There are no “Last Chance” tourneys and no “First Chance” games this weekend…yet chances abound—for onsite tournament seats and prize money across 21 featured events this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The Saturday and Sunday competitions are primarily Live-format games, but we get things started on Friday with six Pick & Prays.
Your picks and prayers can be answered with four or five thousand dollars perhaps in Friday’s up-to-$15,000 cash game with $7,500 guaranteed. The entry fee is $190, and entries are limited to 90. Last Friday’s first prize (won by Gene Stewart) was $6,137.
Two more chances this weekend to win a $6,500 package to the January 25 Pegasus World Cup Betting Challenge. Friday’s qualifier is a $384 Pick & Pray with one of every 20 participants scooping a $6,000 entry (plus $500 for travel) to Gulfstream for their big day.
There are two weekend qualifiers as well for the NHC Last Chance Tournament at Bally’s Las Vegas on February 6. The winning ratio is 1-per-10 in this $59 Pick & Pray. Remember…should you win a $500 entry to this tournament and later earn an actual 2020 NHC seat, you have the option of keeping the entry, trading it in for $500 in HorseTourneys credit or transferring the $500 entry to another player. The deadline for letting us know of your plans is February 1.
There are not two but three weekend opportunities to win a seat to the Horse Player World Series Day—one each on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. On Friday, you can compete in an entry-only Pick & Pray for $89. The winning ratio is 1 per 20. Winners get a $1,500 entry to the three-day mythical-money contest at The Orleans.
Friday also offers a Pick & Pray play-in to the $100,000 Guaranteed Flo-Cal Faceoff. The Faceoff—to be held on February 29-March 1—is a “No Limit” tourney, so the could well exceed $100,000, and it will offer full-card racing from just Gulfstream and Santa Anita during Fountain of Youth weekend. This qualifier, like Sunday’s, has an $86 entry fee, and winners earn a $1,500 entry. The winning ratio is 1 in 20.
Once again this weekend, NHC qualifiers have an exclusive hold on the featured goings on at HorsePlayers. The Friday feature there is a $75 Pick & Pray.
Two NHC spots are guaranteed in this one, and since the low entry fee is conducive to a large field, this tourney is a good, late opportunity for 2019 NHC Tour points. Reminder: the last day to earn 2019 NHC Tour points is Saturday, January 18.
Contest races for Friday (for all six features at HorseTourneys and HorsePlayers) are the 6th through 10th from Gulfstream; the 6th through 8th at Aqueduct; and the 2nd and 4th from Santa Anita—10 races in all.
Five more featured tourneys—three at HorseTourneys—are on the Saturday schedule.
Note that our weekly direct qualifier to the April 19 Keeneland Grade One Gamble has been shifted from Sunday (last week) to Saturday (this week). For $236, you can take a live-format shot at $4,000 package to the Gamble (won last year by Faron McCubbins thanks to a late $800 cold exacta that paid about $28,000). The Gamble will again offer cash, NHC seats and BCBC entries in its prize pool. One in 20 will win in our qualifier.
The richest tourney of the weekend is Saturday’s up-to-$30,000 game with $17,500 Guaranteed. It’s $260 to play this 12-race, live-format event.
We have another Horse Player World Series qualifier on Saturday, but this one is a full-package play-in. Winners get a $1,500 entry plus four nights at The Orleans (home of T.G.I. Friday’s where it’s always Friday inside) and a $500 travel credit in your HorseTourneys account. The entry fee for this contest is $148, and the winning ratio is 1-per-20.
Two NHC qualifiers command the attention over at HorsePlayers.
One is a straight-forward, $165 qualifier (live-format) with two spots guaranteed. The other is a $500 Low Ratio game (also live-format) with one spot guaranteed and a winning ratio of 1 per 21. (Tour points are unlikely to be awarded in this one unless 42 entries are attracted and the tourney reaches the minimum two-seat threshold that is required for the handing out of points.)
The 12 contest races for the Saturday features at HT and HP will be the 7th through 11th at Gulfstream; the 7th through 9th from Aqueduct; and the 2nd, 4th, 5th and 6th from Santa Anita.
Ten more featured events are on the Sunday board—eight live-format contests at HorseTourneys, and two Pick & Prays at HorsePlayers.
The biggest-money game of the day is our $195-entry-fee, up-to-$20,000 tourney with $10,000 Guaranteed. Entries are capped at 118.
The second Pegasus World Cup Betting Championship qualifier of the weekend takes place on Sunday. It’s $384 to play, and one in 20 will earn a $6,500 package to the January 25th live-bankroll competition.
For the third straight day, you can swing for a $1,500 entry at the Horse Player World Series. The cost to enter the batter’s box is $89, and one in 20 will move on to the The Orleans for the HPWS.
Another opportunity exists on Sunday to pick up a $1,500 entry to the Flo-Cal Faceoff. Again, the entry fee is $86 and the winning ratio is 1 in 20. Winners advance to the $100,000 Guaranteed online cash tourney (Feb.29-March 1) that will involve only racing from Gulfstream Park and Santa Anita Park.
Consider Sunday your next-to-last chance to win a $1,000 spot in the January 26 Sam Houston Race Park NHC qualifier. One of every 15 entries, at $80 per entry, will go on and compete in the nation’s fourth-largest city.
Business figures to be brisk in our Sunday qualifier to the NHC Last Chance Tournament at Bally’s. One of every 10 entries will get a $500 entry for the NHC eve competition. The entry fee for this live-format game is $59.
Two cash games complete the Sunday HorseTourneys schedule.
One is our up-to-$5,000 Exacta tourney with $1,000 Guaranteed. Players pick a three-horse-exacta box play in each of the 12 contest races. You’re credited with the returns on a $1.00 base play, and the highest final total wins. No price caps in this one.
The other is our $8 Pick 6 Jackpot tourney. Seventy percent of the net pool goes to top finishers via the normal, $2 win/place scoring method, while the other 30% goes to the Jackpot pool. Pick the winners of all six races and you win (or share) the Jackpot, which is now up to $4,374. This tourney is low on cost but high on fun.
At HorsePlayers, three more guaranteed NHC seats are up for grabs in the fourth and fifth NHC qualifiers of the weekend. One of them is something of a new offering.
You’ve seen Low Ratio NHC qualifiers with a 1-in-21 winning ratio. You’ve probably also seen NHC qualifiers restricted to those who have yet to earn a 2020 seat. Here, those two aspects are combined in a $500, Low Ratio qualifier only for nonwinners of a 2020 berth. If you’re dying to get to Bally’s and want to narrow down the competition (in more ways than one), this could be your event. One spot is guaranteed in this Pick & Pray and, due to the restricted nature of the contest, no NHC Tour points will be awarded.
The other Sunday NHC Pick & Pray is a “regular” play-in with two spots guaranteed. The entry fee is $165, and the winning ratio is 1-per-65.
Good luck this weekend picking your spots and spotting your picks.