The Woodbine King’s Plate Challenge will be hosted this Sunday on track and at Xpressbet and HPI. Your last chance to win a $1,000 entry to it takes place here on Friday.
Meanwhile, you can take your first crack this Sunday at a $2,000 spot in the September 13 Canterbury BCBC/NHC qualifier.
These are but two of 26 featured events on tap this weekend. The first six of those are set for Friday.
That Last Chance Woodbine King’s Plate qualifier calls for an entry fee of $79. One of every 15 in Friday’s Pick & Pray will advance to compete on Sunday.
On each day of the weekend, you can play for a spot in the Kentucky Downs Turf Handicapping Challenge (KDTHC) and the Travers Day Challenge, which will be contested at Monmouth Park, Xpressbet and 4NJBets.
Winners of our Kentucky Downs Pick & Pray on Friday get $1,700 in combined entry fees for each of the three days (Aug. 31, Sept. 3, Sept. 9) of the KDTHC (playable at Xpressbet). You can compete this Friday in exchange for an entry fee of $134. The winning ratio is 1-per-15.
In the Travers Day Challenge play-in, one of every 10 entrants, at $95 per entry, will nail down an $800 berth for the August 26 hybrid (onsite/online) tournament.
Friday’s HT Tour battle is our $15,000 Guaranteed, No Limit Pick & Pray. An upfront investment fee of $190 will get you a seat at the cybertable.
As per usual, there are Pick & Pray qualifiers to the NHC and the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge this Friday at HorsePlayers.
The NHC Pick & Pray charges an entry fee of $75, and it assures two seats to next March’s big event in Vegas. The winning ratio is 1-per-143.
An outlay of $500 gets you in the game for Friday’s Low Ratio Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Pick & Pray. The winning ratio is 1-per-23, and at least one $10,000 seat will be headed out the door regardless of participation.
The 10 featured-tourney races on Friday come from just Saratoga and Del Mar. The races in question are the 8th through 10th from the Spa; and the 2nd through 8th at Del Mar.
It’s a Live-format weekend around here this week. So, on Saturday, all but two of our featured tourneys take on that “play-as-you-go” form.
Saturday’s HT Tour event is our $30,000 Guaranteed game. The entry fee for this Live-format affair is $350.
The day’s other featured cash tourney is one of the day’s two Pick & Prays— our $10,000 Guaranteed Big Bucks game, which carries an entry fee of $1,150. Total 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 contestant grabbing the remaining 10 percent. If we happen to reach the maximum entry count of 20, the total purse will top $20,000.
The other Saturday Pick & Pray is our first of two guaranteed weekend qualifiers to The BIG One on October 21-22 at Laurel Park. The winner of this $500 play-in earns a spot in October’s small-field, big-money contest, which has an all-cash prize pool this year and will have no more than 57 entries (with each person playing just one entry). Our online qualifier winners also receive hotel accommodations, welcome party, track transfers and full food and open-bar amenities at the track…plus $500 for travel. The entry fee is $500, and the runner up in this qualifier gets a $500 consolation refund.
Saturday is also the first of two consecutive days of qualifying for the Del Mar Pacific Classic Challenge and the Keeneland Fall BCBC/NHC Challenge.
The Del Mar Pacific Classic Challenge qualifier requires a $314 buy-in, and one of every 15 entrants will snag a $4,000 entry to the September 2 contest hosted by Del Mar and TVG.com.
The Keeneland Fall BCBC/NHC Challenge takes place on October 14. Like the Pacific Classic contest, it’s a “hybrid” playable on-track or online (at Xpressbet, in this case). Seats on October 14 will set you back $3,500. The entry fee for our qualifiers, however, is $275, and one of every 15 entrants will advance to October 14 with a paid-up spot.
Another “challenging” qualifier on Saturday is that for the Santa Anita Opening Weekend Challenge. One of every 15 entrants, at $314 per entry, will earn a $4,000 seat in the two-day, September 30-October 1 contest. This one, too, is playable on-track or at Xpressbet.
As noted in our Friday preview, Saturday is second of three straight days of qualifiers for the Kentucky Downs Turf Handicapping Challenge and the Monmouth Travers Day Challenge. The same entry fees, prizes and winning ratios in effect Friday are in place here on Saturday. Note, however, that the format on Saturday (and Sunday as well) will be Live, rather than Pick & Pray.
On Saturday at HorsePlayers, seats for the NHC and the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge are again up for grabs.
The NHC game is a special $210 Live-format qualifier with two spots certain. The winning ratio is 1-per-50.
The winning ratio is 1-per-65 in Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge qualifier, which costs $179 to play. At least one $10,000 entry will be won in this one.
The 12 contest races for Saturday are the 6th through 11th from Saratoga; the 8th and 9th (both stakes) at Laurel; and the 1st, 2nd, 5th and 6th from Del Mar. Closing time is scheduled for 3:52 pm ET.
On Sunday, another 10 featured tourneys come your way, and all of them are Live-format games.
One of them is the aforementioned “first-chance” play-in to the (Wednesday) September 13 Canterbury BCBC/NHC Qualifier. We’ll distribute one $2,000 Canterbury/Xpressbet entry for every 15 entries we attract at $157 per entry.
Sunday’s HT Tour skirmish is our Live-format, $20,000 Guaranteed tourney. Entries are on sale for $250 each.
The other Sunday cash feature is our $7,000 Guaranteed Big Bucks tourney. 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 allowed in—and if we get that many, the purse will exceed $20,000.
Sunday is the second straight day of qualifying for The BIG One at Laurel Park, the Del Mar Pacific Classic Challenge and the Keeneland Fall BCBC/NHC Challenge. All the same price points are in effect as those on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Sunday is the third consecutive day in which you take a shot at a seat for the Kentucky Downs Turf Handicapping Challenge and the Travers Day Challenge at Monmouth/Xpressbet.
At HorsePlayers on Sunday, a pair of Live-format qualifiers are on the schedule—one tied to the NHC and the other to the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge.
The NHC tourney is a $165 qualifier with a winning ratio is 1-per-65 and two seats guaranteed.
The BCBC battle is a $500 Low Ratio play-in with a winning ratio of 1-per-23, and one $10,000 seat guaranteed even if fewer than 23 take part.
Special good wishes to the many players representing HorseTourneys this weekend at the Laurel Champions tournament and/or the Woodbine King’s Plate Challenge. To the rest of you who will just be playing here at HorseTourneys and HorsePlayers…well…we wish you good luck too!