Louisville is quieter than usual this weekend, but the sun can still shine bright over your home (regardless of which state it’s in) thanks to 19 featured weekend tourneys offering at least $58,500 in cash plus many seats to important contests (both onsite and online) taking place later in 2020. It all begins on Friday.
Friday may not be Oaks Day, but we’re considering it Folks Day in honor of all the…folks…who will win money in our $10,000 Guaranteed No Limit Pick & Pray. It costs $190 to play, and there’s no need to wear pink.
On Friday you can also try your hand at the first of our three weekend qualifiers to the Spa & Surf Showdown. One of every 20 entries, at $113 each, will earn a $2,000 entry to the August 15-16 online tourney that will require players to make full-card picks on Saratoga and Del Mar. The purse for the Showdown is guaranteed to be a minimum of $150,000.
There are two “Folks Day features” at HorsePlayers.
One is a $75 NHC qualifier, a Pick & Pray, with two seats guaranteed and plenty of NHC Tour points up for grabs as well. It’s the first of three “2-seats-guaranteed” NHC qualifiers on the weekend.
The other Friday feature at HorsePlayers is a a Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier with one $10,000 BCBC entry Guaranteed. The entry fee here is $500.
The Friday contest races for the two featured events at HorseTourneys and the BCBC qualifier at HorsePlayers are 6th through 8th from Tampa; and the 5th through 11th at Gulfstream—10 races in all. The start time will be approximately 2:56 pm ET.
On Saturday, we salute HorseTourneys customers Herbert Thornton, Tim Herboth, Herb Ianuzzi, Michael Herbert and Herbert Welch—because, while we can’t truly celebrate Derby Day, we can still celebrate Herby Day!
You’ll want to raise a mint julep glass to the winner of the weekend’s richest event— Saturday’s $25,000 Guaranteed cash tourney. It carries an entry fee of $260, and it’s a live-format game this week.
There’s another qualifier to the Spa & Surf Showdown on Herby Day. It’s a Pick & Pray with one of every 20 entries, at $113 per entry, earning a $2,000 spot in the $150,000 Guaranteed event here at HorseTourneys in August.
We’re back to a live format for Saturday’s Lone Star Park Spring Betting Challenge qualifier. The Lone Star Challenge, rescheduled to June 27, appears to still be a go with racing in Texas hoping to open back up soon. This qualifier is a 1-per-15 competition with an entry fee of $80. Winners earn a $1,000 entry.
At HorsePlayers on Saturday, the NHC and the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge share the spotlight with each having its own “regular,” live-format, guaranteed qualifier.
For $165, you can take a swing at the NHC. Two seats are guaranteed in this 1-per-65 play-in.
The BCBC qualifier is also a 1-per-65 proposition. This one requires a posting of $179, and the winner(s) earn a $10,000 entry. At least one winner is certain.
The 12 Saturday contest races at HorseTourneys and HorsePlayers are the 5th through 12th at Gulfstream; and the 6th through 8th from Tampa. The start time should be roughly 2:46 pm ET.
We don’t have a goofy nickname for Sunday—but we do have 10 more featured tourneys on tap.
Our $10,000 Guaranteed Big Bucks game carries an entry fee of $1,150, and entries are limited to 20 (or slightly more if last-minute feeders push us over the threshold). The purse is set at a minimum of $10,000 regardless of participation and the top three finishers split the pot on a 70/20/10-percent basis. This weekly event is always run as a Pick & Pray. Last week, Brian O’Keefe took home a first-place prize of $17,098.
Just $195 gets you in the door for Sunday’s $12,500 Guaranteed No Limit tourney, a live-format game this week. For those new to HorseTourneys, “$12,500 Guaranteed No Limit” means that they purse is certain to be at least $12,500, but that there is no limit as to how high it could go beyond that.
Another Sunday guaranteed tourney is our qualifier to The BIG One. The target here for players is a guaranteed, all-inclusive package to the 2020 The BIG One at Laurel. Fifteen contest seats and at least $75,000 in cash will be in the prize pool there come September 19-20. That pool will be fought for amongst a field of just 57 or fewer. The Sunday entry fee is $395 and entires for this Pick & Pray are limited to 26. Winners receive three nights’ hotel, travel stipend, welcome dinner, high-end amenities at Laurel and more. At The BIG One, the top 10 finishers receive their choice of a seat to the NHC, BCBC or Pegasus World Cup plus cash bonuses. Finishers 11-15 get a choice of either $1,500 or a Horse Players World Series entry.
Once again there’s a Sunday’s Low Ratio NHC Pick & Pray qualifier. It’s not guaranteed, per se, but it only needs 10 entries (at $500 per entry) to take place. The winning ratio is 1-per-21.
Yet another shot at a $2,000 entry to the Spa & Surf Showdown is offered on Sunday. One of every 20 entries in this live-format game, at $113 per entry, will compete in August for an all-cash prize pool ($150,000 Guaranteed) in an event featuring two days of full-card picks from Saratoga and Del Mar.
We’ll try once again this Sunday with a qualifier to the Monmouth Pick Your Prize tournament. Players i will be shooting for a $2,000 entry plus $500 for travel to New Jersey. Originally scheduled for May 30, the popular Monmouth event will be held on a yet-to-be-specified date this summer. The precise date will be determined once Monmouth officials know when they will open and be allowed to have fans in the facility.
Two more featured cash games on the docket:
Sunday’s up-to-$5,000 Exacta tourney with $1,000 Guaranteed requires participants to choose a three-horse-exacta box in each of the contest races. They receive scores based on the returns of a $1.00 base play. No payout caps are in effect, and the format is always Live. So you’re never out of contention.
For just $8, you can take part in another fun Sunday game—our $8 Pick 6 Jackpot tourney. These are also always run in live-format, and 70% of the net pool gets paid to top finishers via the normal, $2 win/place scoring method, while the other 30% goes to the Jackpot pool. You win (or share) the Jackpot by picking the winners of all six races. This week, the Jackpot is up to $9,698.
HorsePlayers has one Pick & Pray and one live-format featured on Sunday.
The live tourney is a Low Ratio (1-per-23) Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge qualifier. The entry fee is $500, and at least one $10,000 BCBC entry is guaranteed.
The Pick & Pray is a “regular” ($165-buy-in) NHC qualifier with two seats certain to be awarded. The winning ratio here is 1-per-65.
Enjoy Folks/Herby weekend. It may lack the spectacle of a typical first Saturday in May…but if you’re like me, the truly memorable racing days are the racing days when we win. Good luck!