It’s not a Triple Crown or Breeders’ Cup weekend…but Labor Day has seemingly evolved into an underrated, high-intensity weekend for horseplayers what with Saratoga, Del Mar and Kentucky Downs all operating at the same time.
Here at HorseTourneys and HorsePlayers, we’ll be ready—with 27 featured events spread out across the four days of the upcoming Labor Day weekend. We kick things off on Friday with five marquee games. All are Pick & Prays.
Friday’s HT Tour test is our $15,000 Guaranteed, No Limit Pick & Pray. A stake of $190 will get you in the door.
On all four days of the weekend, you can compete for a $3,500 entry in the Keeneland Fall BCBC/NHC Challenge (KDTHC) and the Travers Day Challenge, which will be hosted at Keeneland and Xpressbet. The entry fee for these Keeneland qualifiers is $275, with one of every 15 moving on to the October 14 contest.
On Friday (and on Monday too), you can win a $500 seat to the Delaware Park Handicapping Contest on September 9. The entry fee is $59, and the winning ratio is 1-per-10.
Over at HorsePlayers, the holiday weekend gets started with Pick & Pray qualifiers to the NHC and the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge.
The NHC Pick & Pray requires an entry fee of $75, and it will definitely award at least two seats to next March’s extravaganza in Vegas. The winning ratio is 1-per-143.
An expenditure of $500 gets you into Friday’s 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 won even if just you and your dog sign up.
The 10 featured-tourney races on Friday come from just Saratoga and Del Mar. The races that will decide things are the 7th through 10th from the Spa; and the 3rd through 8th at Del Mar.
On Saturday, we offer eight featured tourneys—two Pick & Prays and six Live-format games.
Saturday’s HT Tour skirmish is our $30,000 Guaranteed game. The entry fee for this Live-format competition 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 three 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 offers 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.
As noted earlier, there will be a Saturday qualifier to the Keeneland Fall BCBC/NHC Challenge. Saturday’s is a Live-format game with an entry fee of $275.
Saturday is the first of two straight days in which you can try for a $4,000 seat to the Santa Anita Opening Weekend Challenge. One of every 15 entrants, at $314 per entry, will earn a spot in the two-day, September 30-October 1 contest. The “final” is playable either on-track or at Xpressbet.
For $157, you can play for a $2,000 seat in the Wednesday, September 13 Canterbury NHC/BCBC Handicapping Contest. The winning ratio in the Live-format tilt is 1-per-15. Winners can play on September 13 at either Canterbury Park or Xpressbet.
On Saturday at HorsePlayers, seats for the NHC and the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge are again on the table.
The NHC game is a $165 Live-format play-in with two spots certain. The winning ratio is 1-per-65.
The winning ratio is also 1-per-65 in Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge qualifier, which will set you back $179 if you choose to play. At least one $10,000 entry will be headed out the door here.
The 12 contest races for Saturday are the 8th through 10th (all stakes) from Kentucky Downs; the 10th and 11th (including the Jockey Club Gold Cup) at Saratoga; and the 5th through 11th on what is a blockbuster Pacific Classic Day card at Del Mar. (Every race of the 12 except the Jockey Club Gold Cup has a field of at least 10.) Closing time is a little later than usual—5:21 pm ET.
On Sunday, another seven featured tourneys are on the schedule, and all of them are Live-format games.
Sunday’s HT Tour game is our Live-format, $20,000 Guaranteed tourney. Entries are available for $250 each.
The other featured Sunday cash game 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 Canterbury NHC/BCBC Handicapping Contest and the Santa Anita Opening Weekend Challenge. All the same price points that were in place on Saturday are in effect on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Sunday is the third consecutive day in which you take a swing at a $3,500 spot in the Keeneland Fall BCBC/NHC Challenge. The entry fee on Sunday remains at $275.
At HorsePlayers on Sunday, the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge has the featured-tourney spotlight to itself.
That spotlight will be shining on a $500 Low Ratio play-in with a winning ratio of 1-per-23, and one $10,000 seat guaranteed regardless of participation.
On Labor Day, the format switches over to Pick & Pray for all seven features, including the big NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers.
Five NHC seats are guaranteed in Monday’s $125 play-in. Plenty of NHC Tour points figure to be on offer as well. The winning ratio for this Pick & Pray works out to 1-per-80.
The other Labor Day feature at HorsePlayers is another $500 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge Low Ratio qualifier. This one is a Pick & Pray.
Here at HorseTourneys, the Labor Day offerings are topped by a $20,000 Guaranteed Pick & Pray.
It’s an HT Tour event that carries an entry fee of $250 (similar to Sunday’s parameters). There is no limit as to how high the purse can grow.
After a two-day respite, a qualifier to the September 9 Delaware Park Handicapping Contest is back on the board. One of every 10 entrants in this Pick & Pray, at $59 per entry, will gain a $500 berth for the on-track contest in Stanton, Del.
For the third consecutive day, you can play in a Guaranteed qualifier to The BIG One.
For the fourth day in a row, a $3,500 Keeneland Fall BCBC/NHC Challenge seat will be up for grabs.
Getting back to the cash side of the street, there will be a rare Monday Big Bucks tourney on Labor Day. The guaranteed purse is $7,000, the format is Pick & Pray and the entry fee is $1,150. As was the case on Saturday and Sunday, entries will be capped at 20.
Good luck to all who will be representing HorseTourneys in Saturday’s Del Mar Pacific Classic Challenge. To everyone else—and to them too—we wish you an enjoyable and safe Labor Day weekend. We hope our tourneys make things just that much more fun for you. Good luck!