We’ve got a tournament to fill on September 17th and 18th—The BIG One here at HorseTourneys. It offers cash and 10 top contest seats to a field that will number no more than 57. To get to that 57 number—or at least fairly close to it—we need to start offering two guaranteed qualifiers per week rather than one. So starting this week, look for a play-in to The BIG One on Saturday…as well as the one on Sunday to which you may have already grown accustomed.
It’s hard to have been on the HorseTourneys site over the last couple of months without growing accustomed to qualifiers for the June 4 Monmouth Pick Your Prize Challenge. Well, the popular Monmouth event is now upon us, and because it is now a hybrid onsite/online competition, you can qualify for it right up through “Pick Your Prize Eve.” That Last Chance tourney is part of our Friday featured schedule.
That final Monmouth qualifier costs $156 to enter, and it is a 1-per-15 Pick & Pray. Winners gets a $2,000 seat for the following day.
Friday’s HT Tour contest is our $15,000 Guaranteed No Limit Pick & Pray. The doorman will ask you for $190 before showing you in.
There will also be a qualifier a day this weekend to the Spa & Surf Showdown. They (including Friday’s) will all go as $147 Pick & Prays, and one of every 20 entrants earns a $2,500 spot in the $400,000 Guaranteed, two-day, final leg of the 2022 Tourney Triple here on August 6-7.
On Friday at HorsePlayers, you can qualify for both the NHC and the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge.
The NHC play-in is the usual Friday $75 Pick & Pray with two seats guaranteed and a winning ratio of 1-per-143. Remember—you must be a 2022 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 to November’s prestigious live-bankroll affair is certain to be awarded regardless of participation.
The 10 contest races for Friday are the 2nd, 4th, 6th and 8th from Woodbine; the 3rd, 4th, 6th and 7th (all stakes) from the Penn Mile card at Penn National; and the 6th and 8th from Santa Anita. Closing time will be approximately 5:21 pm ET…a little later than usual.
On Saturday, the first of what will be back-to-back qualifiers to The BIG One hits the schedule.
The BIG One is a mythical-money competition here at HorseTourneys on Saturday and Sunday, September 17-18. In The BIG One, the field will be no larger than 57, and no one will be playing more than one entry. Despite the shallow entry count, the prize pool will be deep. 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.) Saturday’s Pick & Pray carries a $395 entry fee, and there is a maximum of 27 entries that will be accepted into it. 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.
Saturday’s HT Tour tilt is a $350 cash-game Pick & Pray that offers our richest guaranteed pool of the week—$30,000…with no limit as to how high it could go.
The Saturday Big Bucks tourney is always a Pick & Pray. It’s an “up-to-$20,000” square-off 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 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.
As mentioned earlier, there will be Saturday Pick & Pray play-in to the Spa & Surf Showdown. It’s $147 to play, and the winning ratio is 1-per-20.
At HorsePlayers, there are Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge and NHC qualifiers on tap this Saturday.
The BCBC game is a $179 Pick & Pray with a winning ratio of 1-per-65. At least one $10,000 November seat is assured to be bestowed upon someone.
We switch over to Live format for the NHC qualifier. Two seats are guaranteed in this $165, 1-per-65 meeting of the minds.
Saturday’s featured-tourney race schedule is the 8th, 10th, 11th and 12th from Monmouth; the 6th, 8th, 9th and 10th at Belmont; the 1st and 5th at Santa Anita; and the 8th and 10th from Woodbine—12 races in all. Closing time will be approximately 3:31 pm ET.
We bring the first weekend of June to a close with seven featured tourneys on Sunday.
As you know by now, Pick & Pray qualifiers for The BIG One ($395 entry fee) and the $400,000 Guaranteed Spa & Surf Showdown ($147) are both part of the Sunday plan.
The day’s HT Tour event—a $20,000 Guaranteed, No Limit tourney—will also go as a Pick & Pray this week. The entry fee is $250.
The Sunday Big Bucks game will be hosted in Live format, as is the Sunday custom around here. 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.
One of the highest-end contests on each year’s calendar is the Del Mar Summer Challenge, a two-day, on-track tournament to be held this year on July 30-31. Sunday’s Del Mar Pick & Pray qualifier calls for a $295 entry fee, and winners earn a $5,000 entry.
If you’re hunting for a 2023 NHC seat, set your sights right here at HorseTourneys on Sunday. This is where you’ll find a “regular,” $165 Pick & Pray with two spots certain.
The sole Sunday feature at HorsePlayers is a $500 Low Ratio qualifier to the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge.
At least one $10,000 seat is guaranteed in this Pick & Pray, and the winning ratio will be 1-per-23.
Good luck to all of you this weekend—and we send a special shoutout to the many, many HorseTourneys qualifiers who will be representing us on Saturday either at Monmouth Park or at Xpressbet in the Pick Your Prize Challenge. We’ll be rooting for you.