Santa Anita opens on Friday—which means the Santa Anita Opening Weekend Challenge (playable on-track or at Xpressbet) will take place on Saturday and Sunday. If you’re hoping to play in it, but don’t wish to pony up the $4,000 buy-in, then Friday is your final opportunity to win one of those $4,000 spots for $314.
That last Santa Anita qualifier is one of six featured tourneys on Friday.
Friday’s Santa Anita Opening Weekend Challenge is a 1-per-15 Pick & Pray.
In fact, all six Friday features are Pick & Prays, including the day’s guaranteed play-in to The BIG One. It’s $500 Pick & Pray. The winner gets a full package for October 21-22 in Maryland, and he or she also gets a $500 bonus, In addition, online winners also receive free hotel accommodations, welcome party and buffet/open bar all weekend long at Laurel. Past participants will tell you…The BIG One is a good time.
A Keeneland contest is also a good time too, and on Friday we offer a $275 qualifier to the October 14 Keeneland Fall BCBC/NHC Challenge (playable at Xpressbet as well as on-track). The entry fee for Friday’s Pick & Pray is $275, with one of every 15 scooping up a $3,500 seat.
For cash game aficionados, there’s our $15,000 Guaranteed, No Limit Pick & Pray. It carries an entry fee of $190, and it serves as Friday’s HT Tour event.
The featured tourneys are at HorsePlayers on Friday are the old reliables—Pick & Pray qualifiers to the NHC and the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge.
The cost to play the NHC Pick & Pray is $75, and at least two seats for next March are certain to be awarded. The winning ratio is 1-per-143.
For $500, you can participate in 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 contest races on Friday are the 6th and 7th at Gulfstream; the 1st, 6th and 7th on the opening day card at Santa Anita; and the 7th through 11th from “Belmont at Aqueduct”.
This week is a Live-format week, so five of Saturday’s six featured tourneys will be operated in “Play as you go” mode.
The lone oddball is Saturday’s $10,000 Guaranteed Big Bucks Pick & Pray, which requires an entry fee of $1,150. Total entries are limited to 20, with the winner grabbing 70 percent of the net pool, the runner up getting 20 percent, and the third-place contestant taking the remaining 10 percent. If we happen to reach the maximum entry count of 20, the total purse will top $20,000.
The richest tourney of the week is Saturday’s $30,000 Guaranteed game. The buy-in for this Live-format tussle is $350, and the game is also the day’s HT Tour event.
For the second straight day, we will offer qualifiers to The BIG One and the Keeneland Fall BCBC/NHC Challenge. The entry fees are the same as on Friday—$500 and $275, respectively, and the qualifier to The BIG One guarantees one package winner regardless of how many show up. Note, however, that these will be Live-format games on Saturday. (They were Pick & Prays on Friday.)
Your opportunity to qualify for the NHC exists here at HorseTourneys on Saturday…in the form of a $165, 1-per-65 play-in. Two Vegas spots are guaranteed.
There’s just one feature on Saturday at HorsePlayers—a $179 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge qualifier.
The winning ratio here is 1-per-65, and at least one $10,000 entry is certain to be won by some skillful handicapper.
The 12 contest races for Saturday are the 7th, 8th and 10th from “Belmont at Aqueduct”; the 7th through 10th at Laurel; the 7th through 9th from Gulfstream; and the 1st and 2nd at Santa Anita. Closing time is scheduled to be 3:11 pm ET.
When we flip the calendar over to October on Sunday, there will be six more featured tourneys awaiting you—all of them Live-format affairs.
Sunday’s HT Tour battle is our $20,000 Guaranteed game. The price of admission to this Live-format, No Limit game is $250.
The other featured cash game on Sunday is our $7,000 Guaranteed Big Bucks tourney. It’s $1,150 to play, and payouts go strictly to the top three finishers.
For the third straight day, we host qualifiers to the Keeneland Fall BCBC/NHC Challenge ($275 entry fee) and The BIG One ($500). The Keeneland game is a 1-per-15 proposition, while the play-in to The BIG One guarantees not one but two packages for the October 21-22 contest at Laurel.
HorsePlayers will offer a pair of guaranteed qualifier on Sunday—one to the NHC and the other pegged to the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge.
The NHC game is restricted to those who have yet to earn a 2024 seat. It carries a $165 entry fee and a winning ratio of 1-per-65. Note that one seat is guaranteed in this Live-format event, and since it is restricted in nature, no NHC Tour points will be distributed in this one.
The BCBC get together is a $500 Low Ratio play-in to be operated in Live format. The other ground rules are the same as those in place on Friday—$500 entry fee, 1-per-23 winning ratio and one seat guaranteed.
We send good wishes out to those competing this weekend as HorseTourneys qualifiers in the Santa Anita Opening Weekend Challenge—and to everyone else who will be doing battle here at HorseTourneys and HorsePlayers. May you have a fun and successful weekend ahead.