The Kentucky Derby is Saturday. As most of you know, we are unable to offer tourneys on Churchill Downs races—but we can, indeed, host qualifiers to Saturday’s Kentucky Derby Challenge, a $3,000-entry-fee contest that can be played at Gulfstream Park, Santa Anita or Xpressbet.
Friday is your last chance to win your way into the Derby Challenge. That $177, 1-per-20 qualifier is one of 21 featured events on the featured weekend menu at HorseTourneys and HorsePlayers—and it’s one of six marquee games taking place on Friday.
The final Kentucky Derby Challenge qualifier is a Pick & Pray. So are the other five Friday features.
For cash gamers, Friday’s HT Tour event is our $15,000 Guaranteed No Limit Pick & Pray. You can play in exchange for a $190 entry fee.
On tap each and every day of Derby weekend are Pick & Pray qualifiers to the Spa & Surf Showdown and the Monmouth Pick Your Prize Challenge.
The Friday Spa & Surf Showdown qualifier requires an entry fee of $147, and one of every 20 entrants will earn a $2,500 spot in the $400,000 Guaranteed, two-day, final leg of the 2022 Tourney Triple here on August 6-7.
Play-ins to the Monmouth Pick Your Prize Challenge cost $156 to play, and they carry a winning ratio of 1-per-15. Winner(s) of Friday’s Pick & Pray get a $2,000 entry to the June 4th contest, which can be played on-track in New Jersey or at Xpressbet. Based on 200 entries, the Pick Your Prize Challenge will offer 18 spots to the 2023 NHC, four Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge berths and cash prizes of $65,000.
On Friday at HorsePlayers, there are once again qualifiers to both the NHC and the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge.
The NHC test is a $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 battle is a $500 Low Ratio Pick & Pray. The winning ratio is 1-per-23 and at least one $10,000 entry to November’s prestigious and lucrative live-bankroll contest is guaranteed regardless of how many entries we get.
The 10 contest races for Friday come from just two tracks this week. They are the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th and 9th at Santa Anita; and the 4th, 5th, 7th and 8th from the twilight card at Woodbine.
The Saturday featured schedule contains another six Pick & Prays.
Whether you’re in your old Kentucky home or your new California apartment, you can make a lot of money if you win Saturday’s HT Tour event, our $30,000 Guaranteed No Limit Pick & Pray. The only barrier to entry is $350.
Also in Pick & Pray mode are the Saturday qualifiers to the Spa & Surf Showdown ($147 to enter, 1-per-20 winning ratio) and the Monmouth Pick Your Prize Challenge. ($156, 1-per-15).
The Saturday Big Bucks tourney is always a Pick & Pray. It’s an “up-to-$20,000” tilt with a guaranteed purse 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 only to the top three finishers with the winner taking the lion’s share (70 percent) of the net pool, the runner up getting 20 percent, and the third-place finisher picking up the remaining 10 percent.
Another Saturday Pick & Pray is Saturday’s $15 Jackpot Pick 4 tourney, which has a carryover of $5,305. 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 the 11th and 12th from Gulfstream; and the 9th and 10th at Santa Anita (two races before the Run for the Roses and two races after it).
There is no NHC qualifier on Saturday. That means that the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge has the spotlight to itself that day at HorsePlayers.
That spotlight will shine on a 1-per-65 Pick & Pray with at least one $10,000 entry to the November contest certain to be awarded. The price to play is $179.
Saturday’s 12 contest races are the the 3rd, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th from Santa Anita; the 9th, 11th and 12th at Gulfstream; and the 6th through 8th on the opening-day card at Monmouth. Based on entries/post times currently posted at Equibase, closing time for the Saturday 12-race features should be approximately 4:30 pm ET…though we suspect that it might be a few minutes after that, once Santa Anita finalizes its Saturday post times.
Sunday is Mother’s Day, of course, and we can think of nothing that would make a mom prouder than to know her son or daughter won one of the day’s nine featured events at HorseTourneys and HorsePlayers.
Okay, so while mom might be happy for you if you won something, she might also enjoy spending some time with you on her special day. So all of our Sunday features will be Pick & Prays so you can cut down on your screen time. Our richest Sunday game is the day’s HT Tour event—a $20,000 Guaranteed, No Limit Pick & Pray. The entry fee is $250.
You know we are treating moms with high respect when we switch the Sunday Big Bucks game from its customary Live format to a Pick & Pray. It’s an up-to-$20,000 tourney with an entry fee of $1,150 and a purse guarantee of at least $7,500. Total entries are capped at 20, and payouts go strictly to the top three finishers.
For the third consecutive day, we’ll offer Pick & Pray opportunities to qualify for the $400,000 Guaranteed Spa & Surf Showdown (August 6-7) and the Monmouth Pick Your Prize Challenge (June 4).
Not all of our features are daily offerings. Our qualifiers for The BIG One take place once a week on Sundays. The BIG One is a mythical-money competition here at HorseTourneys on Saturday and Sunday, September 17-18, and the field will be no larger than 57…and no one will be playing more than one entry. Despite the small entry numbers, 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.) Sunday’s qualifier carries a $395 entry fee, and there is a maximum of 27 entries that will be accepted. Also—the winner of the qualifier gets a $500 prize in addition to the seat…and the runner up receives a $395 refund/consolation prize.
Another “once-a-weeker” is our Sunday qualifier to the Lone Star Million Betting Challenge at Lone Star Park. Entries to it on May 30th (Memorial Day) will cost $2,500 each. But you can get a $2,500 entry—plus a $500 travel stipend—for $177 if you succeed in Sunday’s 1-per-20 Pick & Pray.
There will be another $15 Pick 4 Jackpot tourney 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. Pick 4 Jackpot games are always run as Pick & Prays.
A Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge qualifier and an NHC play-in are the “Day after the Derby” co-features at HorsePlayers.
The BCBC game is a $500 Low Ratio Pick & Pray. One $10,000 seat is guaranteed, and the winning ratio will be 1-per-23.
The NHC counterpart is a “regular,” $165 qualifier with a winning ratio of 1-per-65 and two seats guaranteed.
For those of you looking to qualify for something, Sunday may be a great day to attempt it since, every year, some people seem to take a Sunday off after a Triple Crown or Breeders’ Cup Day. Their slumber may be your opportunity.
So good luck on Derby Day—and on the day before and after it. We hope that you are covered, figuratively, with a blanket of roses at the conclusion of all your tourneys.