If you are playing this weekend (and aren’t we all?), one tourney that should absolutely be on your agenda is Sunday’s 5-seats-guaranteed NHC qualifier. Why? Because it’s free—as long as you’re a 2021 NHC Tour member.
If you’re not a member, you can become one quickly and easily (and for $50…pretty cheaply) at NTRA.com. Membership allows you to compete for NHC seats all year long, including in the handful of free events like Sunday’s.
Friday’s featured tourneys are not free…but they all figure to be fun—and potentially lucrative.
The most time sensitive of the Friday marquee games is the day’s Last Chance qualifier to Saturday’s Derby Day Challenge at Xpressbet. For an entry fee of $177, one in 20 will earn a $3,000 entry for the live-bankroll contest that includes the Run for the Roses.
The big cash tourney on Friday is a $15,000 Guaranteed No-Limit Pick & Pray. The entry fee is $190.
We’ll again offer qualifiers to the $300,000 Guaranteed Spa & Surf Showdown (August 14-15) on each day of the upcoming weekend. Friday’s play-in is a $147 Pick & Pray with a winning ratio of 1-in-20. Winners get a $2,500 entry into the third and final leg (jewel?) of the Tourney Triple.
Seats to the Monmouth Pick Your Prize Challenge on June 12th will also be at stake each day of the weekend. Friday’s qualifier is a Pick & Pray with one of every 15 entries, at $156 per entry, landing a spot in the event that can be played at Monmouth, at Xpressbet or—if you live in New Jersey—4NJBets
There are two featured tourneys in the spotlight at HorsePlayers on Friday.
The first two of nine guaranteed “Bally’s Berths” will be on the line Friday in a $75 NHC Pick & Pray with two seats guaranteed. The winning ratio is 1-per-143, and if we reach the 429-entry mark, we’ll add a third NHC seat into the prize pool.
The other Friday HorsePlayers feature is a $500 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio Pick & Pray. At least one $10,000 BCBC entry is assured in the prize pool of this 1-per-23, guaranteed test.
Contest races for the Friday features are the 6th through 9th from Gulfstream; the 7th through 9th at Tampa Bay Downs; and the 7th through 9th from Belmont Park—10 races in all.
The first Saturday in May—in this case, the first day in May—brings with it six featured events…all here at HorseTourneys.
Atop the Saturday big board is a $100 NHC qualifier. It will be played in Live format, and at least two NHC seats are headed out the door for sure. The winning ratio, assuming a full field, is 1-per-100.
The day’s top cash game is Saturday’s $20,000 Guaranteed, No-Limit tourney. The entry fee for this Pick & Pray is $260, and there is “no limit” as to how high the purse could grow.
Saturday’s “up-to-$20,000” Big Bucks game is always run as a Pick & Pray, and it has a guaranteed pot of $10,000. Entries are limited to 20 (unless we get a late arrival or two from last-minute Saturday feeders). Payoffs go only to the top three finishers with the winner taking 70 percent of the net pool, the runner up getting 20 percent, and the third-place finisher pocketing the remaining 10 percent. The entry fee is a not insignificant $1,150…but that’s part of why we call it “Big Bucks”.
The second of three weekend Spa & Surf Showdown qualifiers is on the Saturday slate. An entry fee of $147 will get you in. At stake is a $2,000 entry into the $300,000 Guaranteed all-cash competition that requires contestants to play every race of the Saratoga and Del Mar cards on August 14-15. One of every 20 contestants in this Pick & Pray qualifier will prosper and move on to August.
Also on tap is the second of three weekend Monmouth Pick Your Prize qualifier. The entry fee here is $156, and the winning ratio in this Pick & Pray is 1-per-15, with a grand prize of a $2,000 Monmouth entry on the table.
The $15 Pick 4 Jackpot tourney starts out on Saturday with a carryover of $2,227. In our Pick 4 Jackpot games, if you go four-for-four, you win or share the Jackpot. (You don’t have to have the only perfect ticket.) Meanwhile, 70% of the net pool gets paid out to players via the traditional $2.00 win/place scoring system. (The other 30% goes to the Jackpot pool.) Entries in these Jackpot Pick 4 tourneys—always run as Pick & Prays—are limited to three per person.
