Just two weeks after the completion of the 2022 Breeders’ Cup at Keeneland, contest players—this week at HorsePlayers—can begin earning seats to the 2023 renewal of the world’s richest and most prestigious live-bankroll tournament, the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge. (The Breeders’ Cup, by the way, will be held at Santa Anita next year.)
Of course, we’ll also be offering our wide assortment of cash games and qualifiers. There are 23 of them this weekend, with the first three taking place on Friday.
The day’s HT Tour competition is a $20,000 Guaranteed Pick & Pray. The entry fee is $190.
On each day of the weekend, we’ll be hosting a $118, 1-per-15 qualifier to the $250,000 Guaranteed Flo-Cal Faceoff, which will take place here on January 14-15. Winners pick up a $1,500 berth into the first leg of the 2023 Tourney Triple.
Over at HorsePlayers, the feature is a Friday staple.
It’s a $75 NHC Pick & Pray with two seats guaranteed and a winning ratio of 1-per-143. 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.
The Friday contest races are the 8th through 10th from Aqueduct; the 3rd, 6th, 7th and 8th at Del Mar; and the 6th, 8th and 9th from Woodbine—10 races in all.
Since last week was a “Pick & Pray weekend, ” most of the features this Saturday and Sunday will be run in Live format…including the richest tourney of the weekend.
It’s our $30,000 Guaranteed, No Limit cash game, which serves as Saturday’s HT Tour test. The entry fee is $350.
As noted above, we’ll have another $118 qualifier on Saturday for the $250,000 Guaranteed Flo-Cal Faceoff. Unlike Friday’s, though, this one will be a live-format affair.
Last week, we offered our first-ever $25 Low Cap, No Limit tourney. This Saturday’s second such battle will be run in Live format. Unlike almost all of our other tourneys, the win-and-place payoff caps here will be set at 12-1 (to win) and 6-1 (to place) rather than the usual 20-1 and 12-1. The purse guarantee will be $2,000.
On Saturday (and again on Sunday), we are scheduling Live-format qualifiers to the Del Mar Fall Challenge (November 26), the Hawthorne Thanksgiving Weekend contests (November 26-27) and on-track Lone Star Fall Simulcast Betting Challenge (December 3). Del Mar participants must pony up $236 to play with one of every 15 getting a $3,000 seat. Hawthorne hopefuls will be risking $118 for a 1-in-10 chance at getting $1,000 worth of entry fees (or starting stakes, if you prefer) for the separate on-site contests on the 26th and 27th. Lone Star contestants will put up $79 for a 1-in-15 chance at a $1,000 seat that is playable on-track only.
We’ll also have a Saturday qualifier to the $50,000 Guaranteed Exacta Extravaganza here on December 3-4. It will be run in Live, Exacta box format. In Exacta-format games, players make a mythical, three-horse exacta box selection in each contest race, and there are no price caps in effect. (You get the full payoff added to your score if you catch a big one.) This play-in requires a fee of $89, and winners (1-per-10) earn a $750 seat for the two-day, exotic tourney here at HorseTourneys early next month.
One exception to all of these Live-format tourneys is Saturday’s Big Bucks Pick & Pray. It’s an “up-to-$20,000” game with a purse guarantee 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 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.
There are two featured tourneys at HorsePlayers on Saturday, including our first play-in for the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge.
This BCBC qualifier guarantees one spot, so if others are napping, it might be a chance for you to lock down an overlaid $10,000 seat well before the rest of the pack. It’s a $179 Pick & Pray with a winning ratio of 1-per-65, but, again, one berth is guaranteed regardless of participation.
We go back to Live format for Saturday’s NHC qualifier—a “regular,” 1-per-65 NHC play-in with two seats to the 2023 event guaranteed. You can take part for $165.
The results of the Saturday features at HorseTourneys and HorsePlayers will be determined based on the outcome of 12 contest races—the 8th through 10th from Aqueduct; the 1st, 3rd, 6th and 7th at Del Mar; the 6th, 9th and 10th from Del Mar and the 9th and 10th at Gulfstream. The approximate closing time will be 3:14 pm ET.
Ten more marquee games—eight of them Live-format tilts—come your way on Sunday. most of them are Pick & Prays.
The day’s HT Tour square-off is our $20,000 Guaranteed, No Limit tourney. It’s a Live-format game with an entry fee of $250.
The other Sunday cash feature is our Big Bucks tourney—an up-to-$20,000 game with a purse guaranteed at $7,000. Total entries are limited to 20 (at $1,150 per entry), and payouts go solely to the top three finishers. This one will be hosted in Live format, as are all of our Sunday Big Bucks competitions.
There will be two Sunday NHC qualifiers this week, and one will be held right here at HorseTourneys.The one here at HT is a $165 Pick & Pray with two seats guaranteed. The winning ratio is 1-per-65.
As touched upon earlier, we will have Sunday qualifiers (all in Live format) to the Flo-Cal Faceoff ($118 buy-in), the Del Mar Fall Challenge ($236), the Hawthorne Thanksgiving contests ($118) and the Lone Star Fall Simulcast Betting Challenge ($79).
Also on the Sunday menu is a live-format play-in to the $50,000 Guaranteed Exacta Extravaganza. Again, this particular qualifier will be a three-horse Exacta Box game (not win-and-place).
There will be a second NHC qualifier on Sunday over at HorsePlayers—and a Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge play-in there as well.
The NHC tourney is restricted to those who have yet to secure a 2023 berth. As such, no NHC Tour points will be awarded. The entry fee for this Pick & Pray is $165, and at least one spot is certain to be won even if fewer than 65 show up.
The BCBC battle is a Live-format, Low Ratio competition. The entry fee is $500; the winning ratio is 1-per-23; and one $10,000 seat is guaranteed.
It’s not just your first weekend in which to qualify for the BCBC, it’s the last weekend in which to do so for the Del Mar Fall Challenge and Hawthorne Thanksgiving contests. Regardless of which spots you choose to target…good luck!