 12 featured-tourney contest races will be stakes as we offer a quintet of marquee, live-format events at HorseTourneys and HorsePlayers.
We’ll lead with HorsePlayers since they have a special event on the schedule.
It’s a $75 NHC qualifier with two Vegas berths guaranteed. One per each 143 entries will get a cut-rate seat to the NHC.
On the BCBC side, there’s a “regular” qualifier with a $179 entry fee and one $10,000 entry/prize guaranteed.
HorseTourneys has a trio of Sunday features:
The richest tourney of the day is our up-to-$30,000 game with $17,500 guaranteed. The entry fee is $260 and a maximum 133 entries will be accepted. Based on recent weeks, you can expect a pot in excess of $20,000. Last week’s was $24,000+.
There’s again a Saturday entry-only qualifier to the 2019 Horse Player World Series. One per each 20 entries—at $90 each—earns a $1,500 HPWS seat.
Also on Saturday is our qualifier to the Orleans Fall Classic, offering $1,000 packages to the October 11-13 competition. Here, one in 15 entries—at $79 each—will win a $500 entry plus an additional $500 for travel.
The Saturday contest races will be the 7th through 11th at Laurel; the 8th through 11th at Parx; and the 8th through 10th at Belmont—12 races in all with, again, eight of those being stakes, including the Grade 1 Cotillion, the Pennsylvania Derby and the DeFrancis Dash.
We roll seven more featured events out on Sunday. And one of the HorsePlayers offerings is new.
Do you have a sizable bankroll and want to play in the BCBC but not if it means forking over $10,000 all at once? Have we got a tournament for you! It’s a BCBC qualifier with a buy-in of $2,300 and a winning ratio of just one in five—and one prize is guaranteed. So any number of entries fewer than four and this will be an overlaid game to the player.
The other Sunday HorsePlayer offerings are more traditional.
One is a regular NHC qualifier with two seats guaranteed. The other is a qualifier for the NTRA/Belmont Park Super Qualifier (September 29 at Belmont). Winners (one per each 20 entries) receive a $1,500 entry to the Belmont NHC Super Qualifier plus $500 for travel. Once at Belmont you’ll compete for cash, a Belmont Stakes Betting Challenge seat, and seats to the NHC. One NHC will be awarded there per each 15 entries they receive.
Do note that the $2,300 BCBC qualifier is a live-format tourney whereas the regular NHC qualifier and the NTRA/Belmont Park Super Qualifier qualifier are Pick & Prays.
At HorseTourneys, there will be plenty of cash flying around on Sunday.
Sundays these days are now known for more than just NFL football. There’s our new “Big Bucks” tourneys! No more than 20 players compete for a total purse of between $15,000 (guaranteed) and $20,000. The entry fee is $1,150 for this Pick & Pray, and prizes go just to the top three (on a 70/20/10 basis). As usual, low-cost feeders to the Big Bucks tourney will be running all weekend long.
There’s more cash on the barrel in Sunday’s up-to-$20,000 live-format tourney. This one has an entry fee of $195, and a pot of at least $10,000 is Guaranteed.
Gimmicks players will love our up-to-$5,000 Exacta box tourney (always live-format) on the Sunday slate. The format is simple: You pick a three-horse exacta box in each race, and the one compiling the most money based on $1 payoffs is the winner. A purse of at least $2,000 is guaranteed. Last week’s edition “went” with no takeout to the players.
On the qualifying side of things, you try to win a $3,500 package ($3,000 entry fee and $500 for travel) to the October 14 Keeneland NHC/BCBC Challenge. One in 25 entries, at $162 each, will be heading to Lexington.
No matter where you spend the upcoming weekend, we hope that it is a “BIG One” for you. Good luck.