If the opening of Saratoga isn’t enough to get you excited, then the big menu of contest action at HorseTourneys this weekend should put you over the top. Even Donald Trump and Ted Cruz can both endorse those ideas.

Saturday’s headliner is our $50,000 guaranteed tournament with just a 9.8% takeout. (Cutting taxes has always been a prominent plank in the HorseTourneys platform.) The $50K tourney, which carries a guaranteed top prize of $22,500, will be run as a Pick & Pray, so you can participate without necessarily having to sit by your computer on Saturday. We’re running direct feeders for just $55, plus a “Round 2” tourney on Friday (tomorrow) for which feeders are just $24.

Also on Saturday is a fun $2,000 guaranteed exacta box contest. Plus there will be direct, full-package qualifiers to Monmouth (8/13) and the Gold Coast (July 29-30). As always, our strategy here at HorseTourneys is to send smart and enthusiastic delegates to all of the major conventions around the country.

Sunday is another big day. Our gavel-to-gavel coverage includes two guaranteed packages to The BIG One (including $106 direct feeders leading up to Sunday); the Wynn Blowout — which will grant a Wynn entry to one of every 10 players; the first-ever qualifier to the August 20 Indiana Grand tourney (with each HorseTourneys qualifier receiving TWO entries); two-day packages to the highly popular Battle of Saratoga (8/10-11) and Hawthorne Summer tourney (8/13-14); as well as a $7,500 guaranteed cash contest with $3,750 to the winner. Here’s a look at this weekend’s top guaranteed tourneys:

It’s all part of our mission to Make America Play Again. Good luck!

Business was brisk at HorseTourneys during the first weekend of Del Mar and the final weekend prior to Saratoga.

Our NHC qualifier was completely sold out, allowing us to had a fourth NHC package to the prize pool. When the scores were tabulated, NHC seats were won by Sean Nolan, James Hall, Larry Burns and Richard Seidl. It should be noted that Gary McMaster also had an excellent tournament, finishing second. Since Gary already had two NHC berths in his pocket (something we weren’t alerted to until after the tourney’s completion), we had the happy duty of letting Richard Seidl know that he, too, would be going to the NHC. Congratulations to our four NHC seat winners, and to Gary McMaster for his impressive haul of NHC Tour Points.

A day of good opinions was doubly rewarding for the aforementioned James Hall. In addition to his NHC package, Hall won our Monmouth qualifier that awarded two packages to that August 13 event. The other winner was runner-up Ronald Peltz. Good luck at the Jersey Shore, guys!

Other Saturday highlights were Hesham Ragab, taking the top spot (good for $7,000) in our $15,000 guaranteed tourney, and Helen Straughn, who won a full package to the Gold Coast tournament, coming up later this month in Las Vegas.

One of the more popular contests this past weekend (and last weekend as well) was our Battle of Saratoga qualifier held on Sunday. For the second straight week, we awarded no fewer than six full, two-day packages, included an enhanced $750 travel component. This week’s “Saratoga Six” were Kevin Cox (The “Brooklyn Cowboy” is certainly no stranger to the Spa), Francis Drew, Kenneth McMahan, Kimberley Shortleff, John Ferraro and Jim Templin. As one might expect in a high-participation event, scores were high and tightly bunched at the end with many “in the frame” at the wire. We’ll be doing it all again this week with feeders aplenty.

The select The Big One field increased by two on Sunday with Shawn Turner (adding to a recent NHC seat win) posting a solid victory over fellow qualifier Jill Himes, who had just enough to grab that second berth. Only 57 may participate in September’s The Big One at Laurel, so if you haven’t qualified yet, keep firing. Time is growing short.

Speaking of time growing short, Paul Kirnos rolled to an authoritative victory in our Last Chance Del Mar qualifier. Also winning berths were Eric Pineiro and Curtis Meyer. Here’s hoping Paul, Eric, Curtis or one of the other HorseTourneys qualifiers brings home the big money when they do battle this weekend where “The Turf Meets the Surf”.

Last but not least, congratulations to Robert Ramirez and Peter Osella who prevailed in a hotly-contested Wynn Handicapping Challenge qualifier on Sunday. And to Mark Simonovic, who won a package to Hawthorne.

Congratulations to all this weekend’s winners, and may you have a winning week ahead.

Congratulations to David Nelson — the latest HorseTourneys qualifier to parlay his online success into big money and an NHC seat at a brick-and-mortar qualifier.

Playing in last Saturday’s Arlington Handicapping Challenge, Nelson ratcheted his starting live bankroll of $2,000 all the way up to $10,445.00 — good for second place overall. For his efforts, Nelson won an NHC seat and, of course, got to keep his bankroll.

Good luck at the NHC, David. And, HorseTourneys players, keep up the great work!

