It’s a shame that the Bob Baffert/Medina Spirit controversy has diverted attention from where it really belongs this weekend—on the HorseTourneys Saturday featured schedule which offers $85,000 in guaranteed cash plus a dozen or so seats to important upcoming tournaments!
Indeed, Preakness Day will keep contest players well challenged and well compensated thanks to a $50,000 Guaranteed, no-limit, live-format tourney, a $25,000 Guaranteed Pick & Pray, plus our regular $10,000 Guaranteed Big Bucks Pick & Pray. Toss in plentiful low-cost feeders to all three and there will be lucrative opportunities to suit just about any budget.
Preakness Day is but one day, however, of what promises to be an action-packed weekend. Let’s examine the Friday featured schedule.
Not all of the contest excitement on Saturday takes place here. Xpressbet is offering its Preakness Challenge that day. You can buy into it for a not insignificant $1,500. Or…you can win your way into here on Friday for the less significant price of $118. That’s the entry fee for our Last Chance Preakness Challenge qualifier. The winning ratio is 1-per-15, the format is Pick & Pray, and winners advance to play for cash and contest seats at Xpressbet the next day..
The richest game of the day on Friday is our $15,000 Guaranteed No-Limit Pick & Pray. You can get in the door to this one for $190.
We have qualifiers to the $300,000 Guaranteed Spa & Surf Showdown (August 14-15) on each day of Preakness weekend. Friday’s play-in is a $147 Pick & Pray with a winning ratio of 1-in-20. Winners receive a $2,500 entry into the third and final contest of the 2021 Tourney Triple series.
Players can also vie for a $2,000 berth in the Monmouth Pick Your Prize Challenge on each day of the weekend. Friday’s qualifier is a Pick & Pray with one of every 15 entries, at $156 per entry, securing a place in the June 12th competition.
A new addition to the Friday slate is a $59 qualifier to the NHC First Chance/Last Chance tournament out at Bally’s Las Vegas on NHC eve (August 26). One of every 10 entrants will grab a $500 entry for a 2021 NHC seat or, if you’re already double-qualified for 2021, a 2022 berth.
The NHC and the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge share the featured stage at HorsePlayers on Friday.
The NHC tourney is a sure-to-be-crowded $75 NHC Pick & Pray with two seats guaranteed. The winning ratio is 1-per-143, so if we reach the 429-entry mark, a third NHC seat will be added to 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 in this or any other NHC qualifier. Not a member? You can become one quickly and easily at NTRA.com for a $50 membership fee.
The other Friday HorsePlayers feature is a $500 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio Pick & Pray. At least one $10,000 BCBC entry is guaranteed to be awarded in this 1-per-23 battle.
Contest races for the Friday featured events are the 5th, 6th, 7th and 9th from Belmont; the 6th and 9th at Gulfstream; and races 9 through 14 on the Black-Eyed-Susan Day card at Pimlico. That makes a total of 12 races—a couple more than we usually have on a Friday (since this Friday is a big day, and there are plenty of good races to include).
As noted at the top, there’s a lot to play for here on Preakness Day.
Do you like to check your horse in the post parade before a race? Like to know what the odds on your horse will be before you commit to playing him or her? Then Saturday’s Live-format, $50,000 Guaranteed No Limit cash tourney may be for you. The entry fee for this extra-large game is $395.
Do you prefer tournaments where all the picks are submitted in advance and contestants can’t make late-game selections based solely on the odds? Then step right up to our Preakness Day $25,000 Guaranteed No Limit Pick & Pray. This one costs $260 to enter.
Despite offering two big cash events on Saturday, we’ll still be hosting our usual “up-to-$20,000” Big Bucks game as well. This one 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). Payouts 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 picking up the remaining 10 percent. The entry fee is $1,150 (about the same as the cost of three large bottles of Otomax).
Qualifier #2 of the weekend for the NHC First Chance/Last Chance tournament at Bally’s takes place on Saturday. It’s a Pick & Pray with an entry fee of $59. One of every 10 contestants gets a $500 entry for Thursday, August 26th in Vegas.
