Those who regularly play our featured schedules have a well-earned, collective reputation of being among the sharpest handicappers anywhere in the country. Part of what makes them a feared bunch is that when they are on their game, it doesn’t mean that they win just one event…they could win several by playing the same picks in multiple tourneys. 

You know the NHC is approaching soon when First Chance/Last Chance qualifiers start popping up. as they do this weekend. And you know the Preakness is approaching soon—once the Kentucky Derby has been run. We believe this keen sense of timing is on display throughout this weekend’s featured schedule, whose 28 marquee games get under way on Friday.

This space is decidedly prejudiced in favor of Judy Wagner. Whenever the “First Lady of the NHC” captures a grand prize, it gets top billing here, and the champion of NHC II in 2001 took home a key one on Friday.

If you are playing this weekend (and aren’t we all?), one tourney that should absolutely be on your agenda is Sunday’s 5-seats-guaranteed NHC qualifier. Why? Because it’s free—as long as you’re a 2021 NHC Tour member. 

Sunday was a yearmaker of a day for George Bosch.

On Saturday and Sunday, September 11th and 12th, HorseTourneys will host a brand new event, the $50,000 Guaranteed Exacta Extravaganza. It’s a two-day exacta box tourney requiring players to select a three-horse exacta box in each race, and it carries a $500 buy-in. There will be two contest tracks each day, Kentucky Downs and one other (most likely either Woodbine or Monmouth), and players make a selection for each race of the full cards at both tracks. It figures to be a lot of fun…and rather lucrative as well.

Conditions were ripe for multi-tablers to have a big day on Sunday. Not only was it a Pick & Pray day/weekend, but there was one main longshot to have among the day’s 12 contest races—Mr. Walsh ($34.40, $18.00) in the 8th at Keeneland. If you came up with Mr. Walsh, you were in pretty good shape…in however many tourneys you might have played that day.

One of the more interesting live-bankroll tournaments of the year to date will take place on Saturday, May 1st. It’s the Derby Day Challenge at Xpressbet, where plans call for you to start out with a stake of $2,000 and go to town on the full, Kentucky Derby Day card from Churchill Downs. 

With one notable exception on Thursday, it was a very competitive week of featured events, with plenty of close scores and the grand prize winners well distributed (again with one notable exception…this time on Friday).

With the ink barely dry on Dan Wilde’s $213,000 Players Championship check, it’s time to turn our attention to—and begin trying to qualify for—the third and final leg of the 2021 Tourney Triple, the $300,000 Guaranteed Spa & Surf Showdown here on August 14-15.