With a pot that has already swelled to $244,260, the August 15-16 Spa & Surf Showdown will be a prime focus as we enter the next-to-last weekend of qualifying for the all-cash, online event. In addition to daily, multi-track qualifiers for the Showdown, we’ll also be offering single-track, direct qualifiers on the racing programs at Saratoga (where it’s Whitney weekend) and Del Mar all weekend long.
The qualifying—and cash-game—fun begins on Friday.
The first qualifier of the weekend for the Spa & Surf Showdown will have players ponying up $113 for a 1-in-20 opportunity to earn a $2,000 entry to the big-money game here at HorseTourneys. And keep in mind that there will be three Spa & Surf qualifiers on Friday (and Saturday and Sunday too). One multi-track version and one each on the Saratoga and Del Mar cards.
Cash-game enthusiasts will have plenty of action in Friday’s $10,000 Guaranteed No Limit Pick & Pray. Entries here are $190 each.
Since this is the last weekend of qualifying for the Xpressbet Travers Online Challenge, we’re adding a Friday qualifier to this weekend’s menu. (The other is on Sunday.). It’s $175 to participate and one in 20 will earn a $3,000 entry for a week from Saturday.
Over at HorsePlayers, there’s one qualifier on Friday for the NHC and one for the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge.
Friday’s $75 NHC Pick & Pray will award a minimum of two spots, and NHC Tour points will be up for grabs as well. (The top 10% of the field receive them.). It’s a Pick & Pray with a winning ratio of 1 in 143.
The Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge play-in is a Low Ratio Pick & Pray. At least one $10,000 entry is guaranteed in this $500 tourney. The winning ratio is a low 1-per-23.
Contest races are the 8th through 10th from Saratoga; the 3rd through 5th on the twilight card at Monmouth; and the 4th through 7th from Del Mar—10 in all.
On Saturday, the first day of August, there’s a newcomer to the featured-tourney ranks…but he’ll only be with us for a short time.
The Club Hawthorne contests will be taking place in Chicagoland on August 8-9. It costs $400 to play each day, but you can win $800 in sign-up fees (enough for both days) right here in our live-format $94 qualifier. One in 10 will win.
Of course, we’re offering another $113 Spa & Surf Showdown qualifier—three of them, actually, if you include the Saratoga and Del Mar single-track play-ins. Note that Saturday’s multi-track qualifier will be run in Live format.
Another live-format game is our $25,000 Guaranteed No Limit cash tourney. This one carries an entry fee of $260.
Operating in Pick & Pray format is our $10,000 Guaranteed Big Bucks event. It has an $1,150 buy-in and signups are limited to 20, though sometimes the field will top that number slightly due to last-minute feeders. The purse for this high-end contest could hit $20,000 or more. Payouts go to just the top three finishers—on a 70%/20%/10% basis.
Another Pick & Pray is our Saturday qualifier to The BIG One. The grand prize includes $500 in cash plus a paid-up entry to the finals on September 19-20. The buy-in here is $395, and no more than 27 entries will be accepted. In The BIG One, the top 10 finishers get their choice of a seat to the NHC, BCBC or Pegasus World Cup plus they share in a cash pool that is already up to $108,672 (and counting). Finishers 11-15 get a choice of either $1,500 or a Horse Player World Series entry. The BIG One will be held here at HorseTourneys this year, and the final field in September will consist of no more than 57 entries (50 online qualifiers plus up to seven buy-ins). So if you get to The BIG One, you have a pretty decent chance of coming away with something good.
Saturday’s qualifier to the Ruidoso Handicapping Challenge—an onsite tournament on August 29—is a live-format affair. One of every 10 entries, at $48 each, will win a $400 spot in the New Mexico competition, where two NHC seats will be on the line.
