Typically we alternate from week to week between Pick & Pray and Live formats being the predominant mode on Saturdays and Sundays. Every now and then, we mix in the “All Optional Live” format, and this is one of those weekends.
For those unfamiliar with “AOL” tourneys, you make 10 plays from among 25 eligible contest races, and you can play (or not play) race-by-race. You don’t have to enter all of your selections at the beginning. This is the format, by the way, of April’s $350,000 Guaranteed Players Championship, the middle leg of our 2023 Tourney Triple—and it will also be the format for our Saturday and Sunday HT Tour events this weekend and our Sunday Big Bucks game as well.
Those are but three of 25 marquee games on tap at HorseTourneys and HorsePlayers this weekend. The first seven of those are slated for Friday.
Friday’s HT Tour event is our $15,000 Guaranteed, No Limit Pick & Pray. The entry fee is $190, and there is no limit on how high the purse can go.
We’ll also have a Pick & Pray play in to the 1/ST Ultimate Betting Challenge play-in. One of every 20 entries—at $207 per entry—will win a $3,500 seat, which is playable on March 4 at Gulfstream, Santa Anita or Xpressbet.
There will be a qualifier on each day of the weekend for the Players Championship, the Monmouth Pick Your Prize Challenge, the Keeneland Grade One Gamble and the NHC First Chance/Last Chance tournament.
The Players Championship qualifier is a $156, l-per-15 Pick & Pray. Winners earn a $2,000 seat for the $350,000 Guaranteed second leg of the 2023 Tourney Triple here on April 7-8.
The same price point and ratio apply to our Monmouth Pick Your Prize qualifier. Winner(s) of Friday’s Pick & Pray get a $2,000 entry for the popular June 3 test.
For $207, you can take a shot a $3,500 berth in the April 15 Keeneland Grade One Gamble. One of every 20 entrants will prosper in Friday’s Pick & Pray.
Another Friday-Saturday-Sunday constant is a a qualifier for the March 9 NHC First Chance/Last Chance contest at Horseshoe Las Vegas. These play-ins call for an entry fee of $59, with one of every 10 entrants gaining a $500 spot in the day-before-the-NHC scrimmage.
The lone Friday feature at HorsePlayers is a qualifier to next month’s NHC.
It’s a $100 Pick & Pray. The winning ratio is 1-per-100, but one grand prize is certain even if fewer than a hundred sign up. Remember—you still 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 qualifier to the 2023 NHC.
Contest races for the Friday featured tourneys at both HorseTourneys and HorsePlayers are the 6th through 9th from Gulfstream; the 4th, 5th and 8th at Aqueduct; and races 6, 8 and 9 from Tampa Bay Downs—10 races in all.
On Saturday, we host the first of three weekend All Optional Live cash tourneys, and also a brand new qualifier.
Saturday’s $30,000 Guaranteed No Limit tourney is the day’s HT Tour game, and it will be run in All Optional Live format with players making 10 picks out of 25 available races. The entry fee is $350, and the contest races are 6th through 12th from Gulfstream, the 5th through 9th at Tampa Bay Downs, the 5th through 9th from Aqueduct, the 6th through 9th at Laurel and races 1 through 4 at Golden Gate Fields. Closing time for this tourney is estimated to be 2:37 pm ET.
The other Saturday features are 12-race, all-mandatory tourneys, including our $10,000 Guaranteed Big Bucks Pick & Pray. The purse could top $20,000, however, should we hit our maximum entry count of 20. The price to play in this one is $1,150. Payouts go strictly to the top three finishers with the winner receiving 70 percent of the net pool, the runner up getting 20 percent, and the third-place finisher picking up the remaining 10 percent.
On the qualifying front, Saturday is your first day in which to earn a spot in the April 22 Lone Star Spring Betting Challenge. One of every 15 entrants, at $79 per entry, will secure a $1,000 seat for the on-track contest in suburban Dallas.
As noted previously, there will again be qualifiers on Saturday for the March 9 NHC First Chance/Last Chance tournament ($59 entry fee), the April 7-8 Players Championship ($156), the April 15 Keeneland Grade One Gamble ($207) and the June 3 Monmouth Pick Your Prize Challenge ($156). The price points and winning ratios for each are the same as those in place for Friday.
A couple of featured Pick & Prays are on the menu on Saturday at HorsePlayers.
One is a $179 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge qualifier with a winning ratio of 1-per-65. It’s a guaranteed game, so that means at least one $10,000 BCBC berth will be awarded regardless of participation.
The Saturday co-feature at HorsePlayers is a $210 NHC Pick & Pray with at least one spot to next month’s three-day extravaganza certain to be won. The winning ratio here is 1-per-50.
The 12 contest races for our all-mandatory features on Saturday are the 7th through 11th from Gulfstream; the 6th through 9th at Tampa; and the 6th, 7th and 9th from Aqueduct. Closing time will be approximately 3:08 pm ET.
Another nine marquee tilts come your way on Sunday, including two more All Optional Live cash games.
Sunday’s HT Tour event, our $20,000 Guaranteed No Limit tourney, will be run in “Pick 10 out of 25” mode. You can get get a seat at the table for $250.
The other All Optional Live game on Sunday is our $7,000 Guaranteed Big Bucks tourney. It’s again an up-to-$20,000 game with entries costing $1,150. Payouts go only to the top three finishers on a 70/20/10 basis.
For the third straight day, we’ll have direct qualifiers to the Players Championship, the NHC First Chance/Last Chance tournament, the Keeneland Grade One Gamble, and the Monmouth Pick Your Prize Challenge. All four are traditional, 12-race, all-mandatory battles to be contested in Live format.
There are two NHC qualifiers on Sunday, and one will take place here at HorseTourneys—a $500 Low Ratio Pick & Pray. The winning ratio is 1-per-21, and at least 10 entrants must be attracted in order for this game to go forward.
Sunday’s other NHC qualifier is at HorsePlayers…along with a Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge play-in.
NHC qualifier #2 on Sunday is a $165 Pick & Pray that is restricted to those who have yet to earn a 2023 berth. At least one spot is guaranteed to be awarded no matter what.
The Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge opportunity is a Low Ratio Pick & Pray. The required investment is $500; the winning ratio is 1-per-23; and at least one $10,000 seat will be won by someone…even if fewer than 23 sign up.
That’s the lay of the lead as we head into the next-to-last weekend before the NHC. Whether you’re shooting for a late NHC seat, an early seat in another contest or just some timeless greenbacks…we wish you good luck!