Someone gleefully commented to me last month that she had won an NHC seat at HorseTourneys for just $18 by winning a feeder, then winning the direct qualifier that followed. This week you don’t even need the 18 bucks. If you have played at least $1,000 lifetime at HorseTourneys, you can win an NHC seat for free by finishing in the top 8 of tonight’s free contest…
Making selections in EXACTA BOX tourneys just got a whole lot quicker and easier.
SPEED PICKS and the COPY function are now available for EXACTA BOX tournaments. Speed Picks may be accessed through the link on the VIEW/MAKE Picks page, in conjunction with your Exacta Box entry:
There were a lot of happy winners at HorseTourneys on Saturday.
Daniel Kaplan nailed three of the last four winners to win our Horse Player World Series qualifier. And since two HPWS entries were up for grabs, our runner-up, Bill Downes (track announcer at Indiana Grand) was pretty pumped as well.
Downes wasn’t the only happy HorseTourneyor to take to Twitter last weekend. When Jobby Blevins won our $12,500 Guaranteed event ($6,250 to the victor) for the second time in four weeks, Jobby’s #1 supporter not only helped spread the word…she also issued a warning:
Scores were particularly high, as might be expected, in our 3-seat-guaranteed NHC qualifier on Saturday.
When the dust cleared, it was Douglas Draper, John Marino and John Garofano Jr. punching their tickets to Treasure Island in January.
And it was Mark Ansley and Joe Koury who will be heading to Vegas later this month to play in the Orleans Fall Classic by virtue of their 1-2 finish on Saturday. They both win a $500 entry plus $750 in travel.
On Sunday, the Twin Spires Online Championship qualifier was far from our most lucrative tourney, but it featured our most eye-popping score.
Stephen Diaz’s tally of $115.00 in the Twin Spires contest would have also won every other multi-track contest we offered that day by about $27 or more. Diaz ran off the screen, but the photo for 2nd, 3rd and 4th was important because it was a 4-spot tourney. Kimberly Shortleff, John Northern and Michael Odorisio picked up the pieces in those three slots.
Fortunately for Hesham Ragab, Diaz sat out the $7,500 guaranteed tourney. The left the $3,750 winner’s share to Hesham, who amassed his $82.90 score from just three winners.
The aforementioned John Northern did opt to play in multiple tournaments and it paid off for him. Using the exact same picks that got him a Twin Spires Online Championship entry, John also earned a valuable $3,500 package to the Keeneland NHC/BCBC Challenge by finishing second to winner Robert Flaska.
In other Sunday action, Kevin Willet ($81.80) grabbed a highly desirable $4,500 package to the Del Mar Fall Classic. And John Verdin hit the last race exacta of $61.30 ($1 payoff) in Santa Anita race 6 to win $600 in our $1,500 guaranteed exacta box game.
Some quick reminders for the week ahead:
Saturday will be your last chance to qualify for the Orleans Fall Classic. And that day, we’ll also be hosting a special $25,000 guaranteed game plus a 2-seat-guaranteed NHC qualfier which was a late addition to the calendar. So you’ll want to be playing on the 8th. And on Sunday, the 9th, it’s your last chance to win a $3,500 package to Keeneland where, the following week, there will be cash, NHC berths and BCBC berths aplenty.
Have a great first full week of October.
It’s almost time to flip another page on the wall calendar. But before we do, don’t forget to play our Guaranteed $5,000 tourney on Friday, September 30. The competition pays down to 4th place with $2,500 to the winner and full prizes will be played no matter how many (or few) show up. It’s a Pick & Pray game with an entry fee of $185. Contest races will be Belmont’s 6th through 9th; Churchill’s 9th and 10th; and Santa Anita’s 1st, 4th, 5th and 6th.
What better way to ring in October on Saturday than with a big, 3-seat-guaranteed NHC qualifier for $160 (two entries maximum per person). If we get 280 entries, we’ll toss in a fourth NHC package. This is one of the few games this weekend that will utilize a live format. Contest races for this and our other featured tourneys on Saturday are Belmont’s 6th through 10th; Santa Anita’s 4th through 8th and Churchill’s 7th and 10th (12 races in all).
