Changes, additions, last chances, pot sweeteners. They’re all part of a 15-featured-tourney weekend that gets under way on Friday.
There’s nothing like a “credit builder” that credits you with cash! Our Friday up-to-$12,500 Pick & Pray has a guaranteed purse of $5,000 Guaranteed—good for purchase of weekend HorseTourneys entries…and also goods and services at fine retailers in your area. It has an entry fee of $190 and entries are limited to 75.
Contest races for Friday are the 6th, 7th, 9th and 10th at Laurel; the 6th through 9th from Belmont; and the 4th and 5th from Santa Anita—10 races in all.
On Saturday a “first chance” and a “last chance” are among the available choices (or, I guess, chances).
Who doesn’t love the Orleans? There’s the Alligator Bar, The Prime Rib Loft, the 52-lane bowling center and, each October, the Orleans Fall Classic. You can win a $500 entry to the October 17-19 event—plus another $500 for travel—in Saturday’s “first chance” qualifier, which carries an entry fee of $79 and a winning ratio of one per 15.
If you miss the Saturday Orleans qualifier…or play but fail to succeed…you will have more chances in the future. The same cannot be said of Saturday’s “Last Chance” Pick & Pray to the June 22 Santa Anita Spring Challenge. You can get in the door on Saturday for $176, and one per each 20 entries will emerge with a $3,000 entry for the following Saturday at Santa Anita.
In addition to the first and last chances, we have two “once again” chances. One is the weekend’s richest game—an up-to-$30,000 cash Pick & Pray with $17,500 Guaranteed. The entry fee is $260 and no more than 133 may sign up.
Also up for grabs on Saturday is a $3,000 entry (plus $500 for travel) to the Saratoga Challenge (August 9-10). The Saratoga Springs, N.Y., event is run as two single-day tourneys, and your $3,000 entry, should you win it here, will cover you for both days. This is also a Pick & Pray and entries are $166 each. The winning ratio is 1 per 25.
Over at HorsePlayers, there are two live-format tourneys on Saturday—one a qualifier to the NHC and the other a play-in to the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge.
The NHC game offers two guaranteed berths to the 2020 event at Bally’s Las Vegas and carries an entry fee of $165. The winning ratio is 1 in 65.
The same winning ratio applies to the BCBC qualifier, which requires $179 to get involved and guarantees one $10,000 entry to the prestigious live-bankroll tourney on Breeders’ Cup weekend.
Saturday contest races for the featured contests at HorseTourneys and HorsePlayers are the 2nd, 6th and 7th from Santa Anita; the 9th, 10th and 12th at Monmouth; the 8th, 10th and 11th from Laurel Park; and the 7th, 8th and 10th at Belmont—a dozen races in all.
Six more featured competitions come your way at HorseTourneys on Sunday (Father’s Day!), including one that is twice as good this week.
Our $350 qualifier to The BIG One at Laurel used to guarantee one all-inclusive package. This week it guarantees two…and for the same entry fee: $350. We’re doing this because we need to fill 50 slots by the September 21 start of the two-day tournament, and this could mean extraordinary value for you. Win (or finish second) in Sunday’s qualifier and you’ll be competing (against no more than 56 opponents) for 10 NHC seats, 10 BCBC or Pegasus entries and at least $75,000 in cash.
Good news on another front: The $100,000 Guaranteed Spa & Surf Showdown on August 3-4 is now the $100,890 Guaranteed Spa & Surf Showdown. That’s because last week’s 57th qualifier to the online Saratoga/Del Mar competition tipped us up and over the $100,000 mark with still more than two months to go. You can help increase the pot further—and win yourself a spot at the Showdown—by taking part in Sunday’s Pick & Pray which carries a $113 buy-in and a winning ratio of 1 in 20.
Back on the Sunday schedule is a qualifier to the July 14 Stars of Texas Betting Challenge at Lone Star Park. Entries in this Pick & Pray are just $79, and one in 15 will earn a $1,000 buy-in for the greater Dallas Metroplex contest.
There are also three cash games on the Sunday slate—led by our up-to-$20,000 Pick & Pray with a pot of $10,000 Guaranteed even if just you and your dog sign up. It carries an entry fee of $195 and the cap on entries is 118.
Also on tap for exotics lovers is our up-to-$5,000 Exacta box contest (always run in live format). Offering a guaranteed purse of $1,000, this game costs $125 and requires players to play a mythical $1.00 three-horse exacta box in each of the 12 contest races. Entries are capped at 45, and payoff caps are never in effect. Last week a final total of just $64.60 took top honors.
For the chance to win four figures while risking just one figure, there’s our Jackpot Pick 6 tourney. The entry fee is just $8, with 70 percent of the net pool going to the top finishers, and 30% being directed 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 (currently $1,817). If more than one player does so, then the jackpot pool is shared.
Over at HorsePlayers, two “Low Ratio” qualifiers will share center stage on Sunday.
Both are live-format tourneys with $500 entry fees and one grand prize guaranteed. One is to the NHC (winning ratio: 1 per 21) and the other to the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge (1 per 23). Please note that, as per NHC Tour rules, only qualifiers with two or more seat winners are allowed to award NHC Tour Points. So if the NHC Low Ratio game winds up just offering the one guaranteed seat, then Tour points will not go to the top 10% as would be the case with a two-or-more-seat qualifier.
No more fine print to convey…just fun from here on out. Promise! We hope you can take part in a portion of it. Good luck…and Happy Father’s Day to all you dads.