With the first Spa & Surf Showdown now in the books, it’s time to get back to normal here at HorseTourneys. Though an August weekend never exactly qualifies as “normal.” We have 18 featured events during the upcoming Friday-Saturday-Sunday period. They offer a plethora of brick-and-mortar contest seats plus a good amount of cash. The fun begins on Friday.
Friday’s featured Pick & Pray has a minimum purse of $7,500 Guaranteed and the potential for it to grow as high as $15,000 depending on participation. It’s $190 to play and there is a limit of 90 entries that will be accepted.
There’s also an opportunity to qualify for the NHC on Friday for just $75.
This qualifier, also a Pick & Pray, takes place over at HorsePlayers. Two NHC seats are guaranteed to be awarded.
Contest races for both of the Friday features will be the 6th through 8th from Monmouth; the 7th, 9th and 10th from Saratoga; the 7th and 9th at Laurel; and the 4th 5th at Woodbine—10 races in all.
On Saturday, three live-format contests take center stage at HorseTourneys.
The richest tourney of the weekend is our up-to-$30,000 game with $17,500 Guaranteed. A maximum of 133 entries will be accepted…at $260 each.
You have two opportunities to qualify this weekend for the Orleans Fall Classic on October 17-19 in Las Vegas. (The other comes on Sunday.) Saturday’s play-in is a package qualifier with the winner receiving a $500 entry plus $500 in travel.
Saturday is also your first of two chances to win your way into the October 13 Keeneland NHC/BCBC Challenge. Saturday’s live-format qualifier bestows a $3,000 entry plus $500 for travel to the wisest of each 25 entries.
HorsePlayers matches up man-for-man with HorseTourneys on Saturday by having three featured events of its own—two tied to the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge and one to the NHC.
The NHC qualifier is a “regular”, $165-buy-in affair with two spots to Bally’s guaranteed. This is a live-format game.
Also to be contested in live format is Saturday’s Super Low Ratio BCBC qualifier. Here just one in 11 entries will earn a big $10,000 entry to racing’s most prestigious live-money event. The entry fee for this qualifier is $10,000, and at least one prize is guaranteed to be awarded.
Saturday’s regular BCBC qualifier ($179 entry fee, one grand prize guaranteed) is a Pick & Pray. So if the BCBC is your thing, you have a variety of formats to choose from—as well as price points.
Twelve contest races will decide the outcome of the Saturday featured competitions at both HorseTourneys and HorsePlayers. They are: the 10th and 12th at Monmouth; the 8th through 11th from Saratoga; the 2nd through 5th at Del Mar (where the turf meets the surf); and the 4th and 5th from Woodbine (where the turf meets the North Pole).
Sunday is, as usual, our most frenetic day of the weekend with 10 featured events.
One of them is a special, one-time-only qualifier to the Laurel Champions contest on Saturday, August 17. Up for grabs at Laurel will be two NHC spots, a BCBC entry plus an entry to The BIG One. An entry at Laurel costs just $300, but you can win one here on Sunday for just $35 in our entry-only play-in.
If you don’t want to wait until August 17 to win a spot at The BIG One (Sept. 21-22 at Laurel), you can win one right here in our live-format qualifier in which two all-inclusive packages are certain to be awarded. The entry fee on Sunday is $350.
Sunday represents your last chance to win a $750 entry to the Del Mar Pacific Classic Betting Challenge (DMPCBC). One per 10 entries, at $88 per entry, will win a spot at the August 17 contest out West.
Another exciting August get-together is the Monmouth Super NHC/BCBC qualifier at Monmouth on August 24. You can win a $500 entry to it…plus $500 for travel…right here on Sunday. Eighty dollars will get you in the front door to this one.
The second of two weekend chances to the Orleans Fall Classic takes place on Sunday. This live-format game is an entry-only contest…so it’s just $59 to play and one in 10 earns a $500 entry to the Fall Classic.
Opportunity #2 for the Keeneland NHC/BCBC Challenge on October 13 comes your way as well on Sunday. This one is a low-ratio, entry-only tourney. One of every 10 entries—at $352 per entry—receives a $3,000 seat to the Lexington, Ky., tournament.
We haven’t forgotten about you cash-game specialists. Up to $20,000 will be on the line in Sunday’s live-format cash game with carries a $195 entry fee and guarantees a purse of at least $10,000.
If you prefer a smaller entry fee but more horses, then there’s our up-to-$5,000 Exacta tourney with a guaranteed pot of $1,000. Contestants have to put up $125…then they have to make a mythical three-horse-exacta box play in each of the 12 contest races. The biggest overall return wins—and no price caps are in effect for these games. So as long as there’s a race left, you still have a chance.
You can win four figures for just one figure in Sunday’s $8 Pick 6 Jackpot tourney. Seventy percent of the net pool gets paid out to players via the normal, $2 win/place scoring and 30% is devoted to the Jackpot pool (which now stands at $2,434). Pick the winners of all six races and you win the Jackpot.
There’s one featured tourney at HorsePlayers on Sunday.
It’s the event that has become a Sunday staple—a BCBC Low Ratio qualifier. An entry fee of $500 gets you a 1 in 23 chance at landing a $10,000 BCBC seat. One prize is guaranteed, though, so if fewer than 23 sign up, your odds improve further.
Congratulations again to Paul Shurman, our $109,000 winner of last weekend’s $272,000 Spa & Surf Showdown. We’ll have a special podcast with Paul up and out to you shortly. In the meantime, we want to wish good luck to the 34 qualifiers who will be representing HorseTourneys as qualifiers to this weekend’s (Friday and Saturday) Saratoga Challenge(s). They are (in order of qualification…not preference): Michael Caposio, Cheryl McIntyre, Tom Falter, Ernest Hey Jr. (2 entries), Robert Rosenzweig, David Snyder, Lucas Van Zandt, Peter Rogers, Ken Jordan, Alexander Calzi, John Fisher, Jim Burrell, Rich Nilsen, Curtis Meyer, Dave Nichols, Mike McIntyre, Brett Wiener, Joe Pettit (a defending champ at the Spa), Ken Seeman, George Chute, Bill Kellish, Marikate Carter, Ed Peters, Roger Cettina, Grier Bibby, Steve Nemetz, Angelo Romeo, Sean Nolan, Trey Stiles, Brendan Fay, Peter Strauss, Peter Osella and Patrick Larson.
We wish good luck to you as well in whichever tourneys you choose to take part in this weekend. We’ll be back to recap them on Monday.