The qualifying is almost over. The buy-ins have begun. It’s time for the Flo-Cal Faceoff.
The purse for the two-day, all-Gulfstream-and-Santa Anita, full-card, cash tourney is up to $120,000…and that figure will only grow as final qualifying takes place on Thursday and Friday. So there’s still time to get in for less than the buy-in amount ($1,500)—including a Low Ratio opportunity on Friday (aka Flo-Cal eve).
Our Low Ratio, Pick & Pray Friday qualifier to the Flo-Cal Faceoff (which features $10,000 in day money each day as part of its six-figure purse) carries an entry fee of $177, and one in every 10 competitors will receive a coveted spot in the Faceoff.
We also have a “regular”, 1-in-20 Flo-Cal qualifier on Friday. The entry fee for this one is $86.
It’s not ALL about the Flo-Cal on Friday. You can also win a $1,500 entry to next month’s (soon to be THIS month’s) Horse Player World Series. One of every 20 entries in the Friday Pick & Pray, at $89 per entry, will be headed to The Orleans on March 26-28.
Of course, we also offer our much-loved up-to-$15,000 Pick & Pray with $7,500 Guaranteed on Friday. As usual, the buy-in for this one is $190.
Two more Pick & Prays are on the Friday schedule at HorsePlayers.
There’s nothing like crossing the NHC off your to-do list early in the year. You can win a spot to the 2021 edition of the big dance in Friday’s $75 Pick & Pray with two seats guaranteed.
Meanwhile, a $10,000 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge entry will be on the line in Friday’s Low Ratio Pick & Pray with a winning ratio of 1 per 23. It’s $500 to enter.
Contest races for the Friday featured action come from just two tracks—Gulfstream and Tampa Bay Downs. The races are the 5th through 10th at Gulfstream; and the 6th through 9th from Tampa—10 races in all.
Saturday, of course, is Flo-Cal Faceoff Day.
If you haven’t won a feeder to the Faceoff yet, you can still buy in for $1,500. Right now the first prize looks certain to be at least $40,000, and that should increase after Thursday and Friday qualifiers…plus “day-of” buy ins…are factored in. It’s a live-format tourney and players are required to enter a mythical $2.00 win-and-place selection for every race on the Gulfstream and Santa Anita cards on both Saturday and Sunday. And don’t forget the “day money”. A total of $10,000 per day will be paid to the three who do the best on each day.
While the Flo-Cal Faceoff is a live-format tourney, almost all of the other Saturday featured events are Pick & Prays. And we are still offering a nice, stand-alone cash game on Saturday despite the presence of the Faceoff.
For your Pick & Pray pleasure on Saturday (a rare leap day!) is an up-to-$30,000 tourney with $10.000 Guaranteed. (The guarantee is slightly lower this Saturday owing to the Faceoff.) It’s $260 to enter.
Saturday remains “Full Package Day” at HorseTourneys when it comes to the Horse Player World Series. Our $148 qualifier offers not just a $1,500 entry to the Vegas “classic”, but a four-night hotel stay at The Orleans, and a $500 travel credit. The winning ratio is 1-per-20.
You can also pick up a $4,000 package on Saturday to the April 19 Keeneland Grade One Gamble. It’s $236 to play, and one in 20 will move on to the “Gamble,” where players will compete for a very nice prize pool containing cash, NHC seats and BCBC entries.
We also have a “first chance” and a “last chance” on Saturday. The last-chance qualifier feeds to next Saturday’s Gotham Challenge at Aqueduct. This 1-per-10 game offers $500 entries to The Big A. It’s just $59 to participate.
We didn’t have room for it on the above screenshot , but the new game on the schedule is a 1-per-15 Pick & Pray for the April 18 Spring Betting Challenge at Lone Star Park. This qualifier costs $80 to play, and winners get a $1,000 entry to the suburban Dallas competition.
Two more featured tourneys, both live-format affairs, come your way at HorsePlayers on Saturday.
One is a “regular,” $179 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge play-in with one $10,000 seat certain to be awarded. The winning ratio here is 1-per-65.
The other is a “regular” NHC qualifier ($165 entry fee) with two spots guaranteed. Here, too, the winning ratio is 1 in 65.
The Saturday schedule of contest races is buoyed by a terrific Fountain of Youth Stakes Day card at Gulfstream. Our 12 compulsory races are the 9th through 14th (all stakes) at Gulfstream, the 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th from Santa Anita; and the 8th and 10th from Tampa. The Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream (race 14) will serve as the final race for the day’s 12-race featured tourneys.
While the Flo-Cal Faceoff competitors battle on during Day 2 on Sunday, 10 more stand-alone featured contests (most of them Pick & Prays) help us ring in March as well.
The day’s main stand-alone cash tourney is our up-to-$20,000 game, which has a guarantee this week of $5,000. You can get yourself into the field for $195.
Another Pick & Pray on Sunday is our qualifier to the 2020 The BIG One at Laurel. Fifteen contest seats and at least $75,000 in cash will be at stake September 19-20—shared among a field that will number no more than 57. The qualifier carries an entry fee of $395 and entires are limited to 26. One prize is guaranteed. Winners receive an all-inclusive package that includes hotel, travel stipend, welcome dinner, top shelf amenities at Laurel and more. At The BIG One, the top 10 finishers will receive cash bonuses plus their choice of a seat to the NHC, BCBC or Pegasus World Cup. Finishers 11-15 get either $1,500 or a Horse Players World Series entry. (Their choice.)
The ratios are lowered in Sunday’s qualifier to the Keeneland Grade One Gamble (April 19). It’s $460 to play, and one in 10 will pick up a $3,500 Keeneland entry plus $500 for travel.
One-per-20 is the ratio in play for our Sunday qualifier to the Horse Player World Series. The entry fee is $89, and winners take home a $1,500 World Series entry.
For the second consecutive day, there is both a first-chance and a last-chance qualifier.
The last-chance game is our qualifier to the TSG Ultimate Betting Challenge. It takes place on March 7 and may be played at Gulfstream, Santa Anita or at xpressbet.com. One of every 20 entries—at $207 per entry—in our Sunday play-in will move on to the main event with a $3,000 entry plus $500 for travel.
The first-chance contest is actually also a last-chance game. It’s a special “one time only” qualifier to the Club Hawthorne OTB contests taking place next Saturday and Sunday (March 6-7). One of every 10 entries, at $94 per entry, will earn $800 in entry fees for the Chicagoland event.
We also have a 12-race, up-to-$5,000 Exacta tourney with $1,000 Guaranteed. These are always run as 12-race, live-format contests. Players pick a three-horse-exacta box in each of the contest races, and their scores are credited with the returns of a $1.00 base play.
Again, we’ll be rooting for a big winner on Sunday in our $8 Pick 6 Jackpot tourney (not pictured above). These are always run in live-format, and 70% of the net pool goes to top finishers via the normal, $2 win/place scoring method, while the other 30% is directed to the Jackpot pool. No one has hit the Jackpot yet, and so the pot of gold this week is up to $5,666. If more than one get all six races right, the Jackpot is shared. Again, this one costs just $8 to play.
At HorsePlayers, a Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge qualifier hogs the Sunday spotlight.
It’s a a Low Ratio Pick & Pray. Five-hundred gets you in the door, and at least one player is assured of exiting the door with a $10,000 BCBC entry.
Good luck with your plays (or rooting interests) in the Flo-Cal Faceoff—and keep an eye out for qualifiers in the not-to-distant future for the Faceoff’s sister event (brother event?) the Spa & Surf Showdown.