The weekend’s richest event also takes place on Saturday — it’s our $12,500 Guaranteed game, which you many enter for $195. The winner gets $6,250 and prizes are paid (guaranteed) down to 6th place.
Saturday also has a full package qualifier to next month’s Orleans Fall Classic (one package per 15 entries) for $97 and an entry-only qualifier (one per 20) to the 2017 Horse Player World Series for an entry fee of $87. Here’s a look at some of Saturday’s best games:
Sunday has five tourneys vying for top billing. We’ll start with our qualifier to the November 26 Twin Spires Online Championship. (We just started these last weekend and think they’re great.) We’ll be awarding one $750 package ($500 entry + $250 cash) for every 15 players, with entries costing just $58. The Twin Spires Online Championship offers cash along with 20 NHC seats and 30 HPWS entries.
Also on Sunday are direct qualifiers to the Del Mar Fall Classic ($4,500 value; $212 entry fee, one winner per 25) and the Keeneland NHC/BCBC Challenge ($3,500 value, $160 entry fee, one winner per 25).
Cash game players will like our $7,500 Guaranteed game and our $1,500 Guaranteed Exacta Box game. Both contests pay down to 5th with top prizes of $3,750 in our $7,500 game ($190 entry fee) and $600 in our Exacta game ($54 entry). Here’s a snapshot of our featured Sunday schedule:
For those who missed the news last week, our exacta box games now include our popular “Speed Picks” selection feature. So entering selections for Exacta games are now every bit as quick and easy as with our other more traditional win/place tourneys.
Enjoy the football, the conclusion to the pennant races and, of course, all of our games this weekend at HorseTourneys. Good luck!
By now, many of you know the final, nitty-gritty results from The BIG One, held last Saturday and Sunday at Laurel Park.
Dan Flanigan played a masterful tournament, preserving his bankroll until the race he had been waiting for all weekend, the 9th at Belmont on Sunday, came along.
He bet $1,000 into the race, including $400 to win on the 3-1 winner and $100 on the winning exacta combination that paid $84 for a deuce. That put Dan over the top and gave him just enough to hold off what was a late surge from Larry Burns, who had led prior to Flanigan’s big hit.
Dan’s win even got a write-up in Tuesday’s Baltimore Sun, which was very cool.
At the finish of the 51-person tournament (unfortunately one player couldn’t attend due to a personal issue), the top eight finishers won both NHC and Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge seats. Two additional players won NHC seats, and 10 others won their choice of Horse Player World Series entries or $1,500. Not bad for a 51-player field. Total value of the live bankrolls, prize pool, tournament seats and player benefits exceeded $375,600.
In fact, NHC seats ultimately went to the 11th, 12th and 13th-place finishers since three people in the top 10 — Tony Zhou, Eric Moomey and Brett Wiener — were already double qualified for the NHC. Thanks to a special provision in The BIG One’s rules, Zhou, Moomey and Wiener each received $5,000 cash in lieu of an NHC seat.
Long after I forget the details of the competition, though, I’ll remember the fun experience of being a small part of this event.
It was my first time attending The BIG One and the vibe was unique. All players stayed at the nearby Aloft Hotel in Hanover with many bringing friends and family. By the time of the Friday night welcome dinner at Dave and Buster’s (in the same complex as the Maryland Live! Casino), it seemed to me that everyone was in an extraordinarily good mood — excited but not tense.
That proved to be the case all weekend long. There were no drama kings or queens…players treated each other and the Laurel staff collegially and respectfully…it was just a nice group to be around from player 1 through player 51. Over the two days we received exactly one complaint about a player who had apparently gotten audibly angry after a tough beat. It was not something we had noticed prior to receiving the complaint.
