It’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, and that means four, rather than three, days of featured tourney action on tap. Our Monday schedule has yet to be set as of press time, but we have a robust list of 21 featured tourneys lined up just from Friday through Sunday. Included among the 10 Sunday events are our first qualifier to the new (August 3-4) Spa & Surf Showdown, a last-chance opportunity to make next weekend’s Pegasus World Cup Betting Championship, a Big Bucks tourney, a “regular” $10,000 Guaranteed Pick & Pray and more. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, though, because things kick off on Friday, which is a pretty good day in its own right.
Cold and or wet weather may plague some parts of the country this weekend but our three-pack of featured Pick & Prays at HorseTourneys should help heat things up. The top dog is our up-to-$12,500 event with $5,000 Guaranteed. It has a buy-in of $190 and no more than 75 entries will be accepted.
There’s also a qualifier to the Horse Player World Series in another Friday Pick & Pray where one in 20 will move will earn a $1,500 entry to the March 28-30 “major” at The Orleans. The entry fee here is $90.
The other Friday Pick & Pray at HorseTourneys is to the Treasure Island NHC Last Chance tournament, which takes place the day before the NHC on February 7. One entry per 10 here earns a $500 buy-in to the NHC preamble. The entry fee is $58 for this qualifier.
At HorsePlayers, there’s a Friday opportunity to win a seat to the 2019 NHC for just $100.
This, too, is a Pick & Pray, and one seat is guaranteed to be awarded.
Contest races for the Friday featured events at both HorseTourneys and HorsePlayers are: the 6th through 10th at Gulfstream; the 6th, 7th and 9th at Tampa Bay Downs; and the 1st and 4th at Santa Anita—10 races in total.
On Saturday, there is a nice mix of top qualifiers plus a lucrative cash game.
The day’s richest event is our up-to-$30,000 Pick & Pray with $17,500 guaranteed. The entry fee is $260, and the field is capped at 133.
Another Saturday Pick & Pray is our qualifier to the April 14th Keeneland Grade One Gamble. Winner(s) get a $3,000 entry plus $500 for travel to Lexington, Ky. One grand prize will be awarded per each 25 entries in this contest, which carries an entry fee of $164. This winner’s package also includes some sumptuous, “Grade One” Keeneland dining!
What’s better than winning a $1,500 Horse Player World Series entry? Winning a full-package to the venerable Orleans handicapping competition (slated for March 28-30). Win Saturday’s “play-in” and you will receive a four-night hotel stay at The Orleans plus another $500 for travel to go along with your tournament buy-in. You can play this Pick & Pray for an entry fee of $117. One in every 25 will win.
There are NHC opportunities at both HorseTourneys and HorsePlayers on Saturday. The one here is a Low Ratio Pick & Pray with a $500 entry fee and a winning ratio of just one in 21. One seat is guaranteed.
One seat is also guaranteed in each of the two Saturday NHC Lower Ratio qualifiers at HorsePlayers.
One is a restricted, Lower Ratio (not quite as low as the “Low Ratio” game) qualifier with one winner per each 45 entries. Note that this is a live-format tourney. Even more importantly, note that you can only enter this one if you have yet to earn a seat to the 2019 NHC.
If you like the sound of the above game, but have already qualified once for the upcoming NHC, then you can play in an “open company” version of the exact same game. Of course, you can play in this one as well if you’re still looking for your first 2019 NHC seat.
Ten more featured events, including one brand new qualifier, come your way on Sunday—eight of them are at HorseTourneys and two are at HorsePlayers.
The new member of the lineup is our very first qualifier to the very first edition of the new Spa & Surf Showdown—a two-day online event on August 3-4, that will offer a purse of $100,000 Guaranteed (though it could be more) and will focus solely on races from Saratoga and Del Mar. This Sunday Pick & Pray qualifier has an entry fee of $113 and one in 20 will earn a $2,000 entry for next August.
The Spa & Surf Showdown qualifier is exciting…but of more pressing urgency is our Last Chance qualifier to the Pegasus World Cup Betting Championship, which takes place on Friday and Saturday of next week. Sunday’s Pegasus qualifier will be run in live format, and the buy-in is $480. One in 30 will earn a $12,500 package, which includes a $500 travel stipend.
Qualifiers to the 2019 NHC continue on Sunday, of course. Sunday’s game is a Lower Ratio (one per 45) Pick & Pray that is open to all comers, and one NHC seat is guaranteed to be awarded.
We offer two $10,000 Guaranteed cash Pick & Prays on Sunday, so choose your entry fee (or choose ‘em both). Our “regular” up-to-$20,000 tourney—which guarantees $10,000—has an entry fee of $195, and there is a limit of 118 entries.
Also available on Sunday is our $10,000 Big Bucks tourney. This one carries a steeper entry fee, $1,150, but only 20 entries are allowed in. The pot here too could grow to as much as $20,000, depending on participation, but it won’t be less than $10,000 no matter what. Only the top three earn money in this one—on a 70%/20%/10% basis.
Smaller-scale players looking for a fun cash game may want to try our up-to-$5,000 Exacta box tourney. This contest (always run in live-format) offers a guaranteed purse of $1,000. Here, you make three-horse exacta box plays in each contest race, and whoever does best, based on a $1.00 play, over the 12-race competition wins. One fun aspect to these: no price caps! Hit a longshot exacta, and your score will reflect every penny of your exotic brilliance.
Not surpringly, there’s another chance on Sunday to win a $500 entry to the Treasure Island NHC Last Chance tournament. It’s just $58 to play and the winning ratio is 1 in 10. Last Sunday’s TI qualifier wound up awarding grand prizes to each of the top 10 finishers, so you may not have to be all that perfect to be rewarded in this one.
And what weekend day is complete without a qualifier to the Horse Player World Series? Sunday’s Pick & pray is an entry-only qualifier with one in 20 earning a $1,500 entry to the HPWS this March 28-30. The buy-in for this qualifier is $90.
HorsePlayers, meanwhile, again has a pair of Sunday one-seat-guaranteed NHC “Low Ratio” qualifiers to the 2019 event (now just about three weeks away).
One of the Low Ratio qualifiers (winning ratio of 1 in 21) is open to all. The other is open only to those who have yet to win a 2019 NHC seat. Both cost $500, and both are Pick & Prays.
Good luck to all of you this weekend, and especially to Thomas Holland and Rich Nilsen—the HorseTourneys qualifiers representing us on Saturday at the Tampa Bay Downs High Rollers tournament.
Be sure to check back here to the HorseTourneys home page because we will have some more good tourneys lined up for Monday (by which time, we’ll know who’s playing in the Super Bowl!). We hope you have a nice long weekend, that you enjoy the racing and football, and that you survive the elements should you encounter any.