As the quest for holiday gifts intensifies this weekend, so does the hunt for NHC spots. You have four opportunities in the three days ahead to secure a place in Vegas next March…or to land a second seat if one is already in your possession.

The first of those four NHC qualifying chances exists at HorsePlayers on Friday.

It’s a $75 NHC qualifier with two seats to the 2024 extravaganza guaranteed. The winning ratio is 1-per-143, and entries in this Pick & Pray are limited to three per person. Remember—you must be a 2023 NHC Tour member, prior to the start of the contest, in order to be eligible for an NHC package in this or any other NHC qualifier. If you’re not a member, you can become one quickly and easily at NTRA.com for a $50 membership fee.

More qualifiers—plus a very nice cash game—are on the Friday agenda here at HorseTourneys.

That cash tourney is our $15,000 Guaranteed, No Limit Pick & Pray. It’s an HT Tour event, and an entry fee of $190 will get you a seat at the cyber-table. Just a friendly reminder: There is never any extra fee to participate in an HT Tour event. No memberships. No clubs to join. No secret handshakes to know. It’s a pure bonus, and you are automatically “signed up” for the HT Tour for free simply by virtue of participating in any HT Tour game.

Also on tap on Friday is a $118 Pick & Pray qualifier to the $250,000 Gtd. Flo-Cal Faceoff. The Faceoff takes place here on January 20-21. Winners in this 1-per-15 Pick & Pray get a $1,500 place in the exciting two-day tourney that requires players to make full-card selections at Gulfstream and Santa Anita each day. (Not an unpleasant task.)

The entry fee ($118) and winning ratio (1-per-15) are the same for Friday’s qualifier to the December 26 Santa Anita Opening Day Challenge. The $1,500 entries at stake for the day-after-Christmas contest are playable both on-track and at Xpressbet.

The 10 contest races on Friday are the 5th through 8th from Aqueduct; the 8th through 10th at Gulfstream; and races 6 through 8 from Tampa Bay Downs. 

Nine marquee games—eight of them Live-format affairs—occupy the featured-tourney menu on Saturday. 

The weekend’s richest game is our $25,000 Guaranteed, No Limit tourney. It’s an HT Tour event, costing $350 to enter, and it will be hosted in Live format. 

The day’s only Pick & Pray is Saturday’s other cash feature—our $7,000 Guaranteed Big Bucks tourney.The entry fee here is $1,150. No more than 20 entries will be accepted for this high-end game, with the winner getting 70 percent of the net pool, the runner up pocketing 20 percent, and the third-place contestant leaving with the remaining 10 percent. If we reach the maximum entry count of 20, the total purse will exceed $20,000.

On Saturday, you can compete for a $6,500 package in a qualifier for the Pegasus World Cup Betting Challenge.  One of every 20 entrants, at $384 per entry, will prosper. 

We’ll be hosting more $118 qualifiers on Saturday for both the $250,000 Guaranteed Flo-Cal Faceoff and the Santa Anita Opening Day Challenge. Unlike on Friday, these two will be run in Live format.

A $79, 1-per-15 qualifier for the Houston Racing Festival Handicapping Contest on January 27th at Sam Houston is also part of the Saturday schedule. Winners get $1,000 worth of entry fees (i.e., live bankroll) for this on-track contest that will hand out four NHC spots and be limited to 100 entries.

There are two NHC qualifiers on Saturday. The one here at HorseTourneys is a Live-format game with a buy-in of $165 and two seats certain. The winning ratio works out to 1-per-65.

The NHC and Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge share the featured-tourney spotlight at HorsePlayers on Saturday.

The NHC qualifier at HorsePlayers this day is similar to its HorseTourneys counterpart except that the entry fee is $210, and the winning ratio is 1-per-50.

The Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge game requires $179 in order to play. The winning ratio in this Live-format game is 1-per-65 and one $10,000 seat is guaranteed to be in the prize pool regardless of participation.

The 12 contest races for Saturday are the 7th through 10th from Aqueduct; the 6th through 8th at Laurel; the 7th through 9th from Tampa Bay Downs; and the 10th and 11th at Gulfstream. Closing time is slated for 2:42 pm ET.

As of press time, the Sunday featured schedule at HorseTourneys has yet to be finalized. (You can expect one or two nice cash games plus qualifiers to the Flo-Cal Faceoff, Pegasus World Cup Betting Challenge and the Santa Anita Opening Day Challenge.)

The lineup is set, however, for Sunday at HorsePlayers.

Again, it’s an NHC-BCBC mix. The NHC game is a straightforward $165 battle to be waged in Live format. Two spots are guaranteed and the winning ratio is 1-per-65.

The Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge play-in is a Live-format, Low Ratio tilt with a ticket price of $500, a winning ratio of 1-per-23 and one $10,000 entry for next November guaranteed. 

We hope you find one or two tourneys this weekend that tickle your fancy—and if you do…we wish you good fun and good luck.