If you’ve been enjoying the online-tourney action during this otherwise quiet period for sports—but you wish that there was something to play at night, we have two words for you: “No worries.”
For the first time, HorseTourneys will offer racing from Down Under. The action begins this Friday night.
For the most part, you can expect these tourneys to be offered on Friday and Saturday nights. All games will be run as Pick & Prays, and you can play for cash…or to win seats in various upcoming qualifiers. Scores will be tabulated, as usual, by the cumulative returns on a mythical $2.00 win and place play in each race.
There’s just one little wrinkle—prizes/payouts won’t come (boomerang?) your way until the following morning. We plan to have those to you by 10:00 am ET at the latest.
We hope you enjoy these tourneys as a fun distraction… at a time when we could all use a little more of those.
Happily, these Australian distractions are in addition to our regularly-scheduled distractions. We have three of those slated for Friday afternoon—including one with an increased prize guarantee.
Our featured Friday cash tourney has had its guarantee raised to $10,000. It’s a No Limit game (so there is no ceiling on how high the purse can go) with an entry fee of $190. As with all of our Friday features, this one is a Pick & Pray.
We’ll have qualifiers to the $150,000 Guaranteed Spa & Surf Showdown on all three days of the weekend (Friday, Saturday, Sunday). One of every 20 entries, at $113 each, will earn a $2,000 entry to the August 15-16 tourney that focuses solely on Saratoga and Del Mar races.
Weekend qualifiers for the Monmouth Pick Your Prize tournament are offered on a Friday/Sunday schedule. Winners earn a $2,500 package ($2,000 entry plus $500 for travel). Qualifier entries cost $148 each and the winning ratio is one per 20.
Two more featured Pick & Prays are scheduled at HorsePlayers.
At least two NHC seats will be on the line in Friday’s $75 NHC Pick & Pray. The winning ratio is 1-per-143. NHC Tour Points will be available to the top 10 percent of the field.
The other Friday feature at HorsePlayers is a Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier with one $10,000 BCBC entry certain. The winning ratio is 1 per 23, and the entry fee is $500.
Contest races for Friday are the 6th through 8th at Tampa; the 5th through 9th from Gulfstream; and the 3rd and 4th from Golden Gate—10 races in all.
On Saturday, we have three All Optional Live tourneys among our four featured events, and another cash game with a guarantee boost.
The Saturday cash tourney—typically our richest of a weekend—has had its guarantee upped to $20,000. It’s a No Limit game—and this week it’s an All Optional Live competition in which contestants make 10 plays from 23 available races, The entry fee is $260.
There are two other All Optional Live games on Saturday. One is our qualifier to the Spa & Surf Showdown. One of every 20 entries, at $113 per entry, will pick up a $2,000 entry to the $150,000 Guaranteed contest, which will be held right here at HorseTourneys.
The other Saturday “AOL” event is the qualifier to Lone Star Park Spring Betting Challenge—now rescheduled to June 27. It’s a 1-per-15 affair costing $80, and winners earn a $1,000 entry to the Texas contest.
The 23 races for the above three All Optional Live tourneys are the 4th through 12th at Gulfstream; the 5th through 8th from Tampa; and the full card (races 1 through 10) at Golden Gate Fields. Again, AOL players will be selecting 10 plays from this pool of 23 races. Closing time for these events will be earlier than usual—approximately 2:15 pm ET.
There’s one Saturday feature at HorseTourneys that goes as a more traditional, 12-race Pick & Pray. It’s the day’s $165 NHC qualifier with two seats guaranteed. The winning ratio is 1-per-65.
The Saturday featured tourney at HorsePlayers is also a 12-race test.
It’s a “regular”, live-format Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge play-in with an entry fee of $179 and one $10,000 entry certain to be awarded regardless of participation.
The 12 Saturday contest races for the NHC qualifier (HorseTourneys) and the BCBC qualifier (HorsePlayers) are the 6th through 8th at Tampa; the 7th through 12th from Gulfstream; and the 7th through 9th at Golden Gate.
We have seven featured games at Horse Tourneys on Sunday, including four more “AOLs” and another enhanced-guarantee cash event.
What used to be our $195, $10,000 Guaranteed No Limit tourney…is now our $195, $12,500 Guaranteed No Limit tourney. The format this week is All Optional Live. You will have to make 10 picks from a predetermined number of races (more than 10!). Sunday’s races haven’t drawn as of this writing, but we hope to be able to offer you at least 20 to pick from.
Another All Optional Live event this Sunday is our qualifier to The BIG One. Here, one guaranteed, all-inclusive package to the 2020 The BIG One at Laurel will be on the line. Fifteen contest seats and at least $75,000 in cash will be in the prize pool in Maryland on September 19-20—distributed amongst a field that will be no greater than 57. The Sunday entry fee is $395 and entires are capped at 26. Winners receive a prize package that includes hotel, travel stipend, welcome dinner, high-end amenities at Laurel and more. At The BIG One, the top 10 finishers also get 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.
The other two All Optional Live tourneys are our qualifiers to the Spa & Surf Showdown and the Monmouth Pick Your Prize tournament.
One of every 20 entries, at $113 per entry, will earn a $2,000 pass through the Showdown gates this August and play for a cash-only prize pool ($150,000 Guaranteed) in an event that will involve only races from Saratoga and Del Mar.
The Monmouth Pick Your Prize tournament—still slated for May 30—offers cash, NHC spots and BCBC entries. Players in our Sunday qualifier will be vying for a $2,000 entry plus $500 for travel to New Jersey.
Our $10,000 Guaranteed Big Bucks game is always run as a 12-race Pick & Pray, and so it will be this weekend. Entries cost $1,150 each, and there is a maximum of 20 entrants allowed. The purse is set at a minimum of $10,000 regardless of participation and the top three finishers split the prize pool on a 70/20/10 percent basis.
Another Sunday game with a constant format is our up-to-$5,000 Exacta tourney with $1,000 Guaranteed. These are always run as 12-race, live-format affairs. Players choose a three-horse-exacta box in each of the contest races, and receive scores based on the returns of a $1.00 base play. No payout caps are in effect. What the dollar exacta pays is what your score gets credited with. So you’re never out of contention.
The other Sunday, always-live-format competition is our $8 Pick 6 Jackpot tourney. These are also 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. This week, the Jackpot is up to $7,551.
Two 12-race,live-format qualifiers share the spotlight at HorsePlayers on Sunday.
One is a Low Ratio Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge play-in. The barrier to entry is $500, and at least one competitor is certain to capture a $10,000 BCBC spot.
The other is a regular ($165) NHC qualifier with two seats assured in the kitty. The winning ratio is 1-per-65.
Have a healthy weekend—and if it yields healthy profits, consider that a happy bonus. Good luck!