I suppose it helps when players are on a “free roll” — which was essentially the case since all 51 had previously qualified either through HorseTourneys (49 such qualifiers) or Laurel Park (2). But I’ve attended every single NHC and the mood there, even at the beginning, is filled with much more tension and nervousness. That’s not necessarily a bad thing — it’s part of what makes the NHC so electric and intense. The BIG One, though, was much more intimate. Players were there to fire away, but they weren’t too obsessed to enjoy each other’s company — at Laurel, at Dave & Buster’s, at the Aloft Hotel bar — while they were at it.
A lot of the credit for the great setting belongs to the staff at Laurel Park. So many improvements were being worked on while we were there. It was truly exciting to see a track inventing such resources in its facility. Laurel will definitely be worth a visit if you haven’t been there recently.
The BIG One was held in a beautiful new section of the second floor clubhouse and everyone from Stronach Group Chief Operating Officer Tim Ritvo on down was constantly checking in with us to make sure that conditions were perfect and that players had everything they needed — from food and drink to power and light…and even when it came to switching overhead TVs to particular racetrack signals or baseball/football games they wanted to keep an eye on. Here’s Tim on the left with The BIG One contestant John Scheinman in the tournament area:
“There will never be a better tournament venue than this,” said Gene Cahalan at the conclusion of the competition. “Everything was roomy, beautiful and great.” (Perhaps it should be noted that Gene was not handing out bouquets simply because he had enjoyed a successful tournament. He didn’t. His live bankroll was tapped out at the end.)
And at the risk of sounding too much like a company man, I also have to give credit to HorseTourneys president McKay Smith for all the personal touches he provides (straight out of his pocket) at The BIG One.
Prior to the start of The BIG One, McKay offered to provide (free of charge) the drink of choice (alcoholic or non-alcoholic) to any player if he or she thought the Laurel open bar might not stock it. Three players took him up on it. So making their BIG One debuts in 2016 were bottles of Blanton’s bourbon, Tito’s vodka and Campari liqueur.
We also had a little trouble early on Saturday morning when the shuttle bus we hired to bring people from the hotel to Laurel showed up at the wrong Aloft hotel. Remarkably, very few were negatively affected. However, one player, Steve Arrison wound up having to take a taxi to Laurel. When McKay learned of this, he reached into his wallet and refunded Steve’s $40 cab fare before Steve had even taken his seat for the day.
A half-hour or so later, Steve insisted that McKay accept $20 tickets on two of Steve’s favorite plays that day. That was sort of a microcosm of the whole weekend to me.
It’s little stuff like that that I am going to remember most about my first trip to The BIG One. And why I will be looking very much forward to returning.
Dan Flanigan, a 45-year-old investment executive from Medina, Minn., hit a veritable “all-in”, $1,000 wager on Belmont’s 9th race that returned $5,858.30 — good for first place in a field of 51 at this weekend’s The BIG One tournament at Laurel Park in Laurel, Md.
Flanigan, a horse owner who runs equity trading for an investment bank in Minneapolis, came into The BIG One with a strategy that played out to perfection.
“I mapped out both days and got excited about the 9th at Belmont on Saturday,” said Flanigan. “I really liked the 3 [Ten Penny Princess] and I liked the 6 [Rosedale Arch] too. I wanted to bide my time, preserve my bankroll and then put everything on this race. We all make plans and it’s not often that they work out, but this one did.”
Indeed. Ten Penny Princess won and paid $8.20, and Rosedale Arch completed an $84.00 exacta. Flanigan had $400 to win on Ten Penny Princess and $100 on the 3-6 exacta combination that paid $84.00 for a $2.00 bet. Total return for the race; $5,840.
Flanigan leaves The BIG One with his $5,858.30 final bankroll, plus first-place prize money of $35,200, plus an NHC package, plus a $10,000 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge entry. The BIG One offered $103,000 in prize money, 10 NHC seats, eight BCBC seats and 10 Horse Player World Series entries. Total value of The BIG One including bankroll, tournament seats and all benefits was $375,600.
