We’re already very excited for Preakness Day. Country House and Maximum Security won’t be there, but our $75,000 Guaranteed tourney WILL be. Feeders to this $495 buy-in game continue all weekend long for as little as $27.
Too rich for your blood? Then you may be interested to know that our Sunday Pick Six Jackpot tourney now has an entry fee of just $8. Seventy percent of the net pool goes to the winners under the usual $2.00 win/place scoring system. Thirty percent goes to the carryover pool, which now stands at $1,589. Get all six races correct, and you win that too.
Still too rich for your blood? We’re also now running feeders to the Pick Six Jackpot tourney for just $2.
Of course, we have some pricier competitions as well this weekend—the best of which get rolling on Friday.
We have a new addition to the Friday lineup: a direct qualifier to the Spa & Surf Showdown. These have proven to be very popular even though the main event isn’t until August 3-4. Already 42 have qualified to this $100,000 Guaranteed, two-day online event that will consist only of races from Saratoga and Del Mar. You can add your name to that list by taking part on Friday for $113. One in 20 will earn a $2,000 entry.
For cash gamers, Friday’s up-to-$12,500 Pick & Pray comes with its customary $5,000 purse guarantee regardless of participation. It has an entry fee of $190 and entries are capped at 75.
HorsePlayers, meanwhile, gets an early jump on the weekend with a low-entry-fee NHC qualifier.
It’s a $75 buy-in tourney with two guaranteed spots to the 2020 NHC at Bally’s Las Vegas. Like the other featured Friday games, this one is a Pick & Pray.
Contest races for this event and the two mentioned above at HorseToruneys are the 7th and 9th at Pimlico; the 6th through 9th at Belmont Park; and the 7th through 10th from Gulfstream—10 races in all.
The NHC again takes center stage on Saturday, this time right here at HorseTourneys.
Two Guaranteed NHC seats will be on the line in a live-format, “regular” qualifier. You can get in for $165, and the winning ratio is 1 in 65…unless fewer than 130 sign up, in which case the winning ratio will be lower since two seats will be awarded no matter what.
Also on the Saturday schedule is a brand-new offering: a qualifier to the June 22 Santa Anita Spring Challenge. Winners (one per 20) in this $176 tourney receive a $3,000 entry to the Santa Anita competition where (based on 100 entries) two seats each will be awarded to the NHC, the BCBC and the Pegasus World Cup Betting Championship….plus a lot of bonus money. Should you win this qualifier, you can play the June 22 event in person at Santa Anita or at Xpressbet.com.
The weekend’s richest game is Saturday’s up-to-$30,000 tourney, which will be run in live format this week. The entry fee is $260, and there is a guaranteed purse of at least $17,500. No more than 140 entries that will be accepted.
The Saratoga Challenge qualifier rounds out Saturday’s featured schedule at HorseTourneys. The winner(s) in this live-format contest receive a $3,500 package to the August 9-10 events at the Spa (presented as two separate single-day tournaments again this year). One in 25 will prevail and move on after this qualifier is completed.
Two more important tourneys take place at HorsePlayers on Saturday. Both lead to the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge.
One is a “regular” Pick & Pray with an entry fee of $179 and a winning ratio of one in 65. One $10,000 entry is guaranteed to be given away.
The other is a Super Low Ratio competition (live format) with a buy-in of $1,000 and a winning ratio of one in just 11. Despite the smaller number of players that will be involved, one $10,000 entry/prize is guaranteed here as well. Will John Doyle win this qualifier again? The 2010 NHC Champ has won the last two of these that we’ve offered.
The Saturday featured tourneys at both HorseTourneys and HorsePlayers will be decided based on the results of 12 races. They are: the 7th, 8th and 10th from Woodbine; the 8th, 9th, 10th and 12th at Gulfstream; the 9th and 11th at Monmouth; and the 8th, 10th and 11th from Belmont.
Sunday is the busiest day of our weekend…made busier by the return of a small but very select game.
Actually it’s not a small game at all…it’s big…as in our Big Bucks tourney. The smallness comes in insofar as no more than 20 may sign up. It costs $1,150 to play in this Pick & Pray, but the pot could exceed $20,000, and we guarantee a purse of at least $10,000. So, yeah, it is pretty big.
So is The BIG One! This high-expectation contest in September at Laurel Park will award 10 NHC seats, five BCBC spots, five Pegasus entries, five HPWS entries, plus a guaranteed cash prize pool of at least $75,000. Once again in 2019, there will be no more than 57 entries allowed at The BIG One, so those 25 prizes will be shared among no more than 57 people. And since Sunday’s qualifier is guaranteed, one package will be awarded regardless of participation. It’s a pretty nice (big?) package too. Hotel, transfers from hotel to the track and back, and a welcome dinner are included, plus buffet/open bar at Laurel and a $500 stipend for your travel.
What IS on the small side is the entry fee for Sunday’s Jackpot Pick 6 tourney that we mentioned at the top. It’s just $8! Seventy percent of the net pool goes to the winners, and 30% goes to the carryover pool should no one get all six contest races right. If someone does, though, that $8 would take down the jackpot pool, which currently sits at $1,589. If more than one get all six right, then the jackpot pool is shared. (There doesn’t have to be a single winner.)
Bigger stakes will be in play in Sunday’s $10,000 Guaranteed tourney with an entry fee of $195. Up to 118 may participate, and the purse could grow as high as $20,000, depending on participation.
The other cash tourney on the docket is our up-to-$5,000 Exacta box contest (always run in live-format). It offers a guaranteed purse of $1,000 and requires players to choose a three-horse exacta box in each contest race. The winner is based on total return from a $1.00 base play. This tourney carries an entry fee of $125 and entries are capped at 45. Sometimes people win this by hitting the mother lode on a single exacta. Other times a more gradual approach prevails. One unique thing about these exacta tournaments, though, is that price caps are not in effect. Hit a bomb exacta, and you get credit for all of it.
Sunday is your last chance to win your way in to the May 18 Santa Anita Preakness Challenge. One per every 20 entries—at $207 each—in this live-format play-in will earn a $3,000 entry to dope out the Preakness and Santa Anita cards from Santa Anita. You’ll also receive $500 for your travel to Arcadia. Though, if you prefer, you can play from Gulfstream or Xpressbet.com if you win this qualifier.
We also offer the weekend’s second opportunity (the first is on Friday) to win a $2,000 entry to the Spa & Surf Showdown. Like Friday’s qualifier, the entry fee is $113 and one in 20 will win. This one is a live-format game, though.
Last but never least is our Sunday qualifier to the June 1 Monmouth Park Pick Your Prize Tournament. Winners receive a $2,500 package to Oceanport, N.J., where they will compete for a whopping 20 NHC seats, 6 BCBC seats and more.
Over at HorsePlayers, contest participants on Sunday can decide whether they want to play for a BCBC entry or an NHC seat.
Or they could play in both! The BCBC qualifier is a low-ratio game with an entry fee of $500, a winning ratio of one in 23 and one $10,000 entry guaranteed. The format is Pick & Pray.
Also a Pick & Pray is Sunday’s “regular” NHC qualifier with two “Bally berths” guaranteed. You can get through the turnstiles on this one for $165.
We hope you find a game or two this weekend that suits your budget and your qualifying or cash-earning aspirations. Good luck…and don’t forget to wish Mom a Happy Mother’s Day on Sunday.