As a public service, we’ll remind you that Sunday is Mother’s Day. So don’t forget to at least call Mom on her big day. If you’re short on new topics to discuss with her (during this period of staying home most of the time), a possible conversation starter could well be your exploits in this weekend’s featured tourneys. Starting Friday, there are 19 such opportunities to make your mom proud.
Any red-blooded American mother would welcome the opportunity to post a leaderboard screenshot or two to Facebook with the caption “That’s my son!” (or daughter) if you win Friday’s $10,000 Guaranteed No Limit Pick & Pray. The entry fee is $190.
If mom likes to ask if you have any interesting plans ahead, you can say, “Yes!”…if you win Friday’s Spa & Surf Showdown qualifier. One of every 20 entries, at $113 apiece, will get a $2,000 entry to the August 15-16 online tourney that will task players with making full-card picks on the cards those two days at Saratoga and Del Mar. The purse for the Showdown is guaranteed to be at least $150,000.
HorsePlayers hasn’t forgotten mothers either.
You can show her you’re both smart and thrifty by winning an NHC for just $75 in Friday’s Pick & Pray. Two seats are guaranteed and NHC Tour points will be on the table as well since there is more than one seat guaranteed. This is the first of four “2-seats-guaranteed” NHC qualifiers over the course of the weekend.
Mom can tell her neighbors that you’re a high roller if she knows you’ll be taking part in the $10,000 buy-in Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge. Totally up to her…but she can certainly choose not to share the fact that you got in for just $500 because you won Friday’s Low Ratio qualifier. One in 21 will give their mother that happy dilemma.
The Friday contest races for all four of the above featured events are 6th through 9th from Tampa; and the 6th through 11th at Gulfstream—10 races in all. The start time will be approximately 3:29 pm ET.
Six more features come your way on Mother’s Day eve.
Some moms like to tell their daughters that it’s as easy to marry a rich man as a poor man, but it’s usually harder to win a rich tourney, and Saturday’s $25,000 Guaranteed game is the richest of the weekend. It carries an entry fee of $260, and this week it’s a Pick & Pray.
In general, it’s a bit easier to win a Spa & Surf Showdown qualifier during a weekend…because there are three of them. As was the case on Friday, this Showdown play-in is 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.
Qualifying continues for the Lone Star Park Spring Betting Challenge. They’re hoping to reopen Lone Star soon, and their Spring Challenge (originally slated for May) is now scheduled for June 27. This qualifier is a 1-per-15 Pick & Pray with an entry fee of $80. Winners earn a $1,000 entry to the Texas tournament.
There’s also something of a rarity here at HorseTourneys on Saturday—a $165, 2-seats-guaranteed NHC qualifier here…at the same time that there’s a $165 2-seats-guaranteed NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers. The one here is a Pick & Pray.
At HorsePlayers on Saturday, the NHC and the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge share the main stage. Unlike the first eight tourneys we’ve mentioned however, these two at HorsePlayers are live-format affairs.
You already know about the live-format NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers. Two seats are guaranteed in this 1-per-65 play-in.
The BCBC qualifier is also a 1-per-65 game. It carries an entry fee of $179, and guarantees at least one $10,000 BCBC entry—something that way more than just a mother could love.
The 12 Saturday contest races at HorseTourneys and HorsePlayers are the 5th through 9th at Tampa; and the 6th through 12th from Gulfstream. (Several of those should be grass races, assuming Mother Nature cooperates.) Closing time will come at about 2:31 pm ET.
If you didn’t do Mom proud on Friday or Saturday, the pressure will really be on you on Sunday. Fortunately, nine opportunities still remain.
You can go for the mother lode in Sunday’s $10,000 Guaranteed Big Bucks game. It’s $1,150 to take part in this Pick & Pray, and entries are limited to 20 (or slightly more if last-minute feeders push us over the 20-entry threshold). The purse is set at a minimum of $10,000 regardless of participation and the top three finishers divvy up the pot on a 70/20/10-percent basis.
Not everyone has $1,150 to spend on a tourney, of course. So out of necessity (the mother of invention), you may prefer to opt for Sunday’s $12,500 Guaranteed No Limit tourney, a Pick & Pray with a buy-in of $195.
The mother of all onsite tournaments—from the standpoint of a player’s chances of success—is The BIG One, where 15 contest seats and at least $75,000 in cash will be in the prize pool on September 19-20 at Laurel. That pool will be shared among a field of just 57 or fewer. The entry fee for Sunday’s guaranteed qualifier to The BIG One 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.
Separate and apart from the weekend’s four 2-seat NHC qualifiers is a Mother’s Day Low Ratio NHC qualifier. It’s not a guaranteed event—there must be 10 $500 signups for this game to “go”— but this event has had little trouble filling since it was instituted. The winning ratio is 1-per-21.
The weekend’s third and final qualifier to the Spa & Surf Showdown takes place on Sunday. One of every 20 entries in this Pick & Pray, at $113 per pop, will compete for an all-cash prize pool ($150,000 Guaranteed) on August 15-16. Mom can follow along on her computer!
Don’t forget Sunday’s up-to-$5,000 Exacta tourney with $1,000 Guaranteed. 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. The format is always Live, and there are no payoff caps. So you’re always within one race of the lead.
For just $8 (about the cost of a Mother’s Day card these days), you can play in Sunday’s $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 five figures—$10,245, to be exact.
We’re back to Pick & Prays for the final two features of the weekend…both over at HorsePlayers.
One 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 other is the fourth 2-seats-guaranteed NHC qualifier of the weekend, This one guarantees two spots and carries a winning ratio of 1-per-65.
So good luck to all this weekend and, in all seriousness, be good to Mom. She’s probably feeling a bit extra lonely these days. So be there for her, and we’ll continue to do our little bit to be here for you!