Virtually every day at HorseTourneys, there are several Pick & Pray tournaments with solid prizes and high participation levels. And that is especially true on the weekends. This Saturday, for example, there is a Pick & Pray NHC qualifier with three seats guaranteed. There should be 200+ players for that one.

Like most people, whether playing in a tournament or straight up against the tote, I prefer to do my own handicapping and let my skill (or lack thereof) determine my results.

I will admit, however, that I can be a bit of an action junkie sometimes, wanting to make a play or two (or three or four) even when I haven’t had time to do any handicapping.

I know I am not alone there. An industry friend has commented to me how surprised he constantly is by people’s willingness to pay good money for other people’s picks.

What I prefer to do, though, is not to lean on a particular “favorite handicapper” (and certainly not to pay for his picks!) but, rather, to go to the Leaderboards section of an in-progress Pick & Pray event on HorseTourneys, and check out who the Top 10 in the standings like in any given race. If you’re going to, ahem, “consult” with an outside handicapper, doesn’t it make sense to do so with someone who is already having a good day and apparently “seeing the ball well”?

Sometimes the picks of the Top 10 in a given tourney will be all over the map. But it’s surprising how often the sharp players gravitate en masse to the same hidden-value, overlaid horse that plays well in a tournament…and also in a straight parimutuel situation. Available ($25.20 to win, $10.20 to place) in Laurel’s 6th race last Sunday was just such a horse. Obviously, he was 11-1 on the tote, but it was a big field and he was more like 2-1 among the leaders of that day’s The Big One Pick & Pray qualifier.

Yes, I know that the selections page of a Pick & Pray tourney can also be instructive to new players as a way of learning the types of horses experienced contest players like to play in a tournament setting. But I think the leaderboard pages have a value all their own in the cold, crass world of parimutuel wagering as well.

Is my “system” mindless? Absolutely. Am I glomming off other people’s handicapping efforts? 100%! Does that make me feel guilty? Hell, no! For me it’s part of the fun of the whole HorseTourneys experience.

Time is running out to qualify for the July 23-24 Del Mar Handicapping Challenge. Want in to the $7,000 mega-live-bankroll event? Then be sure to play in our Last Chance Del Mar qualifier this Sunday, July 17. You can win a seat + $750 in travel for just $360 in our Sunday qualifier, and we have low-cost feeders running every day ahead of July 17 for $40. Sign up now for your chance at entry into a lucrative tournament hosted in a terrific setting.

Your next chance to “get qualified” for the NHC comes this Saturday (7/16). We’ll be awarding a minimum of three NHC seats (guaranteed) and a fourth if we hit the 280-participant mark. Saturday winners will get four nights at Treasure Island plus $1,000 for travel. And, of course, NHC Tour points will be up for grabs as well. It’s always a great feeling to have your NHC seat locked up already as you head into the second half of the year. We are offering this week a wide array of $18 feeders into the NHC qualifier, plus several $40 “Combo Feeders” that will get you into not only the Saturday NHC qualifier, but also into our $15,000 cash game on Saturday.

Sunday is your next opportunity to win one of the exclusive seats available to The Big One on September 24-25 at Laurel. (There will be no more than 57 competitors at The Big One.) There are a plethora of ways to be part of the next The Big One qualifier: You can buy directly in on Sunday for $478. Or for $106, you could buy in to our Saturday (7/16) Round 2 feeder where one out of every five entries will advance. Or you could play in one of our numerous The Big One feeders this week where you could win a seat in the Round 2 feeder for $24 or directly into the Sunday qualifier for $53. It may be The Big One. But you certainly don’t need a “Big” budget to take your shot at winning a seat.

And we continue to offer seats to both the $200,000 Guaranteed Wynn Handicapping Challenge on August 5-6 and to the July 24 “Wynn Blowout”. Our next direct qualifier to the Wynn Handicapping Challenge (including entry fee, hotel credit and $500 travel) is this Sunday. Entry cost is $150. Of course, we are running $34 feeders all week for this. Plus we are running $26 feeders for the 7/24 Wynn Blowout which will offer one entry-only spot to the Wynn event per every 10 entries.

Of course the above represents just a few of the highlights of what will be a jam-packed, action-filled weekend of contest play. We’ll also again be offering full packages to the Battle of Saratoga, Monmouth, Gold Coast, Hawthorne plus all sorts of cash games including a fun Exacta Box tournament with a guaranteed purse of $2,000. For the complete menu of contests, go — as always — to the HorseTourneys.com home page. Good luck!

Congratulations to Chris Larmey and Sean O’Malley, who each qualified for the July 8-10 Surfside tourneys via our site and ultimately left Surfside Race Place with nice cash prizes plus an NHC seat.