The second of three weekend Spa & Surf Showdown qualifiers is also on the Saturday menu. On the line is a $2,500 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 Pick & Pray will advance to compete for the big money in mid-August.
Our weekend Monmouth Pick Your Prize qualifiers also celebrate their “middle jewel” on Saturday. The barrier to entry here is $156, and the winning ratio is 1-per-15, with the winner(s) getting a $2,000 Monmouth entry. The Pick Your Prize Challenge can also be played on June 12th at Xpressbet if you prefer.
The $15 Pick 4 Jackpot tourney starts out on Saturday with a carryover of $3,149. 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 daily 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 are all stakes. They are the 10th, 11th and 13th from Pimilco; and race 10 at Belmont.
The Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge has the spotlight to itself at HorsePlayers on Preakness Day.
It’s a “regular,” $179, Live-format qualifier with at least one $10,000 BCBC entry guaranteed to be headed out the door. The winning ratio is 1-per-65.
The 12 Preakness Day contest races at HorseTourneys and HorsePlayers are the 9th through 13th (all stakes) from Pimlico; the 7th, 8th, 9th and 11th at Gulfstream; and the 9th through 11th from Belmont.
When we wake up on Sunday morning we will know who won Preakness 146 (even if we don’t know whether he passed his drug test). We will also intuitively know that this is no time to fall prey to any sort of Preakness hangover…because the Sunday roster of featured tourneys is a pretty formidable one in its own right.
Again we will offer a pair of Sunday Spa & Surf Showdown qualifiers. For $147, you can play in a 1-per-20 game. For $368, you can boost your chances for success in a 1-per-8 play-in. Both are Pick & Prays. The grand prize in both cases is a $2,500 entry for the $300,000 Guaranteed event on August 14-15.
There’s also another Monmouth Pick Your Prize qualifier on Sunday. As was the case on Friday and Saturday, a $156 entry fee is a prerequisite. The grand prize in Sunday’s Pick & Pray is a $2,000 entry to the June 12th shindig, which can be played onsite at Monmouth or online (Xpresbet or 4NJBets). The winning ratio is 1-per-15.
Sunday is your weekly chance to earn one of 50 available online spots in 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 seat will be awarded regardless of participation. Be aware, though, that The BIG One qualifiers are capped at 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.
Sunday is your weekly shot at a $500 entry in the new $50,000 Guaranteed Exacta Extravaganza, which will be held here on September 11-12. In the Exacta Extravaganza, players will 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) share (not equally, mind you) in a $50,000 Guaranteed purse. Sunday’s qualifier is—appropriately—run in the same Live, Exacta Box format, and it costs only $59 to play. One of every 10 contestants will garner a $500 entry to the Extravaganza.
Now just a couple of weeks away is the Lone Star Million Betting Challenge—the grand finale of three straight days of contest action in Grand Prairie, Texas. Sunday’s Pick & Pray qualifier carries an entry fee of $177, and one entry per 20 will snag a $2,500 entry for the May 31st (Memorial Day) on-site tournament, plus $500 for travel to suburban Dallas.
For cash-gamers, there’s Sunday’s $20,000 Guaranteed No Limit Pick & Pray. The entry fee is $195.
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 only 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 the Preakness Day Pick 4 Jackpot tourney—and whether anyone hit it. Check our website or, maybe even better, our Twitter feed on Saturday night for updates.
On Sunday at HorsePlayers, you can play for a seat in the 2021 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge, the 2022 NHC…or both.
The BCBC qualifier is an intimate, Low-Ratio get-together. It’s a 1-per-23 , live-format game, and you can join the party for an entry fee of $500. At least one winner (of a $10,000 entry) is certain.
The NHC play-in is also a live-format competition. It costs $165 to play, the winning ratio is 1-per-65, and two spots are guaranteed.
Enjoy Preakness weekend…good luck to you and to all HorseTourneys qualifiers participating in the Preakness Challenge at Xpressbet…and remember—don’t pee in any stalls.