With each passing week, it seems a new qualifier joins our featured-tourney ranks. Last week, it was Lone Star, Club Hawthorne and Monmouth (Haskell). This week, it’s the Xpressbet Summit of Speed Challenge. You will have two opportunities this weekend to earn $1,500 entries to the July 3rd contest that can be played onsite at Gulfstream or online at Xpressbet.
The first of those opportunities comes on Friday.
That new Summit of Speed qualifier costs $118 to play with one of every 15 participants getting a $1,500 Summit spot. Like all the other Friday features—and most of all of this weekend’s marquee games, it’s a Pick & Pray.
Another 1-per-15 proposition is our Friday qualifier to the July 10th Lone Star Summer NHC Finals. This one requires an entry fee of $79 for those in search of a $1,000 seat at Lone Star.
Well again offer four qualifiers this weekend to the $300,000 Guaranteed Spa & Surf Showdown here on August 14-15. Friday’s single opportunity is a $147 Pick & Pray with a winning ratio of 1-in-20. Winners receive a $2,500 entry into the third and final leg of the 2021 Tourney Triple series, which, as a bonus, offers sought-after tournament seats to the top performers across the three events (Flo-Cal Faceoff, Players Championship, Spa & Surf Showdown). If you finished in the top 100 in the first two legs, it means you earned points that could mean a seat to the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge, the Pegasus or The BIG One—depending on how you do on August 14-15.
There’s a single qualifier each day of the weekend to the NHC First Chance/Last Chance tournament at Bally’s on August 26. One of every 10 entrants—at $59 per shot—will get a $500 place in the annual NHC Eve test. At stake on the 26th will be money plus a 2021 NHC seat for the following day…or, if you’re already double-qualified for 2021, a berth for 2022 instead.
For cash-gamers, there’s our $15,000 Guaranteed No-Limit cash tourney. You can join in the fun for $190.
The NHC and the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge again share the Friday spotlight at HorsePlayers.
Friday’s $75 NHC Pick & Pray offers two guaranteed seats plus the prospect of earning lots of NHC Tour Points. The winning ratio is 1-per-143. 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 will definitely be awarded in this one.
Contest races for the Friday featured events are the 1st, 2nd, 4th and 6th from the opening day card at Los Alamitos; the 7th through 9th at Belmont; and the 6th, 8th and9th from Gulfstream—10 in all.
Nine features—seven here and two at HorsePlayers—constitute the Saturday slate.
You can take your second crack of the weekend at qualifying for the Spa & Surf Showdown and the Bally’s NHC First Chance/Last Chance tournament. Both Pick & Prays, the qualifier to the $300,000 Guaranteed Spa & Surf Showdown costs $147 and carries a 1-per-20 winning ratio, while the Bally’s play-in can be accessed for just $59. One in 10 will advance to NHC Eve with $500 entries fully paid for.
Also on tap is a Pick & Pray qualifier to the Monmouth Park Haskell Challenge. Those who put up the $79 entry fee have a 1-in-15 chance to grab a $1,000 entry for the July 17th event, which can be played at Monmouth or online at Xpressbet/4NJBets.
We’ll try again on Saturday with a qualifier to 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. The Saturday 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 will prosper.
On the cash-game front, Saturday’s offers our richest event of the week, our $25,000 Guaranteed, No Limit Pick & Pray. It has a $260 buy-in.
For higher rollers, there’s our “up-to-$20,000” Big Bucks Pick & Pray. The purse here is guaranteed to be at least $10,000. Entries—at $1,150 each—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 just 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.
The carryover for Saturday’s $15 Pick 4 Jackpot tourney is up to $7,124. 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 6th at Belmont, followed by races 9, 10 and 11 from Monmouth.
A pair of moderately-price qualifiers comprise the featured menu on Saturday at HorsePlayers.
You can win a $10,000 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge entry for $179 in Saturday’s Live-format qualifier. At least one grand prize is guaranteed, and the winning ratio is 1-per-65.
For $100, you can punch your ticket to the 2022 NHC. This is also a Live-format tourney with two spots guaranteed and a winning ratio of 1-per-100.
The 12 contest races for Saturday are the 5th, 6th, 7th, 9th and 10th from Belmont; the 8th through 12th at Monmouth; and races 9 and 11 from Gulfstream.
On Sunday, we’re chock-a-block with 15 featured events.
The day’s NHC qualifier is right here at HorseTourneys. It’s a “regular,” Live-format, $165 play-in with two seats assured.
Summit of Speed qualifier #2 of the weekend takes place on Sunday. Like Friday’s version, it’s a $118, 1-per-15 Pick & Pray.
Another Pick & Pray is Sunday’s qualifier to the Club Hawthorne OTB contests on July 17-18. These are run as two single-day competitions, and winners of our 1-per-10, $94 play-in get rewarded with $800 in entry fees—enough for both days.
The Sunday stakes increase in our Del Mar Summer Challenge Pick & Pray. It carries an entry fee of $236, and a winning ratio of 1-per-20. Winners earn a $4,000 entry for the live-bankroll, on-track affair just north of San Diego,
Speaking of rich qualifiers, there’s a Sunday Pick & Pray to the Canterbury Big 10 BCBC Handicapping Contest (Thursday, September 16). A $177 entry fee gets you a 1-per-20 prospect at earning a $3,000 seat for the onsite/Xpressbet contest that offers cash, 10 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge entries and two NHC spots.
We again offer two Spa & Surf Showdown qualifiers this Sunday. One is a “regular” $147 Pick & Pray with a winning ratio of 1-in-20. The other is a 1-per-8, $368 Pick & Pray. The grand prize in each case is a $2,500 berth to the $300,000 Guaranteed Showdown here on August 14-15.
One of the more coveted prizes up for grabs each Sunday is a paid-up berth to The BIG One here in September. A field of no more than 57 (each playing just one entry) will line up then seeking cash and 10 seats to the winners’ choice of the BCBC, NHC or Pegasus. Sunday’s qualifier guarantees one winner (who also gets a $500 bonus), and it carries an entry fee of $395. No more than 27 entries will be accepted in this one.
Note that Sunday’s qualifier to the Lone Star Summer NHC Finals is guaranteed this week. So we’ll be awarding at least one $1,000 entry in this $79 Pick & Pray regardless of participation.
Sunday’s the third consecutive day in which you can qualify for just $59 to the NHC First Chance/Last Chance tournament at Bally’s. It’s a Pick & Pray.
The same price ($59) will get you a 1-in-10 shot at a $500 entry to the Colonial Downs Handicapping Challenge (a rare Monday contest on July 26th). This can be played online at Xpressbet on the 26th of next month.
Our Sunday cold-hard-cash games are topped by Sunday’s $20,000 Guaranteed, No Limit Pick & Pray. An entry fee of $195 will get you in the door for this one.
The Sunday Big Bucks game is always run in Live Format. It’s an up-to-$20,000 tourney with $7,500 Guaranteed and an admission charge of $1,150. Entries are limited to 20, and payouts go just to the top three finishers.
We’ll have another $15 Pick 4 Jackpot tourney (always a Pick & Pray) on Sunday. The jackpot amount will depend on how many competed in the Saturday Pick 4 Jackpot tourney—and whether anyone hit it. Check our website or our Twitter feed on Saturday night for updates.
Just one Sunday feature to report at HorsePlayers.
It’s a Live-format, 1-per-23, Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge qualifier with an entry fee of $500. At least one player will win a $10,000 BCBC entry.
There are certainly no shortage of options with 31 features this weekend, and that means plenty of winners. We hope you are one of them. Good luck!