Memorial Day adds an extra day—and several important events—to the weekend featured-tourney lineup. There are 33 marquee games spread across the four days, including a $35,000 Guaranteed Pick & Pray on Monday.
As always, our weekend tourney journey begins on Friday.
The richest game of the day on Friday is our $15,000 Guaranteed No-Limit Pick & Pray. You can play it for $190.
The first of five weekend qualifiers to the $300,000 Guaranteed Spa & Surf Showdown (August 14-15) takes place on Friday. It’s a $147 Pick & Pray with a winning ratio of 1-in-20. Winners get a $2,500 entry into what is the third and final leg of the 2021 Tourney Triple series.
Monmouth Pick Your Prize Challenge qualifiers will also be offered each day of the holiday weekend. Friday’s qualifier is a Pick & Pray with one of every 15 entries, at $156 per entry, earning a spot in the June 12th onsite/online contest.
There’s also a Friday qualifier to the NHC First Chance/Last Chance tournament at Bally’s Las Vegas on August 26. One of every 10 entrants—at $59 per entry—will garner a $500 entry for the NHC eve test. If you do well there, you win a 2021 NHC seat or, if you’re already double-qualified for 2021, a 2022 berth.
Traffic is typically heavy on the highways on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend—and it will be so as well on Friday at HorsePlayers.
The prime culprit will be a a $75 NHC Pick & Pray with two seats guaranteed and plenty of NHC Tour points on offer. The winning ratio is 1-per-143, so if we reach the 429-entry mark, a third NHC seat will be tossed in. 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 featured tourney at HorsePlayers is a $500 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio Pick & Pray. At least one $10,000 BCBC entry is guaranteed in this 1-per-23 affair.
Contest races for the Friday featured events are the 6th through 9th from Belmont; the 7th and 9th at Pimlico; and races 6 through 9 from Gulfstream—10 in all.
Six Pick & Prays here and one live-format game at HorsePlayers are on the Saturday featured menu.
Saturday’s $25,000 Guaranteed Pick & Pray ($260 buy-in) is the day’s richest event.
Not far behind is Saturday’s “up-to-$20,000” Big Bucks game, which is always run as a Pick & Pray. The guaranteed purse here is $10,000. Entries are limited to 20 (unless we get a late arrival or two from last-minute Saturday feeders). Payouts go strictly to the top three finishers with the winner landing 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.
Also a Pick & Pray is Saturday’s second of five weekend qualifiers to the $300,000 Guaranteed Spa & Surf Showdown. A $147 buy-in is again required in order to get past the doorman.
For $156, you can participate in the Monmouth Pick Your Prize Challenge Pick & Pray. One of every 15 will prosper.
The ticket price is just $59 for Saturday’s Bally’s NHC First Chance/Last Chance Pick & Pray qualifier. The grand prize is a $500 seat to the NHC eve contest in Vegas, and the winning ratio is 1-per-10.
Saturday’s $15 Pick 4 Jackpot tourney will open up shop with a carryover of $4,275. In our Pick 4 Jackpot games (always run as Pick & Prays), going four-for-four means 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 are limited to three per person.
Saturday’s Pick 4 Jackpot races are all the 8th and 10th from Belmont; and the 11th and 12th at Gulfstream.
The HorsePlayers feature on Saturday is a $179 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge play-in.
We switch over to Live format mode for this one. At least one $10,000 BCBC entry is certain to be won. The winning ratio works out to 1-per-65.
The 12 contest races for the Saturday featured events (all but the Pick 4 Jackpot tourney, which is obviously just 4 races) are the 8th through 12th from Gulfstream; the 8th and 9th at Pimlico; the 8th through 10th from Belmont; and races 4 and 6 at Santa Anita.
It’s an extra-busy Sunday here on May 30th as the featured tourneys number a baker’s dozen.
