There are plenty more Breeders’ Cup preps this weekend at Belmont, Santa Anita and, now, Keeneland, where the Fall Meet opens this Friday. That means some terrific races to serve as the foundations for this weekend’s featured tourneys, which include a last chance, entry-only qualifier for next week’s Orleans Fall Classic, a final opportunity to get into the Keeneland NHC/BCBC Challenge, and first opportunities to earn your way in to the NTRA Super Qualifiers to be held at Fair Grounds (December 22) and Santa Anita (January 5).

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As we get closer to the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge (BCBC) on November 2-3, HorsePlayers will be devoted exclusively to BCBC qualifiers and feeders during the month of October. But that doesn’t mean that NHC fans will be out of action.

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When Ronald Peltz captured the first featured tourney of the weekend, our $5,000 Guaranteed Friday Pick & Pray, it meant $5,128 to his bankroll since the purse wound up growing all the way to $10,257. Little did we know that he was just getting warmed up.

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It’s Super Saturday weekend with all kinds of Breeders’ Cup preps (and quite historic races in their own right, including the Jockey Club Gold Cup) at Belmont and Santa Anita. To mark the special nature of Saturday, we’re stepping up the day’s big cash tourney and also putting forward another special qualifier. But first things first, and where this weekend is concerned, that means Friday.

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Joe Pettit, second after Day 1, took the lead early on Day 2 and did not relinquish it from there to win the $325,000 The BIG One at Laurel Park.

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It was a tale of two tournaments for Karl Barth and his high-school classmate Brent Johnson.

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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.”

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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.

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