You know the NHC is approaching soon when First Chance/Last Chance qualifiers start popping up. as they do this weekend. And you know the Preakness is approaching soon—once the Kentucky Derby has been run. We believe this keen sense of timing is on display throughout this weekend’s featured schedule, whose 28 marquee games get under way on Friday.
The first of two weekend play-ins to the Preakness Challenge is part of the Friday slate. The entry fee is $118, the winning ratio is 1-per-15, and the prize people will be shooting for in this Pick & Pray is a $1,500 seat in the Xpressbet contest a week from Saturday.
From a cash standpoint, the Friday main event is our $15,000 Guaranteed No-Limit Pick & Pray. You can play for $190.
We have 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 earn a $2,500 entry into the third and final contest of the 2021 Tourney Triple.
The Monmouth Pick Your Prize Challenge on June 12th will also be in play each day of the weekend. Friday’s qualifier is a Pick & Pray with one of every 15 entries, at $156 per entry, gaining a spot in the hybrid onsite/online competition.
A new addition to the Friday schedule is a $59 qualifier to the new Exacta Extravaganza here on September 11-12. In the Exacta Extravaganza, players make a three-horse exacta box play on each race of the Kentucky Downs and Woodbine cards both days. Those who do best (with no price caps in effect) reap the largesse of a $50,000 Guaranteed purse. Friday’s qualifier—which, fittingly, is run in Live, Exacta Box format—costs only $59, and one of every 10 contestants picks up a $500 entry to the Extravaganza.
There are two featured tourneys ion the menu at HorsePlayers on Friday.
One is an always-popular $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. Remember—you must be a 2021 NHC Tour member, prior to the start of the contest, in order to be eligible for an NHC package.
The other Friday HorsePlayers feature is a $500 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio Pick & Pray. At least one $10,000 BCBC entry is certain to be awarded in this 1-per-23 affair.
Contest races for the Friday features come from just two tracks, Gulfstream and Belmont. The relevant races are the 5th through 9th at both ovals. That makes 10 races in all.
Eight more features—six here at two at HorsePlayers—come your way on Saturday. Most are in Live format.
Hoping to pick up a second entry to August’s NHC? Hoping to snag a first entry for someone who will be going out there with you? Concerned that the 3-day NHC won’t provide enough action for you? That’s where the Thursday NHC First Chance/Last Chance tourney comes in! Our first qualifier to the August 26th event takes place Saturday. It’s a live-format play-in with an entry fee of $59. One of every 10 contestants gets a $500 entry for NHC eve out in Vegas.
The richest game of the weekend is Saturday’s $25,000 Guaranteed, No-Limit tourney. The entry fee for this live-format test is $260, and there is “no limit” as to how high the purse could go.
Saturday’s “up-to-$20,000” Big Bucks game is always run as a Pick & Pray, and it has a guaranteed purse of $10,000. Entries are limited to 20 (unless we get a late arrival or two from last-minute Saturday feeders). Payoffs are directed 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 $1,150…so it’s not for the faint of heart.
The second of three weekend Spa & Surf Showdown qualifiers is on the Saturday docket. 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 $147, live-format qualifier will advance for a chance at the big money in August.
Our Monmouth Pick Your Prize qualifiers also make their second of three weekend appearances on Saturday. The entry fee here is $156, and the winning ratio is 1-per-15, with the winner(s) getting a $2,000 Monmouth entry.
The $15 Pick 4 Jackpot tourney starts out on Saturday with a carryover of $2,626. 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 10th and 12th at Gulfstream and the 8th and 9th from Santa Anita.
Opportunities to snag seats to the 2022 NHC or the 2021 BCBC (or both) exist at HorsePlayers on Saturday.
The NHC qualifier is a $100, Live-format game with at least two NHC seats guaranteed. The winning ratio, assuming a full field, is 1-per-100. (If it’s not a full field, the winning ratio will be lower, of course.)
The Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge play-in is a “regular,” $179 Pick & Pray with one $10,000 entry guaranteed to be won by some smart someone. The winning ratio is 1-per-65.
The 12 Saturday contest races are the 8th through 12th from Gulfstream; the 1st, 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th at Santa Anita; and the 7th and 10th from Belmont.
Sunday is Mother’s Day and, as we all know, there is no better way to make Mom proud on her big day than for you to tell her that you just won a featured tourney at HorseTourneys or HorsePlayers. So, as a public service, we’re giving you 13 such opportunities.
Again we will offer a Sunday twin bill of Spa & Surf Showdown qualifiers. For $147, you can play in a 1-per-20 live-format game. For $368, you can improve your theoretical odds of winning in a 1-per-8 Low Ratio game (also Live format). The grand prize in both instances is a $2,500 entry for the $300,000 Guaranteed event on August 14-15.
Sunday is your second opportunity (see Friday) to earn a $500 entry in the 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 move on. 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.
Sunday’s also your second chance of the weekend at a $1,500 Xpressbet Preakness Challenge seat and a $500 Bally’s NHC First Chance/Last Chance berth. It’s $118 to play the Preakness Challenge qualifier, with 1-per-15 winning. The Bally’s/NHC qualifier has a price tag of $59 and a 1-per-10 winning ratio.
There’s also another Monmouth Pick Your Prize qualifier on Sunday. As was the case on Friday and Saturday, it requires a $156 entry fee. The grand prize in Sunday’s live-format contest is a $2,000 entry to the June 12th competition, which can be played onsite at Monmouth or online. The winning ratio is 1-per-15.
Sunday is your weekly chance to earn one of 50 available online berths to The BIG One in September. (Seven buy-ins will also be made available closer 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 limited to 27 entries, so don’t wait until the last minute to sign up. The first-place finisher in our weekly The BIG One qualifiers also receive a $500 winner’s bonus, and the runner up gets a $395 consolation prize?
At the very end of this month is the Lone Star Million Betting Challenge—the climax of three straight days of contest action in Grand Prairie, Tex. Sunday’s live-format qualifier calls for an entry fee of $177, and one entry per 20 will bag a $2,500 entry for the May 31st (Memorial Day) on-site tournament, plus $500 for travel to Texas.
For those partial to cash games, there’s Sunday’s $20,000 Guaranteed No Limit tourney. The entry fee is $195, and this week it’s a Live-format square-off.
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.
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.
At HorsePlayers the Sunday focus is on the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge.
Sunday’s BCBC qualifier is a Low Ratio tilt. It’s a 1-per-23 Pick & Pray with an entry fee of $500. At least one winner (of a $10,000 entry) is guaranteed.
Best of luck to you in all of your tournament pursuits this weekend and, most importantly…don’t forget to call or visit Mom on Sunday!