“This was my first time at The BIG One, and I loved the format. It was a select field with a live-bankroll format, and you really had to handicap. There were 20-1 shots coming in both days that no one had. That would never happen in a mythical money tourney, Flanigan said.”
Larry Burns…
led for much of Day 2 before being passed by Flanigan. He then hit the last race at Gulfstream but fell just shy of catching the leader. Burns finished with $5,121.10, more than twice as much as third place finisher Tony Zhou.
Burns received $17,600 in addition to his final, live-betting bankroll. Like Flanigan and the other Top 8 finishers, Burns wins NHC and BCBC seats.
All 51 The BIG One contestants were winners when it came to the hospitality shown by the gracious and industrious staff at Laurel Park. Laurel officials pulled out all the stops for its tournament guests, providing sumptuous buffets, open bar and attentive customer service to all players throughout the two days.
“Laurel Park and its staff was great,” said Flanigan. “It’s terrific to see all the improvements and renovations being made here. And yet it still retains that great feel of an older track.”
Michael Caposio, Gary Johnson, Kevin McIntyre, Pete Acocella, Eric Moomey, Brett Wiener and Frank Sorenson completed the Top 10 at The BIG One.
Players started with a $1,000 live bankroll and were required to make 10 plays of at least $50 on each day of the two-day competition. Contest tracks on Saturday were Laurel, Gulfstream, Belmont and Parx. Sunday tracks were Laurel, Gulfstream, Belmont and Churchill Downs.
Next year’s The BIG One competition is expected to once again take place at Laurel Park in September or October of 2017. Qualifiers for the 2017 The BIG One will be offered exclusively at HorseTourneys.com starting this coming January.
Here are the complete final standings of this year’s event:
Michael Caposio of Temecula, Calif. had one big hit on Saturday. But that was enough to secure him the lead after Day 1 of the two-day The BIG One tourney at Laurel Park in Laurel, Md.
Caposio played $20 to win on 22-1 shot Broadway Bay ($46.20) in Race 5 at Parx to collect $462.00. And he also played a $20 cold exacta on Broadway Bay over runner up (3-1 shot) Kelly Tough. The $2 exacta came back at $248.20. But Caposio had it 10 times for a total haul of $2,944. It was the only winning race Caposio had all day…but that was enough (despite subsequent losses) to finish Day 1 with a total of $3,034 — $566 more than Day 1 runner up Nicholas Fazzolari.
Here are the complete end-of-Day-1 standings:
From an initial field of 52, three people busted out during Day 1. Plus one player was unable to attend The BIG One due to a personal issue. As a result, 48 players will return for Day 2, vying for $103,000 in prize money plus 10 NHC seats, 8 BCBC seats and 10 HPWS seats.
Day 2 will feature Laurel, Belmont, Gulfstream and Churchill Downs as contest tracks.
Although much of the HorseTourneys team is on site at Laurel this weekend to host The BIG One, we’ve been careful not to neglect our bread and butter — fun and lucrative weekend tourney action.
Things get rolling in earnest later today with our popular $5,000 Guaranteed Friday game, which pays down to fourth place and has $2,500 going to the winner. Entry is $185. Contest races for our featured Friday tourneys are: Belmont’s 6th through 9th; Churchill’s 9th and 10th; Woodbine’s 8th and 9th; and Laurel’s 6th and 9th.
The weekend’s richest event comes Saturday with our $12,500 Guaranteed game, which you many enter for $195. The winner gets $6,250 and prizes are paid down to 6th place. Contest races for this — and our other featured tourneys on Saturday — are: Belmont’s 6th through 10th; Parx’s 7th, 8th, 9th, 11th and 12th (It’s Pennsylvania Derby Day); and Woodbine’s 8th and 9th.
We’ll also have on Saturday a full package qualifier to next month’s Orleans Fall Classic (one package per 15 entries) for $97 and an entry-only qualifier (one per 20) to the 2017 Horse Player World Series for an entry fee of $87.
