Recently we made the final Saturday HT Tour event of the month a $50,000 Guaranteed tourney (instead of $30,000 Guaranteed)—while holding the line on the entry fee ($350). It’s time for another one this Saturday, and value-minded contest players should pay attention because the May renewal wound up going off with an extremely horseplayer-friendly takeout rate of 0.1 percent. As always, real-time tracking of the prize pool can be easily viewed on the right-hand side of the HorseTourneys homepage.
Also easily viewable on the HorseTourneys and HorsePlayers sites are an array of 21 featured events—the first five of which take place on Friday.
Friday’s big cash game—and HT Tour event—is our $15,000 Guaranteed No Limit Pick & Pray tourney. Entries will run you $190 each.
There will a qualifier each day of the weekend for the Spa & Surf Showdown. Friday’s version is a $147 Pick & Pray, with one of every 20 entrants getting a $2,500 seat at the table of the two-day, $400,000 Guaranteed, final leg of the 2022 Tourney Triple here on August 6-7 (Whitney weekend at Saratoga).
There will also be an opportunity on Friday, Saturday and Sunday to grab a $1,000 entry for the July 23 Haskell Challenge, which will be played exclusively at Xpressbet or 4NJBets (not ontrack). Entries in Friday’s 1-per-15 Pick & Pray cost $79.
The usual two Friday features are again on the menu at HorsePlayers
The day’s NHC qualifier is a $75 Pick & Pray with two seats certain and a winning ratio of 1-per-143. In addition to the two March 2023 berths, plenty of NHC Tour points will be at stake. Entries are limited to three per person. 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.
On the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge side of the street, there’s a $500 Low Ratio Pick & Pray on Friday. The winning ratio is 1-per-23, and at least one $10,000 entry is guaranteed regardless of participation levels.
Friday’s 10 contest races are the 5th, 6th and 8th from Woodbine; the 6th through 9th at Belmont; and the 8th through 10th from Laurel.
Saturday is Month-End Blowout Day.
Almost all of our Saturday and Sunday features this week will be run in Live format, including our $50,000 Guaranteed cash tourney. As noted earlier, the entry fee for this HT Tour competition is the usual Saturday amount, $350.
The “Blowout” isn’t the only big money cash contest around here on Saturday. There’s also our Big Bucks Pick & Pray (the only featured Pick & Pray to be found on Saturday or Sunday). It’s an “up-to-$20,000” skirmish 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 biggest slice (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 the first half of back-to-back qualifiers 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 greater than 57, and no one will be playing more than one entry. Despite the slight field, the prize pool will be bulky. 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 allowed into it. Also—the winner of the qualifier gets a $500 prize in addition to the September entry…and the runner up receives a $395 refund/consolation prize.
As alluded to earlier, there will also be a Saturday qualifiers to the Spa & Surf Showdown ($147 entry fee; 1-per-20 winning ratio) and the Haskell Challenge ($79, 1-per-15). Both will be Live-format tourneys.
At HorsePlayers, there are 1-per-65, Live-format qualifiers for both the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge and the NHC.
The BCBC game requires a $179 entry fee in order to participate, and at least one November berth is guaranteed no matter what. The NHC tourney will set you back $165 per entry, and two spots are guaranteed in this one.
Saturday’s featured-tourney race schedule is the 8th through 11th (all stakes, including the Ohio Derby) from Thistledown; the 7th and 10th at Laurel; the 9th through 12th from Monmouth; and the 7th and 9th at Belmont—12 races in all. Closing time will be approximately 3:18 pm ET.
Sunday is our busiest day of the week with nine featured tourneys—all in Live format. Eight of them are here at HorseTourneys, including the day’s NHC qualifier.
The NHC play-in is a two-seats-guaranteed affair with an entry fee of $165 and a winning ratio of 1-per-65.
Sunday’s most prominent cash tourney is our HT Tour event—a $20,000 Guaranteed, No Limit tilt. An investment of $250 secures your place in it.
Another Live-format cash battle is the Sunday Big Bucks game. It’s an up-to-$20,000 tourney with an entry fee of $1,150 and a purse guaranteed at least $7,500. Total entries are capped at 20, and payouts go strictly to the top three finishers.
Careful readers of the earlier paragraphs already know that Live-format 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 Haskell Challenge ($79, 1-per-15) are all part of the Sunday mix.
You can also try your luck in two different “Summer Challenge” qualifiers on Sunday. One is for the two-day Del Mar Summer Challenge on July 30-31. Sunday’s Del Mar game calls for an entry fee of $295, with one of every 20 handicappers garnering a $5,000 entry to the Southern California competition.
The other Sunday Summer Challenge play-in is that for the Lone Star Summer Betting Challenge, which takes place onsite on July 16 at Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, Tex., near Dallas. The entry fee is $79, and one of every 15 entrants will bring home a $1,000 entry.
The Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge will be performing a solo act on the Sunday featured-tourney stage.
We hope you enjoy the rendition of a $500 Low Ratio, Live-format BCBC qualifier on Sunday. The winning ratio is 1-per-23, and at least one $10,000 entry will be won by some skillful handicapper.
Good luck in the Month-End Blowout or in whichever other featured-tourney games you decide to tackle. We hope the final weekend in June treats you well.