Chris got things started on the right foot, finishing second in the Friday, July 8 event — good for $1,500 and the aforementioned NHC berth. Then on Sunday, Sean closed things out with a bang, finishing first and taking home $3,000 in addition to an NHC seat.

Perhaps it is worth noting that Chris and Sean were our final two Surfside qualifiers, so it’s never too late to turn HorseTourneys success into brick-and-mortar glory. With that in mind, remember that this weekend will be the last chance to qualify for Del Mar.

Congratulations again, Chris and Sean!

HorseTourneys cash-game players probably wish Sunday were more of a “day of rest” for Ed Peters. Just seven days after winning $3,750 for leading the way in our $7,500 guaranteed game on July 3, Peters cashed for $12,500 by posting the top score in yesterday’s $25,000 guaranteed game. The July 10 competition utilized our popular All-Optional Live format, which allows players to choose their 10 plays from among 20 eligible races. Peters used the strategy well, saving his last bullet for the final race of the contest (race 6 at SA). He deployed that pick on a horse that could have left him vulnerable to would-be leapfroggers. In the end, it didn’t matter…Peters had a large enough lead going in to that race that the 2-1 co-faves were both essentially “running for him” and one of them won, thereby sealing the deal on the second consecutive Sunday win.

On Saturday, July 9, we had a $7,500 game that Bill Ulrich captured after winning the last race. Clearly not the same player on Saturdays, Ed Peters was out of the money in this one!

The field for September’s The Big One grew by two on Sunday after Robert Gilbert and Norris Bristow garnered the top spots in our 2-seat guaranteed tourney. Gilbert and Bristow were like the lone speeds in a paceless race. They opened up a nice lead midway through the contest, while staying within a couple of bucks each other most of the time. Then they tired a bit turning for home, but had enough left to hold off all of the late closers. We’ll be giving away two more coveted seats to The Big One next Sunday.

All weekend long, HorseTourneys was busy sending its smart players to exciting tournaments from Coast to Coast and in between — to place likes Monmouth, Wynn, Gold Coast, Del Mar and Hawthorne. And Sunday marked our first time sending players to Saratoga where the “Battle of Saratoga” this year will be made up of two separate one-day competitions. HorseTourneys players responded to the Saratoga qualifier (and their preceding feeders) in big numbers last week, thereby allowing us to award no fewer than six full, 2-day packages to the August 10-11 events, plus an extra $750 for travel. Congratulations to winners Phil Lam, Dennis Dougherty, Cheryl McIntyre, William Payseno, Charlie Ricks and Randy Bauer. We’d love it if we had another six berths (or even more!) up for grabs this Sunday. Feeders run all week long.

Have a winning week.

There is no more player-friendly tournament site for cash-game players than HorseTourneys. On Sunday, July 10 we’ll be hosting a big $25,000 game, which carries just a 9.3% takeout. The $25,000 pot is guaranteed, so if entries fail to live up to our predictions, it’s our problem, not yours! Last weekend, we hosted a $7,500 tourney that ran with a 4.4% overlay to players.

The $25,000 guaranteed tournament will be contested using the popular “All-Optional” Live format. Players will make their contest plays from among 20 eligible contest races. So no one has to play a race he or she doesn’t care for. Or you can simply use the flexibility to your strategic advantage, if you see such an opportunity. It’s all in your hands. Entries cost $128 with the top finisher receiving $12,500, and we will pay down to 8th place. Or you can try to win a place in one of our $29 feeders, which are available several times each day leading in to Sunday.

Another exciting competition on Sunday is the Battle of Saratoga qualifier — the first time a Saratoga qualifier has been available online. We’re running multiple feeders each day, which have been extremely popular — 39 have already won a place in our Sunday Spa qualifier heading into Thursday’s action. The feeders are just $28, or you can wait until Sunday and buy in for $128. We’ll be awarding a $1,000 seat to each day of the August 10-11 tournaments, plus a robust $750 in travel per every 25 Sunday entries. (We know that hotels can get a little pricey up in Saratoga Springs during the race meeting!) We’d like nothing more than to see HorseTourneys players win both days of the Battle, which will award NHC and BCBC seats along with its customarily generous cash prizes.

And this week marks our initial feeders (just $26) for our special Wynn Blowout tourney on July 24. In the Wynn Blowout, you can win an entry-only seat to the $200,000 Wynn Handicapping Challenge in Las Vegas. We’ll be giving away one seat for every 10 entries on July 24, so there will be a high strike rate for those who participate. Direct entries for the Blowout cost $230 but, again, you can qualify for as little as $26 by playing one of many Wynn Blowout feeders. The Wynn Handicapping Challenge is always on any serious contest player’s short list of highly desirable competitions on the calendar.