Saturday’s Pick 4 Jackpot races will be the 7th and 9th at Belmont and the 9th and 12th from Gulfstream.
The 12 Saturday contest races are the 1st and 6th from Santa Anita; the 7th, 9th and 11th at Belmont; the 8th through 10th from Tampa; and the 9th through 12th at Gulfstream.
There’s no time for a Derby hangover on Sunday—not when there are 11 featured tourneys, including a free NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers.
If you’re a member of the 2021 NHC Tour, playing in Sunday’s 5-seats-guaranteed qualifier is your privilege, your entitlement, your unalienable right. So don’t forget to enter and participate. It will be a special, 15-race Pick & Pray. The top five earn a 2022 NHC package, including air and hotel.
The other Sunday marquee game at HorsePlayers is a live-format, low-ratio Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge qualifier. At least one $10,000 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge entry is certain to be won. It’s $500 to play, and the winning ratio is 1-per-23.
Here at HorseTourneys, there are nine featured offerings in our Sunday buffet.
Two of the nine will be Spa & Surf Showdown qualifiers. For $147, you can participate in a 1-per-20 Pick & Pray. For $368, you can take a swing at a 1-per-8 Pick & Pray. The coveted prize in both cases is a $2,500 entry for the all-cash shindig on August 14-15.
Sunday is your second opportunity to earn a $500 entry in the brand new, $50,000 Guaranteed Exacta Extravaganza, which will be held here on September 11-12. Sunday’s qualifier carries an entry fee of $59, and 1-per-10 will advance. The qualifier will be held as a live-format Exacta (pick a three-horse box in every race) tourney—as will the Exacta Extravaganza, itself.
There’s also another Monmouth Pick Your Prize qualifier on Sunday. As was the case on Friday and Saturday, it’s a $156 Pick & Pray with a grand prize of a $2,000 entry to the June 12th get-together. The winning ratio is 1-per-15.
Sunday is your weekly chance to earn one of 50 available online berths to The BIG One. (Seven buy-ins will also be made available close to tournament time.) Sunday’s qualifier is a $395 Pick & Pray, and one spot will be awarded no matter how many—or few—sign up. Note, however, that The BIG One qualifiers are capped at 27 entries, so don’t wait until the last minute to enter. Did you know…the first-place finisher in this weekly qualifier also receives a $500 winner’s bonus, and the runner up grabs a $395 consolation prize? Keep in mind that when The BIG One is contested in September, each entrant will be playing just one entry in his or her pursuit of major-tournament seats and generous cash prizes.
Coming up before you know it will be the Lone Star Million Betting Challenge. The Lone Star Million Challenge is the climax of three straight days of contest action in Grand Prairie, Tex. Sunday’s Pick & Pray mandates an entry fee of $177, and one entry per 20 will garner a $2,000 entry for the May 31st (Memorial Day) on-site tournament, plus $500 for travel to Lone Star Park.
If cash games are more your type of thing, there’s Sunday’s $20,000 Guaranteed No Limit cash game. The entry fee is $195, and this week it’s a Pick & Pray.
The Sunday Big Bucks tourney is always a live-format game. It has a guarantee of $7,500, and the final purse could reach $20,000 should we reach the maximum of 20 entrants. The entry fee is $1,150, and prizes go strictly to the top three on a 70-20-10 percent basis.
It’s not yet pictured above…but we’ll have another $15 Pick 4 Jackpot tourney (always a Pick & Pray) on Sunday. The jackpot amount will depend on how many played in Saturday’s Pick 4 Jackpot tourney—and whether anyone nailed it. Check our home page or our Twitter feed on Saturday night for updates.
May your 2021 Derby weekend be a memorable and profitable one (often the two go hand-in-hand), and good luck to you in all of your tourney endeavors. We may not have the fastest two minutes in sports…but we sort of have the fastest two hours (or so) in sports. Happy ‘capping.