If you’re a 2023 NHC Tour member, you absolutely will want to play on Saturday—and if you’re not, you may want to consider becoming a member.
The first of five, free NHC qualifiers during the NHC Tour year is set for this Saturday at HorsePlayers. It’s a 15-race Pick & Pray with the top three finishers earning packages to next March’s big dance. NHC Tour points will also go to the top 100 finishers (in the highly likely event that at least 1,000 people take part). If you’re not a member, you can become one at NTRA.com for $50, and that makes you good for the subsequent four free qualifiers later on.
We have 24 featured tourneys this weekend, and 23 of them are Pick & Prays. The first seven of those take place on Friday.
Friday’s HT Tour competition is our $15,000 Guaranteed, No Limit Pick & Pray. The entry fee is $190.
On each day of the weekend, you can compete for a $1,000 spot in the Golden Gate Gold Rush Challenge on April 29th, a $3,000 entry in the Kentucky Derby Challenge the following Saturday, a $2,000 seat in the Monmouth Pick Your Prize Challenge on June 3 and a $2,500 berth in the $400,000 Guaranteed Spa & Surf Showdown here on August 5th and 6th.
Friday’s Gold Rush qualifier is a $118 Pick & Pray, with one of every 15 advancing to the final a week from Saturday. Note that Golden Gate Gold Rush qualifier winners get a $500 travel stipend in addition to the $1,000 seat.
The Kentucky Derby Challenge game is a $177 Pick & Pray with a winning ratio of 1-per-20.
The Monmouth Pick Your Prize Challenge qualifier costs $156 to enter and one in 15 will pick up a $2,000 entry—also playable at Xpressbet, if you prefer—for the popular annual contest on the Jersey Shore.
The Spa & Surf Showdown is an all-cash event that serves as the final leg of the 2023 Tourney Triple. You can win yourself a $2,500 seat to it in Friday’s $147 Pick & Pray. One of every 20 entrants will so prosper.
As per usual at HorsePlayers on Friday, there will be opportunities to earn seats to both the NHC and the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge.
The NHC tourney is a $75 NHC qualifier that guarantees two spots for next March. The winning ratio is 1-per-143. There will also be a lot of 2023 NHC Tour points on the table. Remember—you must be a paid-up member of the 2023 NHC Tour in order to win this or any other NHC qualifier. Again, if you’re not a member, you can become one quickly and easily for $50 at NTRA.com.
The BCBC get together is a $500 Low Ratio Pick & Pray. One $10,000 berth is assured to be in the prize pool, and the winning ratio is 1-per-23.
The Friday featured-tourney races are the 1st and 3rd from Santa Anita, which returns from a brief hiatus; the 8th through 10th at Gulfstream; the 7th and 8th from Aqueduct and the 8th through 10th at Keeneland—10 races in all.
As for the Saturday menu, we’ll lead with HorsePlayers because that is where the free NHC qualifier will take place.
As noted earlier, it’s a 15-race Pick & Pray with three 2024 NHC packages on the line.
The 15 contest races for this special event are the 6th through 10th from Gulfstream; the 5th through 9th at Aqueduct; races 1 and 4 from Santa Anita and the 7th through 9th at Keeneland. The first of the 15, race 6 at Gulfstream, has a scheduled post time of 3:10 pm ET.
Also on Saturday at HorsePlayers is a Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Pick & Pray. It’s $179 to enter, and one $10,000 seat is guaranteed in this 1-per-65 test. Note that this one, like all of the features at HorseTourneys on Saturday, will be a 12-race game (not 15).
Seven more marquee games are on the Saturday schedule at HorseTourneys.
The richest tourney of the week—and also the day’s HT Tour event—is our $30,000 Guaranteed Pick & Pray. The entry fee is $350.
For the second straight day, we’ll have Pick & Pray qualifiers to the Golden Gate Gold Rush Challenge, the Kentucky Derby Challenge, the Monmouth Pick Your Prize Challenge and the Spa & Surf Showdown. (Don’t be fooled by the name…the Spa & Surf Showdown will be challenging too!) All the same price points and winning ratios as Friday will be in place on Saturday for these three.
Saturday is the day of our weekly qualifier to the Del Mar Summer…Challenge. The Del Mar event is an on-track-only contest on July 29-30 with an entry fee of $6,000. If you win Saturday’s 1-per-20 Pick & Pray, you’ll earn an entry plus an extra $500 to get yourself to old Del Mar.
Getting back to cash games…on Saturday we offer our weekly $10,000 Guaranteed Big Bucks Pick & Pray. Entries are $1,150 each. The winner receives 70 percent of the net pool, the runner up gets 20 percent, and the third-place finisher picks up the remaining 10 percent. Entries are capped at 20, and if we reach that figure, the total purse will exceed $20,000.
The 12 Saturday, featured-tourney contest races (in effect for all except the 15-race, free NHC qualifier) are: the 5th, 8th and 9th from Aqueduct; the 7th through 10th at Gulfstream; the 1st and 4th from Santa Anita; and the 7th through 9th at Keeneland. Closing time for these 12-race games is slated for approximately 3:28 pm ET.
The are eight headliners on the Sunday slate, including the weekend’s lone Live-format feature.
That “oddball” is Sunday’s Big Bucks tourney. The purse guarantee for this Live-format, “play each race as it comes” game is $7,000, and entries cost $1,150. Payouts go strictly to the top three finishers on a 70/20/10 basis.
For $900 less ($250), you can try your luck in Sunday’s $20,000 Guaranteed Pick & Pray, which serves as the day’s HT Tour competition.
For the third consecutive day, we’ll host Pick & Pray qualifiers to the Golden Gate Gold Rush Challenge, the Kentucky Derby Challenge, the Monmouth Pick Your Prize Challenge and the Spa & Surf Showdown.
At HorsePlayers, the NHC and the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge again share the featured-tourney stage.
The NHC qualifier this day is not free, unfortunately. Instead, it will set you back $210, but the reward is tempting—a package to the 2024 event in March. Two such packages are guaranteed in this 1-per-50 Pick & Pray.
The BCBC play-in is a $500, Low-Ratio Pick & Pray. The winning ratio is 1-per-23; and at least one $10,000 seat is certain to be awarded no matter what.
Good luck to our HorseTourneys players spending Saturday deep (or at least kind of deep) in the heart of Texas at the Lone Star Summer Betting Challenge—and to those who will not be messin’ with Texas this weekend,…well…we wish you good luck too!