That’s 13 for you youngsters out there. Two of the 13 are our Spa & Surf Showdown qualifiers. For $147, you can play in a 1-per-20 Pick & Pray. For $368, you can improve your theoretical odds in a 1-per-8 Pick & Pray. The objective in both cases is to grab a $2,500 entry for the $300,000 Guaranteed spectacular here on August 14-15.
Another nice Pick & Pray this Sunday is a $165 qualifier to the 2022 NHC. Two berths to the Vegas spectacle are guaranteed.
Xpressbet is hosting a Belmont Challenge on Belmont Stakes Day (June 5th). Our first qualifier to it is Saturday. It’s a Pick & Pray with a $118 entry fee and a winning ratio of 1-per-15. At stake is a $1,500 entry.
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. Winners of this Pick & Pray get a $2,000 entry to the June 12th contest, which can be played onsite at Monmouth or online (Xpresbet or 4NJBets). The winning ratio is 1-per-15.
Also on tap is another $59 qualifier to the NHC First Chance/Last Chance tournament at Bally’s on August 26th. It, like most of this weekend’s features, is a Pick & Pray.
Sunday serves as your weekly opportunity 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 no matter how many sign up. Be aware, though, that there won’t be more than 27 allowed in…so don’t wait until the last minute to sign up. The first-place finisher in each The BIG One qualifier also receives a $500 winner’s bonus for capturing the Sunday play-in, and the runner up gets a $395 consolation prize.
Qualifiers began last week for the Canterbury Big 10 BCBC Handicapping Contest on Thursday, September 16, and on Sunday, you can take your another swing at it. An entry fee of $177 buys you a 1-per-20 shot to win a $3,000 seat for the onsite/online (your call) tournament offering cash, 10 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge entries and a pair of NHC spots as well.
Sunday is also your weekly chance 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 selection on each race of the Kentucky Downs and Woodbine cards on both days. Those who do best (with no price caps in effect) will carve up a $50,000 Guaranteed purse. Sunday’s qualifier isrun in the same Live, Exacta Box format that will be used for the final, and it costs only $59 to play. One of every 10 contestants this Sunday will earn a $500 entry.
If prefer to win a tournament and reap the full rewards immediately, there’s Sunday’s $20,000 Guaranteed Pick & Pray. The entry fee is $195.
The Sunday Big Bucks tourney is always a Live-format game. It guarantees s pot 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 prize-pool payouts 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 Saturday Pick 4 Jackpot tourney—and whether anyone went 4-for-4. Check our website or our Twitter feed on Saturday night for updates.
On Sunday at HorsePlayers, you can play for a $10,000 seat in the 2021 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge.
It’s a 1-per-23, Low-Ratio, Live-format qualifier, and you can take part for $500. At least one person will earn a $10,000 entry.
The stakes get even higher on Memorial Day with a couple of very big games among those on the featured slate.
For cash gamers, there is a special $35,000 Guaranteed Pick & Pray. Despite the oversized guarantee, the entry fee is just $195.
There’s also another $7,500 Guaranteed Big Bucks Pick & Pray in which high-end players may test their skills. It costs $1,150 to play, and entries are capped at 20.
The Belmont Stakes is an important centerpiece of Memorial Day at HorseTourneys.
Monday is your one-and-only chance to win a $10,000 entry to the NYRA Bets Belmont Stakes Challenge, It comes in a $468 Pick & Pray with a winning ratio of 1-per-25.
For a lesser entry fee, $118, you can shoot for a lesser Belmont-related prize, a $1,500 entry, in Monday’s Xpressbet Belmont Challenge. The winning ratio in this Pick & Pray is 1-in-15.
What would a weekend day be around here without a Spa & Surf Showdown qualifier ($147 entry fee, 1-per-20 winning ratio, Pick & Pray) or a Monmouth Pick Your Prize play-in ($118, 1-per-15, Pick & Pray)?
HorsePlayers is also in on the Memorial Day action.
It’s a $100 NHC Pick & Pray with two spots guaranteed.
Good luck to all who will be in Texas this weekend for the big trio of contests down at Lone Star. And may all of you enjoy a delightful holiday weekend wherever you’ll be.