It’s Belmont Stakes Day on Saturday, so we’re raising the stakes by adding a $15,000 Guaranteed Pick & Pray to the day’s lineup—which already includes a $30,000 Guaranteed Live-format tourney. Both will serve as HT Tour events this Saturday, so the opportunities to earn valuable HT Tour points will be doubled.
Of course, there will also be ample opportunities to qualify for important contests like the NHC, the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge, the Spa & Surf Showdown, The BIG One and more. The weekend cash-and-seat frenzy begins with the Friday featured schedule—which happens to have a new addition to its schedule.
On June 19, just a week from Sunday, Xpressbet will host the Santa Anita Closing Day Challenge. On the 19th, entries will cost you $1,500. However, on Friday you can grab one for $118 if you succeed in our 1-per-15 Pick & Pray qualifier. If you don’t succeed, you can try, try again on Saturday and Sunday.
There will also be a qualifier a day this weekend to the Spa & Surf Showdown. Friday’s is a $147 Pick & Pray, with one of every 20 entrants garnering a $2,500 spot in the $400,000 Guaranteed, two-day, final leg of the 2022 Tourney Triple here on August 6-7.
Friday is the first of four HT Tour events this weekend. This day, you can compete in our $15,000 Guaranteed No Limit Pick & Pray. Entries cost $190 apiece.
On Friday at HorsePlayers, you can take a shot at both the NHC and the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge.
The NHC Friday qualifier is an always-popular $75 Pick & Pray with two seats guaranteed and a winning ratio of 1-per-143. As many of you already know well, there will also be beaucoup de NHC Tour points at stake. 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 play-in 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 test is guaranteed to be headed out the door regardless of participation.
Thanks to a big Belmont Stakes Eve card, there are 12 Friday contest races rather than the usual 10. They are the 5th through 11th (including four graded stakes) from Belmont; the 6th and 8th at Woodbine; and the 7th through 9th from Laurel. Closing time will be approximately 3:03 pm ET.
On Saturday, it’s Belmont Stakes Day—and a rare day in which we have two HT Tour competitions.
One is a Live-format, $30,000-Guaranteed, No Limit tourney with an entry fee of $350. The other is a $15,000 Guaranteed, No Limit Pick & Pray. The price of admission for that one is $260.
Another significant cash game on Saturday is our Big Bucks get together. The Saturday Big Bucks tourney is always a Pick & Pray. It’s an “up-to-$20,000” matchup with a guaranteed purse of $10,000. Entries—at $1,150 each—are limited to 20. 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.
Saturday is our first of back-to-back qualifiers on consecutive days to The BIG One —a mythical-money contest 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 small numbers, the prize pool will be big. 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 Live-format qualifier 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.
As alluded to earlier, there will also be Saturday qualifiers to both the Spa & Surf Showdown ($147 entry fee, 1-per-20 winning ratio) and the Santa Anita Closing Day Challenge ($118, 1-per-15). Each will be contested in Live format.
At HorsePlayers, the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge and NHC share the Belmont Stakes Day spotlight.
The BCBC game is a $179, Live-format battle with a winning ratio of 1-per-65. At least one $10,000 seat is certain to be won no matter how many sign up.
The NHC qualifier is also a Live-format skirmish. This one guarantees two seats, and the entry fee is $210—which works out to a winning ratio of 1-per-50.
Saturday’s featured-tourney race schedule is the 8th, 10th and 11th from Belmont; the 7th through 9th at Woodbine; the 4th through 6th from Santa Anita; and the 11th through 13th from Gulfstrteam—12 races in all. Closing time will be approximately 3:53 pm ET, and the schedule will conclude with the Belmont Stakes, which should have an “off-time” of about 6:49 pm ET.
It’s always a good idea to keep one’s pencils sharpened for the day AFTER a Triple Crown day or a Breeders’ Cup. A lot of handicappers seem to take those days off. That could mean an opportunity for you in the form of softer competition. There are nine features on Sunday in which to test this theory, including one brand new one.
The new entry on Sunday is our play-in to the Lone Star Summer Betting Challenge, which takes place on July 16 is suburban Dallas. Entries to the Lone Star Summer Challenge cost $1,000 on contest day, but you can get one this Sunday for just $79 if you prosper in our 1-per-15, Live-format qualifier.
Lone Star isn’t the only track offering a Summer Challenge. So is Del Mar! Theirs is a two-day challenge (making things doubly challenging, no doubt) on July 30-31. Sunday’s Live-format Del Mar qualifier requires an upfront risk of $295, and one of every 20 participants will score a $5,000 entry to the onsite competition.
You know by now that qualifiers for The BIG One ($395 entry fee, 1 seat guaranteed), the $400,000 Guaranteed Spa & Surf Showdown ($147, 1-per-20 winning ratio) and the Santa Anita Closing Day Challenge ($118, 1-per-15) are all on the Sunday schedule. All will be hosted in Live format.
The day’s HT Tour event—a $20,000 Guaranteed, No Limit tourney—will also go in Live Format this week. The entry fee is $250.
The Sunday Big Bucks game will also be hosted in Live format, as it almost always is. 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.
If you’re searching for a lucrative Pick & Pray to play on Sunday, then head on over to HorsePlayers.
HorsePlayers offers a $500 Low Ratio, Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Pick & Pray on Sunday. The winning ratio is 1-per-23, and at least one $10,000 entry for this November is guaranteed to be on its way out the door.
We go back to the flavor of the weekend—Live format—for Sunday’s NHC qualifier. It’s a “regular,” $165 qualifier with a winning ratio of 1-per-65 and two spots guaranteed.
Enjoy the Belmont Stakes. The call it “Test of the Champion.” We like to think that we’ll be crowing 22 champions right here this weekend—and we hope that you are one of them. Good luck!