Once again, the top prizes were well distributed during the featured-tourney weekend—which might have been a bit less surprising this time around since most of the games utilized the live format. Only Frank Fosbre rang the bell twice. Though Jon Madden and Steve Arrison rang their lone bells loudly on Friday.
Back in June, we sent our players some survey questions to get their opinions on various aspects of play on our site. One of them asked at what level payoff caps should be set. It had been approximately three and a half years since we’d queried players on this topic, so we felt it was time to see if sentiment might have changed.
Chances to win seats to top contests abound at HorseTourneys and HorsePlayers this weekend. When Dan Fogelberg sang about the “chance of a lifetime in a lifetime of chance”, he was referring to the Kentucky Derby in “Run for the Roses”. We wouldn’t exactly call this weekend’s tourneys the chance of a lifetime, but if you’re looking for handicapping fun, chances are your chances are awfully good (Johnny Mathis) right here.
Circumstances were ripe on Labor Day weekend from someone to go on a tear. Twenty-four featured tourneys were on the schedule and 18 of them were Pick & Prays. So one set of smart picks could theoretically do a lot of damage—especially since there were 41 first prizes to be had across those 24 featured events. And yet those 41 prizes wound up being shared as though they were handed out by Barney the dinosaur.
We say goodbye to Saratoga and Del Mar after Monday—which is too bad. We say hello on Saturday to Kentucky Downs, though, and that’s good. The upshot of all of that is that we have a holiday weekend with great racing from several venues, so let’s enjoy it while we can. The featured-tourney fun—and there’s plenty of it—begins on Friday.
Jobby Blevins hit five of the first six contest races—including the tourney’s two highest prices—and then closed things out with Travers winner Code of Honor to report home first and collect $26,459 in Saturday’s $65,000 Guaranteed cash tourney, which finished up with a total purse of $66,149.
It’s not a holiday weekend but it feels like one since Saturday is Travers Day. To properly fete our own little “Horseplayer Holiday”, we’re offering a not-at-all-little cash game to supercharge Saturday.
Steven Meier had been vewy, vewy quiet during the first half of Friday’s 10-race, $7,500 Guaranteed Pick & Pray. After five races, he had fired almost all blanks and had collected just $2.10. There was big game to be had out there, though, with the pot having swelled to $9,080 by the tourney’s start time. Meier obviously needed to hunt down some prices.
Seventeen featured tourneys are slated this weekend. Twelve of them are Pick & Prays. So if that is your preferred format, then this is your kind of weekend. The action gets started on Friday.
It was the weekend after the Spa & Surf Showdown…but any chance of a letdown in excitement was vanquished by some particularly thrilling finishes as well as some impressive feats of handicapping strength and consistency.
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