Per a joint decision between HorseTourneys and Laurel Park, The BIG One will be played online this year at HorseTourneys.com. The dates will remain the same—Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 19-20, 2020.
There’s a reason why we hold this event on-track at Laurel, as we’re huge proponents of on-track events and what they mean to the tournament community. But given the ongoing uncertainty of on-site attendance in public places, both Laurel and we agreed that the best course would be to hold The BIG One online this year at HorseTourneys.
Let’s go over what this means for you, the players. Our goal has been to retain the economics and format of the on-track event as much as we possibly can. To that end:
— The cost of the entries and the qualifying ratio remain essentially unchanged. The entry fee for qualifiers will stay at $395, and the qualifying ratio will be 1 per 27 (up slightly from 1 per 26, only to make the accounting cleaner).
— All costs from packages that would have gone toward on-site amenities (e.g. hotel, food, shuttles, et al.) have been re-directed to the prize pool.
— Moving forward: $2,800 of each prize package will go toward the “Seats” portion of the package (BCBC/NHC/Pegasus/HPWS seats), and all winners will receive an upfront $500 cash prize, equal to the $500 travel allowance that was originally part of the prize for qualifiers.
— The remainder of the prize package–up to $6,000–will go directly to the prize pool. The amount contributed to the prize pool each week is directly proportional to the number of entries in the qualifier.
— The “takeout,” or event hold, of qualifiers is 12.0 percent. Remember, takeout is obligatory as we must pay track commissions on qualifiers. There is no takeout on the final event, itself.
— Format: the final event will run under the ALL-OPTIONAL format, with 30 eligible races provided each day. Players will make exactly 12 Win/Place selections from those 30 races each day. There will be no mandatory races—players may choose the 12 races they wish to play.
— The same HorseTourneys $2 Win/Place scoring format with caps will apply.
— The available racetracks are likely to be the same racetracks that would have been in play at the on-track event, but the offerings will be narrowed down to 30 eligible races per day by tournament officials. These will be announced as the event nears.
Based on qualifying activity up to this point, the prize pool of the event already exceeds $70,000. Therefore, assuming similar participation during the remainder of the qualifying period, we expect the prize pool to meet or exceed $150,000. An updated prize pool will be available at The BIG One Status page, updated weekly.
NHC TOUR POINTS: The Big One, per Tour rules, must now be considered an online event for NHC Tour scoring purposes. However, keep in mind that there is no on-track requirement this year re NHC Tour points.
BUY-INS:
There will be up to seven (7) buy-in entries available. The cost of these entries will be determined in early September. Preference will be given based on participation in qualifiers, if applicable. Please send an email to support@horsetourneys.com if interested in purchasing a buy-in entry.
Please contact us at support@horsetourneys.com with any questions.
We wish everyone well as we continue through these trying times.
Sincerely,
McKay