If you’re a father—or know someone who is—then consider the upcoming weekend to be in your honor.
We have 22 featured events on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and 21 of them are Pick & Prays, so you can get all your selections in each day and still have plenty of time to pay your compliments or take your bows…or both.
We get the weekend started with four Friday features—two at HorsePlayers and two here at HorseTourneys.
If you’re a Dad, you’re probably hoping to be treated to a nice meal on Sunday. However, if you win Friday’s $15,000 Guaranteed, No Limit Pick & Pray, you can certainly afford to pick up the check yourself. The entry fee is $190, and the game serves as the day’s HT Tour competition.
On each day of Father’s Day Weekend, you can attempt to qualify for the August 5-6 Spa & Surf Showdown here at HorseTourneys. The “Showdown” is the $400,000 Guaranteed final leg of the 2023 Tourney Triple. The qualifier entry fee on Friday (and Saturday and Sunday too) is $147, with one of every 20 participants garnering a $2,500 spot in the rich tourney that gives entrants the happy duty of playing all the races at Saratoga and Del Mar on the first weekend of August. The format in each of this weekend’s Spa & Surf qualifiers is Pick & Pray.
HorsePlayers regulars don’t need to be told what the two features are on Friday.
One is a $75 NHC Pick & Pray that guarantees two seats to the March 2024 renewal. The winning ratio is 1-per-143.
The other is a $500 Low Ratio Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Pick & Pray. At least one $10,000 seat is certain to be won even if the turnout is small. The winning ratio here is 1-per-23.
The 10 featured-tourney races on Friday are the 7th through 9th from Belmont; the 8th and 9th at Gulfstream; and the 4th through 8th from Santa Anita.
Saturday is by far our busiest day of the weekend with 10 marquee games—all of them Pick & Prays.
The richest tourney of the weekend is Saturday’s $30,000 Guaranteed No Limit Pick & Pray. The barrier to entry is $350, and it’s an NHC Tour event.
An entry fee of $1,150 will get you into Saturday’s $10,000 Guaranteed Big Bucks Pick & Pray. Entries are limited to 20, 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. If we happen to reach the maximum entry count of 20, the total purse will exceed $20,000.
There’s a guaranteed qualifier on Saturday for the October 21-22 The BIG One at Laurel Park. The winner earns a spot in October’s small-field, big-prize contest plus a full hotel and amenities package in Maryland…plus $500 for your travel expenses. The entry fee is $500.
For $384, you can take part in our weekly qualifier to the July 29-30 Del Mar Summer Challenge. One of every 20 entrants will secure a $6,500 package ($6,000 entry fee plus $500 travel stipend) for the high-end, live-bankroll tournament in beautiful Del Mar.
This is the final weekend in which to qualify for the June 24-25 Hawthorne Spring NHC qualifiers. One of every 10 entrants—at $118 per entry—will pick up $1,000 in entry fees for the two contests (hosted in various area OTBs).
It’s also the last weekend you can qualify for the June 24 Lone Star Summer Betting Challenge in suburban Dallas. If you put up $79, you can win a $1,000 seat to it in this 1-per-15 Pick & Pray.
A qualifier for the new Delaware Park Handicapping Contest, aka the William Moore Classic, is also on the Saturday menu. Entries are $59 apiece, and one of every 10 will nail down a $500 entry for the on-track contest in Stanton, Del., on July 15.
For the second straight day, we’ll have a $147 qualifier to the Spa & Surf Showdown. As was the case on Friday, the format is Pick & Pray.
At HorsePlayers, there are two features on Saturday, including a special NHC play-in.
The NHC game is special because it’s a 1-per-21 Low Ratio play-in. The entry fee is $500, and at least 10 entries must be attracted in order for the game to go forward. It’s a Pick & Pray…and note that, per NTRA rules, there must be enough entries to award two packages before NHC Tour points can be awarded.
The other marquee game at HorsePlayers is a $179 BCBC Pick & Pray. At least one $10,000 berth is certain to be won in this 1-per-65 test.
Saturday’s dozen contest races are the 5th and 7th from Belmont; the 8th, 10th, 11th and 12th at Monmouth where it will be Haskell Preview Day; the 1st, 5th and 6th from Santa Anita; and races 8, 9 and 11 from Gulfstream. Closing time is slated to be 3:09 pm ET.
Sunday is Father’s Day, and we’ll lead that day’s preview with HorsePlayers since there is a special event theresure to please all Dads—and Moms and non-parents too.
It’s a $125 NHC Pick & Pray with three seats guaranteed. The winning ratio works out to 1-per-80, and this one figures to also pay out some nice NHC Tour points.
The other Sunday feature at HorsePlayers is a $500 Low-Ratio Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Pick & Pray. The winning ratio is 1-per-23 and at least one $10,000 seat is certain to be in the prize pool.
There are another six Father’s Day features here at HorseTourneys. All but one of them are Pick & Prays.
The lone oddball is Sunday’s Live-format Big Bucks game. This one has a purse guarantee of at least $7,000, and.payouts go just to the top three finishers on a 70/20/10 basis. A maximum of 20 entries (at $1,150 each) will be accepted—and if we get that many, the purse will exceed $20,000.
The Father’s Day HT Tour event is a $20,000 Guaranteed Pick & Pray. The cost to play is $250.
For the third straight day, you can try and lock down a spot in the $400,000 Guaranteed Spa & Surf Showdown. Win and you’ll have action personified on August 5-6.
We’ll also have more play-ins on Sunday to the Hawthorne Spring NHC qualifiers on June 24-25, the Lone Star Summer Betting Challenge (June 24) and the William Moore Classic at Delaware Park (July 15). All the same price points and winning ratios from Saturday apply here.
We hope all of you have a great Father’s Day weekend…and remember, there’s no better way to honor Dad than to give him all the time he needs to play his favorite tourneys. Good luck!