The $8 Pick 6 Jackpot tourney is always a live-format event. In our Pick 6 Jackpot tourneys, 70% of the net pool gets paid to top finishers via the normal, $2 win/place scoring method, while the other 30% gets directed to the Jackpot pool. You win (or share) the Jackpot if you pick the winners of all six races. This week, the Jackpot starts at $17,045.
The $8 Pick 6 Jackpot tourney races for Saturday are the 5th, 9th and 11th from Saratoga; and the 2nd, 4th and 5th from Del Mar. Six races (four of them stakes)…and a total of just 39 betting interests.
It’s another Saturday three-pack at HorsePlayers on Saturday.
Two of them are Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge qualifiers. Saturday’s “regular” BCBC play-in has one grand prize guaranteed and carries an entry fee of $179. It’s a live-format tourney with a winning ratio of 1-per-65.
The winning ratio is only 1-per-11 in Saturday’s Super Low Ratio BCBC Pick & Pray. It also guarantees at least one winner. Here, the entry fee is $1,000.
The NHC tourney is a $165 “regular” qualifier with two seats certain. The winning ratio is 1-per-65, and the format is Live.
The 12 contest races on Saturday are: Races 8-11 at Woodbine; the 1st and 4th from Del Mar; races 10 and 11 (the Monmouth Oaks) at—you guessed it!—Monmouth; and the 9th through 12th (all stakes) from the Whitney Day card at Saratoga.
Ten more features contribute to a busy Sunday slate.
After a day off on Saturday, the Travers Online Challenge is back in action. You can win a $3,000 TOC entry here for a $175 entry fee. (1-per-20 winning ratio, Live format).
An entry fee of $195 will get you in to Sunday’s $15,000 Guaranteed No Limit cash tourney. This one is also Live.
Another weekend day means not one, not two, but three more qualifiers to the Spa & Surf Showdown. Like Saturday’s, the multi-track Showdown play-in is a live-format tourney with a $113 entry fee. Winners get a $2,000 entry for August 15-16. The same price point and prizes apply to Sunday’s single-track Spa & Surf qualifiers on the Saratoga and Del Mar cards.
A second consecutive day of Club Hawthorne qualifying is on tap Sunday. (Entry fee: $94, winning ratio: 1-per-10). This should prepare you nicely for the following weekend in greater Chicago…where the contests will also be held on back-to-back days.
A guaranteed berth is on the line in Sunday’s $395 qualifier to The BIG One. Normally hosted at Laurel Park, “The high-expectation tournament” will take place here this year on September 19-20. Win Sunday’s qualifier, and you’ll have no more than 56 opponents for the big money and prizes in September.
A Sunday staple is our $7,500 Guaranteed Big Bucks tourney. The pot could grow to as high as $20,000 depending on participation, but it won’t be less than $7,500. The entry fee is $1,150, and payoffs go only to the top three finishers. The Sunday edition of “Big Bucks” is always run in live format.
The second of the weekend’s two $8 Pick 6 Jackpot tourneys takes place on Sunday. Check out our Twitter feed on Saturday night or home page on Sunday for an update on the Jackpot amount. It will depend on how many people take a swing at the Saturday Jackpot ($17,045)…and whether anyone connects. This, too, is always a live-format game.
And so is our up-to-$5,000 Exacta tourney with $1,000 Guaranteed. This game calls requires players to select a three-horse exacta box in each race. The entry fee is $125, and no payoff caps are in effect.
The Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge and the NHC share the spotlight at HorsePlayers on Sunday.
One $10,000 entry will definitely be awarded in Sunday’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier, which carries an entry fee of $500 and a winning ratio of 1-per-23. The format is Live.
The format is Pick & Pray for Sunday’s $165 NHC qualifier. The winning ratio is 1-in-65, and two “Bally’s Berths” are guaranteed.
Here’s a reminder–qualifiers start soon for our big $60,000 Gtd. live-format and $20,000 Pick & Pray games on Travers Day (Saturday, August 8).
May July close and August begin on a winning note for you. Enjoy the weekend and…good luck!