Only five online spots remain for The BIG One next Saturday and Sunday. With 10 seats up for grabs to the NHC, the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge or the Pegasus World Cup (winners get to choose!) plus another five entries on the line for the Horse Player World Series (or $1,500 in cash in the player prefers)…plus a cash-prize pool of $169,032…all being shared by a field of no more than 57, there is certainly a lot to play for next weekend. Seven seats are set aside for buy-in entries—which are priced at $7,500 each—but you can win one of the five remaining online spots for $395 if you succeed during this final weekend of qualifying.
The first of three consecutive guaranteed qualifiers to “The High Expectation Tournament” serves as the tentpole for a robust featured schedule on Friday.
Friday’s qualifier to The BIG One guarantees one winner, who also receives $500 in HorseTourneys credit (in lieu of the $500 travel stipend that would have been given has the event been held at Laurel). As noted above, the entry fee for this Pick & Pray is $395 and a maximum of 27 entries will be accepted. Also, regardless of participation, the qualifier’s second-place finisher will receive a $395 entry-fee credit/refund.
The BIG One isn’t the only competition for which time is drawing near. Time is really of the essence if you want to get into the Kentucky Downs Turf Handicapping Challenge. (It will be held at Xpressbet, although New Jersey residents may participate through 4NJBETS.) The KDTHC is two single-day contests held on Sunday, September 13 and Wednesday September 16. There are NHC seats, BCBC entries and cash at stake—plus a bonus for whoever does best across the two days. Friday’s Kentucky Downs qualifier is a Last Chance play-in. Winners receive $1,600 in entry fees which covers you for both days. As with all of our Friday features, this qualifier is a Pick & Pray.
Last Sunday, Sheldon Usprech became the first to qualify for the $150,000 Guaranteed Flo-Cal Faceoff on January 8th and 9th. You can join Sheldon and the other four already-qualified members of the field if you prosper in Friday’s $118 Pick & Pray. Reminder: The Flo-Cal Faceoff serves as the first leg of the brand new 2021 Tourney Triple series consisting of the Flo-Cal Faceoff, the Players Championship and the Spa & Surf Showdown. As a bonus, tournament seats await the top three overall performers, and if you win two of the three events, you get a cool million. Win all three and you get an even cooler $2 million.
Thee’s also a Friday Pick & Pray qualifier to the Keeneland Fall NHC/BCBC Online Challenge. You can get win a $3,000 entry to the October 10 competition at Xpressbet for just $175 here. The winning ratio is 1-per-20.
Cash gamers, we haven’t forgotten about you! A Friday staple around here is always the $10,000 Guaranteed No Limit Pick & Pray. Entries here are $190 each.
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 seats, and NHC Tour points will also be up for grabs to those finishing in the top 10 percent. It’s a Pick & Pray with a winning ratio of 1 in 143.
The Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge game is a Low Ratio Pick & Pray. At least one $10,000 entry is guaranteed to be won in this $500 event. The winning ratio here is 1-per-23.
Friday contest races are the 7th through 9th from Gulfstream; the 6th through 9th at Woodbine; and the 2nd through 4th from Golden Gate—10 races in all.
Four out of our five Saturday features here at HorseTourneys are of the Pick & Pray variety.
You know by now that there’s a Saturday’s qualifier to The BIG One. Again, the buy-inis $395, entries are capped at 27 and the format is Pick & Pray.
The richest tourney of the weekend is Saturday’s $25,000 Guaranteed Pick & Pray. An entry fee of $260 gets you in the door if you haven’t won a feeder before then.
Also to be run in Pick & Pray format is Saturday’s $10,000 Guaranteed Big Bucks tourney. The entry fee is a not-insignificant $1,150, but the field is limited to 20, barring any late entries due to last-minute feeders. If the game is sold out, the purse will rise to over $20,000. As per usual in these Big Bucks games, payoffs go only to the top three finishers—on a 70%/20%/10% basis.
There’s also an NHC Low Ratio qualifier on Saturday. It’s a $500, 1-per-21 Pick & Pray…and note that this contest must have at least 10 entrants signed up in order to “go”.
The only Saturday feature here that isn’t a Pick & Pray is the always-live $8 Pick 6 Jackpot tourney which now has a carryover of $22,003. That is what will be won or shared if anyone can go 6-for-6. Seventy percent of net entry fees (at $8 each) get paid out via traditional win/place scoring totals while 30% gets directed to the Jackpot. The Pick 6 Jackpot races this week are the 6th, 9th and 10th at Gulfstream and the 6th, 7th and 11th from Monmouth. There are just 43 betting interests—before scratches—across the six races.
Over at HorsePlayers, there are two Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge qualifiers and one NHC play-in scheduled.
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 just 1-per-11 in Saturday’s Super Low Ratio BCBC Pick & Pray. It also guarantees at least one winner even if fewer than 11 sign up. The entry fee here is $1,000.
The NHC qualifier is a live-format “Maiden Special” restricted to those who have yet to earn a 2021 berth. It’s $165 to play, one spot is guaranteed and, since this is a restricted contest, no NHC Tour points will be awarded.
The 12 contest races for Saturday at both HorseTourneys and HorsePlayers will come from just two tracks—Woodbine (where it’s Queen’s Plate Day) and Kentucky Downs. The dozen races are the 7th through 13th at Woodbine and the 7th through 11th from Kentucky Downs. Nine of the 12 races are stakes—four from up north of the border and all five from the near-Tennessee track.
We round out the weekend with nine featured tourneys on Sunday—seven here and two at HorsePlayers.
The weekend’s third qualifier to The BIG One ($395, 1 winner guaranteed) and second qualifier to both the Keeneland Fall Online Challenge ($175) and the Flo-Cal Faceoff ($118) are on the Sunday slate. The qualifier to The BIG One will be run in Live format, the Keeneland and Flo-Cal play-ins are Pick & Prays.
Also a Pick & Pray is Sunday’s $15,000 Guaranteed tourney. The entry fee is $195.
The Sunday Big Bucks tourney guarantees $7,500, though the pot for this Live-format event could exceed $20,000 depending on participation. It won’t be less than $7,500, however. The entry fee is $1,150, and payoffs go only to the top three finishers.
Our up-to-$5,000 Exacta tourney with $1,000 Guaranteed is also always operated in Live format. Players in this 12-race get-together choose a three-horse exacta box in each race. Winners receive scores based on a $1 mythical play. The entry fee is $125, and no payoff caps are in effect.
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 our home page on Sunday for an update on what the Jackpot will be. It will be based on how many people take a swing at the Saturday Jackpot (which starts out at $22,003)…and whether anyone hits it. Like the Exacta tourneys, the Pick 6 Jackpot competition is always a live-format game.
The NHC and Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge share the Sunday spotlight at HorsePlayers.
The NHC tourney is a “regular” Pick & Pray with two seats to the big dance guaranteed. The entry fee is $165, and the winning ratio is 1-per-65.
The BCBC game is a $500, live-format, “Low Ratio” qualifier with a winning ratio of 1-per-23. At least one $10,000 entry to the world’s most prestigious live-bankroll handicapping tournament is certain to be awarded.
It’s an oddly crowded weekend on the sports calendar with the NBA, NHL, MLB and now the NFL all in action at the same time. We hope, though, that you can carve out some time to spend with us. We’ll do our best to make it fun for you. Good luck!