You know summertime is fast approaching if we’re talking about the Del Mar Summer Challenge.
Back on the contest schedule for 2021, the Del Mar Summer Challenge will be held on Saturday and Sunday, July 31 and August 1. And—as befits a racing venue as beautiful as Del Mar—this will be an on-track event. The buy-in that weekend will be $4,000, but you can scoop up an entry here on Sunday for a less onerous $236 in a 1-per-20 Pick & Pray.
The vast majority of this weekend’s 27 marquee games will be operated in that same Pick & Pray format. The first seven of those are set to go on Friday—including an important Last Chance opportunity.
If you show up at Monmouth (or Xpressbet or 4NJBets) on Saturday hoping to play in the Pick Your Prize Challenge, it will cost you $2,000 (and I don’t believe they accept walk ups anyway!). If you succeed in our Last Chance Monmouth qualifier, however, you’ll have your $2,000 seat for a $156 investment. One of every 15 entries, at that $156 buy-in price, will advance to the next day’s onsite/online (your choice) contest.
The big-money tourney of the day on Friday is our $15,000 Guaranteed No-Limit Pick & Pray. You can compete for $190.
Well again offer four qualifiers this weekend to the $300,000 Guaranteed Spa & Surf Showdown here on August 14-15. The first of those takes place on Friday. It’s a $147 Pick & Pray with a winning ratio of 1-in-20. Winners earn a $2,500 entry into the third and final leg of the 2021 Tourney Triple series, which, as a bonus, offers valuable tournament seats to the top performers across the three events (Flo-Cal Faceoff, Players Championship, Spa & Surf Showdown).
There’s one qualifier per day this weekend 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 snatch a $500 entry for the annual NHC Eve competition. At stake on the 26th will be cash plus a 2021 NHC seat for the following day…or, if you’re already double-qualified for 2021, a 2022 berth instead.
Added to the Friday slate this week is a $118 play-in to the Xpressbet Santa Anita Closing Day Challenge on June 20th. It’s a 1-per-15 Pick & Pray, with winners getting a $1,500 entry for a week from Sunday.
Two weekly staples again comprise the featured menu on Friday at HorsePlayers.
It should be standing room only for Friday’s $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. An additional drawing card will be the copious NHC Tour points up for grabs. 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 feature at HorsePlayers is a $500 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio Pick & Pray. At least one $10,000 BCBC entry is guaranteed to be won.
Contest races for the Friday featured events are the 7th through 9th from Belmont; the 6th through 9th at Gulfstream; and races 3, 4 and 6 from Santa Anita—10 in all.
Five Pick & Prays at HorseTourneys—and two Live-format games at HorsePlayers—are on tap for Saturday.
The richest tourney of the weekend is Saturday’s $25,000 Guaranteed, No Limit Pick & Pray. It has a $260 buy-in.
For $1,150, you can play in Saturday’s “up-to-$20,000” Big Bucks Pick & Pray. The purse here is guaranteed to be no lower than $10,000. Entries are limited to 20 (unless we get a late arrival or two from last-minute Saturday feeders…in which case the pot will exceed $20,000). Payouts go strictly to the top three finishers with the winner grabbing 70 percent of the net pool, the runner up getting 20 percent, and the third-place finisher picking up the remaining 10 percent.
Saturday is weekend chance #2 for you to qualify for the $300,000 Guaranteed Spa & Surf Showdown . It’s another $147, 1-per-20 play-in with winners moving on to compete for at least $300,000 here on August 14-15.
There’s also another $59 qualifier on Saturday for the Bally’s NHC First Chance/Last Chance Pick & Pray tournament. The prize here is a $500 seat to the NHC preamble, and the winning ratio for this Pick & Pray is 1 in just 10.
Saturday’s $15 Pick 4 Jackpot tourney will start out with a carryover of $5,574. 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 the 9th and 10th at Monmouth and the 11th and 12th from Gulfstream.
Guaranteed seats to the 2021 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge and the 2022 NHC will be the targets on Saturday at HorsePlayers.
The BCBC tourney is a Live-format game with at least one $10,000 entry on the line. The winning ratio is 1-per-65, and the entry fee is $179.
The NHC game—also to be operated in Live format—costs just $100 to play. Two spots are guaranteed, and the winning ratio is 1-per-100.
The 12 contest races for the Saturday featured events (all but the Pick 4 Jackpot tourney) are the 8th, 9th, 10th and 13th from Monmouth; races 6, 7, 9 and 10 at Belmont; and the 9th through 12th from Gulfstream.
The 13 featured tourneys on Sunday include the aforementioned First Chance play-in to Del Mar.
The Del Mar Summer Challenge is an on-track only event on July 31-August 1. Sunday’s Pick & Pray qualifier carries an entry fee of $236, and a winning ratio of 1-per-20. Winners get a $4,000 entry for the live-bankroll affair where the Surf meets the Turf.
The Sunday NHC qualifier takes place right here at HorseTourneys this week. It’s a $165 Pick & Pray (1-per-65 winning ratio) with two Vegas berths guaranteed.
If it’s Sunday, then there must be a qualifier to The BIG One. It’s a $395 Pick & Pray, and one seat will be awarded regardless of participation. Be aware, though, that qualifier entries for this are capped at 27…so don’t wait until the last minute to reserve your place. The first-place finisher in each The BIG One qualifier also picks up a $500 winner’s bonus for capturing the Sunday play-in, and the runner up gets a $395 consolation prize.
There’s also a Sunday qualifier to the Canterbury Big 10 BCBC Handicapping Contest on Thursday, September 16. A $177 entry fee gets you a 1-per-20 chance at earning a $3,000 seat for the onsite/Xpressbet tournament offering cash, 10 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge entries and a pair of NHC spots.
Then there’s Sunday’s qualifier to the Xpressbet Santa Anita Closing Day Challenge. As was the case on Friday, this event is a $118 Pick & Pray with one of every 15 garnering a $1,500 entry for the June 20th online contest.
Two of Sunday’s 13 features are Spa & Surf Showdown qualifiers. For $147, you can play in a 1-per-20 Pick & Pray. For a stepped-up $368, you can improve your chances of winning in a 1-per-8 Pick & Pray. The grand prize(s) in each is a $2,500 entry for the $300,000 Guaranteed, all-cash tourney here on August 14-15.
You can earn a $500 entry on Sunday for the new $50,000 Guaranteed Exacta Extravaganza, which will be held here on September 11-12. In the Exacta Extravaganza, players will pick a three-horse exacta box for every race of the Kentucky Downs and Woodbine cards on both days. High scorers will grab a piece of a $50,000 Guaranteed purse. Sunday’s qualifier will be contested 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 advance.
Also on the Sunday schedule is another $59 qualifier to the NHC First Chance/Last Chance tournament at Bally’s on August 26th. Again, this 1-per-10 game will be a Pick & Pray.
On the cash-game side of the ledger, there’s Sunday’s $20,000 Guaranteed, No Limit Pick & Pray. An entry fee of $195 will get you in the door.
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 hit it. Check our website or our Twitter feed on Saturday night for updates.
On Sunday at HorsePlayers, the focus is on the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge.
It’s a 1-per-23, Live-format, Low-Ratio qualifier with an entry fee of $500. At least one skillful player will win the grand prize of a $10,000 entry.
Enjoy your weekend…and we send especially positive thoughts to all those HorseTourneys qualifiers competing in Saturday’s Pick Your Prize Challenge. May your picks lead to prizes.