Circle Sunday on your calendar. Yes, because it’s Mother’s Day…and also because it’s the day of the year’s second free qualifier to the NHC.
The free play-in at HorsePlayers guarantees 2024 berths to the top three finishers—and think about it—what could possibly make Mom prouder than knowing her son or daughter qualified for the NHC in a free contest?
Of course, remember that you must be a member of the 2023 NHC Tour in order to play and win. If you’re not yet a 2023 member, you can become one quickly and easily for $50 at NTRA.com.
On Friday, we offer six featured tourneys, including a brand new one.
Xpressbet will host the Preakness Challenge on Saturday, May 20. If you wait until then to enter, a seat will cost you $1,500. However, you can get one for $118 in our 1-per-15, Pick & Pray qualifier to the Preakness Challenge. (Note: Crab cakes not included)
On each day of the weekend, there will be a Preakness Challenge play-in. The same can be said for the Monmouth Pick Your Prize Challenge on June 3 and the Spa & Surf Showdown here on August 5th and 6th.
Friday’s Monmouth Pick Your Prize Challenge Pick & Pray requires an upfront stake of $156, and one in 15 will advance to the June 3 event with a paid-up $2,000 berth.
The Spa & Surf Showdown is a $400,000 Guaranteed, all-cash extravaganza that is also the final leg of the 2023 Tourney Triple. You can land a $2,500 spot in it in Friday’s $147 Pick & Pray. One of every 20 entrants will prosper.
For those partial to cash game, there’s Friday’s $15,000 Guaranteed, No Limit Pick & Pray. It’s an HT Tour competition, and the entry fee is $190.
At HorsePlayers, two “old reliables” comprise the Friday featured offerings.
One is the always popular (and crowded) $75 NHC qualifier, which assures two seats the 2024 event. The winning ratio is 1-per-143.
The other Friday feature at HorsePlayers is a $500 Low Ratio Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Pick & Pray. At least one $10,000 berth will definitely be won in this 1-per-23 test.
The Friday featured-tourney contest races are the 5th, 6th and 8th from Gulfstream; the 5th through 7th at Belmont; and the 6th through 9th from Pimlico—10 races in all.
Eight out of nine of our features on Saturday will be contested in Live format.
The one “oddball” is Saturday’s $10,000 Guaranteed Big Bucks Pick & Pray. Entries are $1,150 each, with the winner earning 70 percent of the net pool, the runner up getting 20 percent, and the third-place taking home the remaining 10 percent. Entries are capped at 20, and if we reach that number, the total purse will exceed $20,000.
The richest cash game of the day—and week—is Saturday’s $30,000 Guaranteed tourney. You must invest $350 in order to enter this Live-format game, which serves as the day’s HT Tour event.
This week, the weekly qualifier for the Lone Star Million Betting Challenge returns to the Saturday slate. One of every 15 entrants, at $196 per entry, will advance to the on-track Memorial Day tournament in suburban Dallas.
The Del Mar Summer Challenge qualifier also reverts to Saturday this week. The entry fee is $384, and one of every 20 hopefuls will reel in a $6,500 package ($6,000 entry fee plus $500 travel stipend) for the on-track-only contest that takes place on July 29-30.
For the second straight day, we’ll have qualifiers to the Preakness Challenge, the Monmouth Pick Your Prize Challenge and the Spa & Surf Showdown. The entry fees and winning ratios are the same as those in place on Friday (and Sunday). All three qualifiers will be run in Live format on Saturday.
Opportunities to qualify for the NHC and the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge exist at HorsePlayers on Saturday.
The NHC game is a $165, Live-format battle. The winning ratio is 1-per-65, and two Vegas berths are guaranteed no matter what.
The Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge get together is a Live-format, $179 qualifier. At least one $10,000 seat is guaranteed in this 1-per-65 game.
Saturday’s featured-tourney contest races are the 5th, 6th, 7th 8th, 10th and 11th from Belmont; the 8th and 10th on the opening day program at Monmouth; the 8th and 10th from Gulfstream; and races 6 and 7 at Santa Anita. Closing time is scheduled to be 3:07 pm ET.
On Sunday, all of our marquee games, with the exception of the Big Bucks tourney, will be Pick & Prays, in deference to it being Mother’s Day. We lead our Sunday preview with HorsePlayers—since that’s where the free NHC qualifier will be hosted.
Note that the free NHC qualifier will consist of 15 races, rather than 12. In addition to the three seats up for grabs, NHC Tour points will be awarded to the top 100 finishers (assuming, as is highly likely, that at least 1,000 players sign up).
The other Sunday feature at HorsePlayers is a $500, Low-Ratio Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Pick & Pray, and we’re back to the usual 12-race slate for this one. The winning ratio is 1-per-23; and at least one $10,000 seat will be headed out the door.
Five features are on the Sunday docket here at HorseTourneys.
Sunday’s HT Tour competition is our $20,000 Guaranteed Pick & Pray. The barrier to entry is $250.
For $1,150, you can take part in Sunday’s $7,000 Guaranteed Big Bucks game, which is always a Live-format affair on Sundays. (On Saturdays, it’s always a Pick & Pray…so Even Steven!) Payouts go just to the top three finishers on a 70/20/10 basis. A maximum of 20 entries will be accepted—and if we get that many, the purse will exceed $20,000.
For the third consecutive day, we’ll host qualifiers to the Preakness Challenge, the Monmouth Pick Your Prize Challenge and the Spa & Surf Showdown. These three will all be Pick & Prays.
Don’t forget to visit, call or otherwise do something nice for Mom on Sunday—and good luck to you in all of your featured-tourney efforts throughout the weekend.