The dates have been booked and the first qualifiers now set—for both the $400,000 Guaranteed Spa & Surf Showdown and The BIG One.
The Spa & Surf Showdown, the final leg of the 2022 Tourney Triple will take place on Saturday and Sunday, August 6 & 7. The event, the culmination of the 2022 Tourney Triple points series, requires contestants to make mythical $2.00 win-and-place selections on every race of the Saratoga and Del Mar cards each day. Those Saratoga races figure to be particularly compelling as Saturday, August 6 is Whitney Stakes Day at the Spa.
The BIG One, known as “The High-Expectation Event”, will again be hosted online in 2022 here at HorseTourneys. The two-day, mythical-money competition will take place on Saturday and Sunday, September 17-18. The field for The BIG One will number no more than 57, and there is a limit of one entry per person. Despite the small field, the top 10 finishers will all receive cash and his or her choice of a seat to the NHC, the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge, or the Pegasus World Cup Betting Championship. (At least two of the seats awarded must be for the NHC.)
The first qualifiers to both the Spa & Surf Showdown and The BIG One will be offered this coming Easter Sunday, April 17.
The Spa & Surf Showdown play-ins will carry an entry fee of $147, and one of every 20 entrants will earn a $2,500 entry into the $400,000 Guaranteed, all-cash contest.
Each qualifier to The BIG One will offer one seat guaranteed. The buy-in amount is $395, and no more than 27 entries will be accepted. There is also a limit of two entries per person, per qualifier. In addition to the grand prize, a consolation prize/refund of $395 will go to the runner up in each qualifier.
The high-profile qualifiers are but two of 25 featured events during a robust Easter Weekend schedule that gets started on Friday.
Friday’s HT Tour game is our $15,000 Guaranteed No Limit Pick & Pray. You can be part of the action for an investment of $190.
There are also daily qualifiers this weekend to the April 23 Keeneland Grade One Gamble, the May 7 Kentucky Derby Challenge and the June 4 Monmouth Pick Your Prize Challenge. Friday’s Grade One Gamble play-in is a $207, 1-per-20 Pick & Pray with winners grabbing a $3,500 entry to the Keeneland game (which can also be played at Xpressbet).
The Monmouth Pick Your Prize Handicapping Challenge (offering, based on 200 entries, 18 spots to the 2023 NHC, four Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge berths and cash prizes of $65,000) costs $2,000 per entry if you walk up and buy into it on June 4. However, you can land an entry to it for $156 if you prosper in Friday’s 1-per-15 Pick & Pray.
The Kentucky Derby Challenge is presented by Xpressbet…which means it can be played there, at Gulfstream or at Santa Anita. The seats are worth $3,000 each, but you can get one for $177 in Friday’s 1-per-20 Pick & Pray.
Over at HorsePlayers on Friday, there is both an NHC qualifier and a Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge play-in.
The NHC game is the usual $75 Pick & Pray with two seats guaranteed and a winning ratio of 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. If you’re not a member, you can become one quickly and easily at NTRA.com for a $50 membership fee.
The BCBC co-feature is a $500 Low Ratio Pick & Pray. The winning ratio is 1-per-23 and at least one $10,000 entry is guaranteed to be won even if only a couple of people sign up.
Contest races for the 10-race mandatory tourneys on Friday are the 6th, 7th and 9th from Tampa; the 5th through 9th at Keeneland; and the 6th and 9th from Aqueduct.
Five of the eight marquee games on Saturday will be waged in Live-format mode.
One of the five Live tourneys is Saturday’s HT Tour event, our $30,000 Guaranteed cash game. It’s the richest game of the weekend, and the entry fee is $350.
Also to operate in Live format are the qualifiers to the Keeneland Grade One Gamble, the Kentucky Derby Challenge and the Monmouth Pick Your Prize Challenge. The entry fees are $207, $177 and $156, respectively.
A featured Saturday Pick & Pray is the NHC qualifier, which will be held right here at HorseTourneys this week. It’s a “regular,” $165 tilt, with two seats certain and a winning ratio of 1-per-65.
The Saturday Big Bucks tourney is always a Pick & Pray. It’s an “up-to-$20,000” battle with a guaranteed pot of $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 slightly exceed $20,000). Payouts go just to the top three finishers with the winner collecting 70 percent of the net pool, the runner up getting 20 percent, and the third-place finisher picking up the remaining 10 percent.
Also in Pick & Pray format is Saturday’s $15 Jackpot Pick 4 tourney, which has a current carryover of $2,900. In our Pick 4 Jackpot games, going four-for-four means you win or share the Jackpot. (You don’t have to be the only winner.) 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.
The Jackpot Pick 4 races for Saturday are all from Keeneland—races 7, 8, 9 and 11.
The main event on Saturday at HorsePlayers is a Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge qualifier.
It’s a Live-format, 1-per-65 square off with one $10,000 entry guaranteed and an entry fee of $179.
Saturday’s 12 contest races are the the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 11th from Keeneland; the 8th and 9th (both stakes) at Laurel; and the 7th through 10th from Aqueduct. Closing time is approximately 3:08 pm ET.
Normally when we go heavy on Live-format games on Saturday, we do likewise on Sunday. However, since Sunday is Easter, all featured tourneys will be Pick & Prays. There are 11 such features.
Two of them are the aforementioned “first chance” play-ins to the August 6-7 Spa & Surf Showdown on Whitney Weekend and to the September 17-18 The BIG One. Be the first on your block to nail down a seat to one of these HorseTourneys “majors’!
Your Easter basket will be full and then some if you win Sunday’s HT Tour event, our $20,000 Guaranteed, No Limit Pick & Pray. The price of admission is $250.
Here’s a true HorseTourneys rarity—a Sunday Big Bucks game that runs as a Pick & Pray, It’s an up-to-$20,000 affair with an entry fee of $1,150 and a purse guaranteed to be at least $7,500. Total entries are limited to 20, and payouts go strictly to the top three finishers.
If the Big Bucks game is a little rich for your blood (and if so, that’s very understandable), then perhaps you might prefer our Sunday qualifier to the April 30 Lone Star Spring Betting Challenge with one in 15 entries, at $79 per entry, gaining a $1,000 seat to the on-site contest in suburban Dallas.
For a third straight day, we’ll again offer chances to qualify for the the Keeneland Grade One Gamble (April 23), the Kentucky Derby Challenge (May 7) and the Monmouth Pick Your Prize Challenge (June 4).
Meanwhile, another $15 Pick 4 Jackpot tourney takes place 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 starting on Saturday night for updates.
If you hop over to HorsePlayers on Easter Sunday, you can go on a hunt for an NHC or Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge berth.
The Sunday NHC Pick & Pray carries a $210 buy-in. At least two spots will definitely be awarded, and the winning ratio is 1-in-50.
Like Friday’s edition, the Sunday Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge qualifier is a $500 Low Ratio Pick & Pray. One $10,000 seat is eertain, and the winning ratio will be 1-per-23.
Happy Easter…and Happy Handicapping.