Saturday is a big day in more ways than one. It’s opening day of the Championship Meet at Gulfstream Park, which includes a slew of large-field Claiming Crown races…and it’s Cigar Mile Day at Aqueduct. To befit a day that, it seems safe to say, is the biggest of the rest of 2018, we are offering a Guaranteed $35,000, live-format cash game on Saturday.
It will offer an expanded slate of contest races and an expandable purse size as there is no limit as to how high the pot can grow. But it won’t be lower than $35,000. It’s part of a weekend with 16 featured tourneys—and if you are still looking to add an NHC seat to your portfolio, at least 12 of those will be on offer as well. The lucrative tourney action begins on Friday.
The week, the Friday headliner at HorseTourneys is our Round 2 feeder to Saturday’s $35,000 Guaranteed event. It costs just $79 to play and one of every five entries in this Pick & Pray will earn a $340 berth into the next day’s big-money game. So your chances for success are pretty good.
Of course, there’s also an up-to-$12,500 Pick & Pray with $5,000 Guaranteed. The entry fee is $190 and there is a limit of 75 entries here.
We also offer another event that’s now firmly entrenched as a Friday staple (at least until March)…a Horse Player World Series entry-only qualifier. This one is also a Pick & Pray, and one in 20 will receive a $1,500 World Series entry.
Meanwhile, the first two of at least 12 (that’s not a misprint) guaranteed NHC seats over the weekend are on offer Friday at HorsePlayers.
Our $75 NHC Pick & Pray qualifiers are always popular, and this Friday’s figures to be no exception. One of every 143 entries will punch a ticket to the NHC, and if we reach the 429-entry plateau, we’ll add a third seat.
Contest races for all of the Friday featured events are the 7th through 9th at Aqueduct; the 9th and 10th at Laurel; the 8th and 10th at Tampa Bay Downs and the 3rd, 4th and 6th from Del Mar. That’s 10 races in all.
The weekend’s big event comes on Saturday.
Our $35,000 Guaranteed No Limit tourney will be run in live format with an entry fee of $340. Contest races are still to be determined as HorseTourneys officials study the latest weather reports, but count on an expanded slate of 14 or 15 races for all of Saturday’s featured events…rather than the usual 12.
Also on tap is a Saturday full-package qualifier to the Horse Player World Series. Winners (one per each 25 entries) earn not just a $1,500 entry, but a four-night hotel stay at The Orleans (home of The Prime Rib Loft and a 50-lane bowling center) plus another $500 for travel.
There are eight guaranteed NHC seats available on Saturday alone. All of them will be distributed over at HorsePlayers.
Five of the eight come in a tourney that all NHC Tour members should participate in…the final free qualifier of 2018! It’s a Pick & Pray in which the top five all receive berths—and trips—to the lucrative NHC.
Last week’s first-ever NHC “Maiden Special” tourney was a big success…so we’re offering another one on Saturday. It’s a 1-seat-guaranteed Pick & Pray restricted to those who have yet to win a 2019 NHC seat. If nothing else, it’s certainly an opportunity to filter out some of the top competitors as you continue your quest for that elusive NHC seat. The entry fee is $165, and note that—because of the special, restricted nature of this qualifier—no NHC Tour Points will be awarded in this tourney.
The other Saturday NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers is a $240 “Lower Ratio” qualifier in which the winning ratio is one in 45 and a pair of seats are guaranteed. Everyone is welcome at this inn…though if you are already qualified twice, you will obviously just be playing for NHC Tour points.
Seven more featured events take place on Sunday.
It should come as no great surprise that we’ll be offering an entry-only qualifier to the Horse Player World Series. As long as you keep demanding them, we’ll keep supplying them! This one is a live-format affair with a buy-in of $90.
There’s also a live-format “play in” to the December 29 Monmouth Park NHC qualifier. Our Sunday qualifier carries an entry fee of just $71 and offers winners a $900 package ($400 entry plus $500 travel).
On the cash side of the ledger, there’s a Sunday up-to-$20,000 tourney with an entry fee of $195. Regardless of the number of sign ups, the pot is guaranteed to be at least $10,000. No more than 118 entries will be accepted in this live-format competition.
Exacta game fans will be at the ready for Sunday’s up-to-$5,000 Exacta box tourney. You pick a three-horse exacta box in every race. No payoff caps. If you bring back the most winnings based on $1.00 payoffs, you win. This contest (always run in live-format mode) offers a guaranteed purse of $1,000. It’s also extra fun for many because no matter how badly you might be doing, you’re never out of contention until the very last race has been run.
There are three featured events on Sunday over at HorsePlayers—all pegged to the NHC.
Our 11th and 12th guaranteed NHC spots of the weekend get awarded in this “regular” qualifier with a buy in of $165. Two seats are guaranteed to be earned in this live-format game.
There are also a pair of Sunday, $118 qualifiers to onsite NHC super qualifiers held at the end of the 2018 NHC Tour year. One is to the December 22 event at Fair Grounds in New Orleans, and the other is to the January 5 contest at Santa Anita. One entry per 20 in these Sunday HorsePlayers qualifiers will earn a $1,500 entry plus $500 for travel to Fair Grounds or Santa Anita, as the case may be. The two super qualifiers will each offer one NHC seat per every 15 entries, utilizing an interesting hybrid format involving a live bankroll but win/place wagers of a mandatory, pre-determined size. So the Super Qualifiers will sort of play like the NHC, itself.
We wish good luck to George Bosch, John Macklin, Stephen Thompson, John Caro and Gary Machiz who will be representing HorseTourneys at Saturday’s Gulfstream Conquer the Crown Challenge. They each won $3,000 entries to that event right here.
Good luck as well to the HorseTourneys winners playing in the Lone Star NHC qualifier on Saturday—and good luck to you…wherever you happen to be watching or playing from. We hope it’s a successful weekend for you.