The field of 52 is now set for this Saturday and Sunday’s The BIG One at Laurel Park. And as one tournament observer commented, late yesterday, “The field may have just gotten a whole lot tougher.”
If you’ve never been to The BIG One, it’s like those commercials for the old Claridge Casino in Atlantic City—“Smaller is Friendlier.” Sunday is your last chance to grab online seats for the Sept. 22-23 event at Laurel where 10 NHC seats, 10 BCBC entries, 10 Horse Player World Series entries and roughly $10,000-$15,000 in bonus cash will await a field of no more than 57. If you don’t qualify in Sunday’s two-all-inclusive-packages-guaranteed tourney, you can still purchase one of five available buy-in entries for $5,750. But qualifying for a tenth of that amount is way more fun. That “Last Chance” qualifier for The BIG One is just one of 15 featured tourneys on tap for this weekend.
Last weekend was a dicey one for which to pick contest races—particularly on Sunday. We strive to post our races at least 48 hours in advance in order to not just give players ample time to handicap, but to allow them to review the race offerings and decide if they even want to play at all.
Triple-digit scores were hard to come by this weekend—a function of formful racing and, especially on Sunday, weather. But impressive tourney winners were in their usual strong supply at HorseTourneys and HorsePlayers this past weekend. One of the most notable of the weekend came right off the bat on Friday.
It’s always a little disappointing once Saratoga and Del Mar finish their meets though, for some, the disappointment is more about the passing of summer than an impending downturn in their wagering fortunes. Indeed, if you are among the many horseplayers who found Saratoga and Del Mar really hard—even extra hard—this year, perhaps you can take solace in the fact that Belmont is now back, Kentucky Downs is still with us, and Laurel is about to embark on what many consider the best part of its racing schedule. So there’s that to look forward to, as well as a full slate of featured tourneys this weekend—17 to be precise—that will keep you engaged, entertained and, if you’re skillful, nicely rewarded.
“The rich get richer”—used in casual conversation—is typically a dismissive saying used to decry the good fortune of others while the rest of us do our best to scrape by. At HorseTourneys, we prefer to use that term in a more celebratory way, especially when it describes a player on one of those hot streaks we all long for. Darryl Lacy is just such a player.
It’s hard to believe that Labor Day is already upon us. If such a milepost brings with it tinges of sadness over the impending end of summer…or Saratoga or Del Mar…then this weekend’s array of top events should provide at least some measure of restorative happiness—because it’s a really good lineup, with no fewer than 20 featured tourneys.
We expected Travers Weekend to be exciting. What we didn’t expect—on a predominantly live-format weekend—was to see multiple winners like we did…or to have the controversial finishes like we had.
As the Saratoga meeting reaches its apex with the Travers (and shockingly with no rain in the upstate New York forecast), HorseTourneys celebrates the Mid-Summer Derby (and the good weather) with a special $50,000 Guaranteed cash tourney on Saturday. That’s one of just many reasons you’ll want to spend part of the last weekend in August right here with us.
Qualifiers begin this week at HorseTourneys for one of the mileposts of every contest year, the Horse Player World Series. The first direct qualifier comes this Saturday, Travers Day. It’s an entry-only qualifier for $90.
Always more steak than sizzle, the Horse Player World Series seems like it goes in and out of fashion more often than skinny ties.
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