Sunday has a quintet of tourneys deserving special mention. We’ll start with our first-ever qualifier to the Twin Spires Online Championship. We’ll be awarding one $750 package for every 15 entries, with entries costing just $58. The Twin Spires Online Championship offers cash along with 20 NHC seats and 30 HPWS entries. And if at first you don’t succeed, we’ll have more qualifiers to this event in the coming weeks.
Also on Sunday are direct qualifiers to the Del Mar Fall Classic ($4,500 value; $212 entry fee, one winner per 25) and the Keeneland NHC/BCBC Challenge ($3,500 value, $160 entry fee, one winner per 25). Contest races for these and our other major Sunday tourneys are Belmont’s 5th through 9th races; Churchill’s 9th and 10th races; Laurel’s 6th, 8th and 9th races; and Gulfstream’s 8th and 10th races. Twelve races in all.
Last but not least, our cash game specialists are sure to enjoy either our $7,500 Guaranteed game or our $1,500 Guaranteed Exacta Box game…or both! Both contests pay down to 5th with top prizes of $3,750 in our $7,500 game ($190 entry fee) and $600 in our Exacta game ($54 entry).
Incidentally, our exacta box game aficionados should know that our popular “Speed Picks” selection feature is now available for all exacta games. So playing these should be easier than ever.
Whether you’re enjoying a nice weekend at home or here at Laurel for The BIG One, we wish you a fun and profitable final weekend in September. Good luck!
Laurel Park will be the epicenter of the Horse Racing Tournament world this Saturday and Sunday when the suburban Baltimore track, in conjunction with HorseTourneys, plays host to The BIG One.
We like to call The BIG One “The high expectation tourney” and here’s why: The final field will number between 52 and 57 (depending on whether there are any takers for the five available late “buy in” spots at $9,000 each) and prize pools are expected to be at least $90,000 (more if there are any people buying in before Saturday). There are also 28 seats to major tournaments up for grabs: 10 NHC packages, 8 BCBC entries and 10 Horse Player World Series (HPWS) entries. (Players may opt to receive $1,500 cash in lieu of an HPWS seat if he/she prefers.). If you simply finish in the top half of the field, you should win a seat to a “major”.
For the first time this year, The BIG One will be contested with a live-bankroll format with each player starting with $1,000 and required to play at least $50 (win, place, exacta or a combination thereof) on 10 different races per day. Five of those races each day will be on designated mandatory races and five being on any other race from races at eligible contest tracks. On Saturday, contest tracks will be Belmont, Gulfstream, Laurel and Parx (Saturday is Pennsylvania Derby Day). On Sunday, the contest tracks are Belmont, Gulfstream, Laurel and Churchill Downs.
Players, of course, keep anything they earn from their live-bankroll wagers plus any share of the $90,000+ prize pool they earn. And, of course, there are those 28 tourney seats.
It is our sincere hope that even those who don’t have a lucky weekend still enjoy themselves. All of The BIG One participants receive a complimentary three-night hotel stay, transportation between the hotel and track, plus a Friday night welcome dinner with open bar — plus buffet lunches and open bar at Laurel on both days of the competition. Players are also welcome to bring a guest or two to accompany them during all of the fun.
Check out this space for post-event recaps and our @HorseTourneys Twitter feed for live updates throughout the weekend. And to the 52 of you lucky (and skilled) enough to have qualified…we look forward to seeing you there.
We all know what a “Key Race” is…a race in which, say, three or more starters go on to win or do unusually well in their next race. Could it be that there is such a thing as a “Key Contest”?? After last weekend’s cash games at HorseTourneys, I’m starting to wonder.
Take a look at the above leaderboard in Saturday’s $12,500 Guaranteed tourney. You’ll see Anthony Trezza won $6,250 for his first-place score of $136.80. Finishing third, good for $3,000, was Charles Browning with a score of $91.20. I typed Charles’s name in italics a la a company line in the PPs for a next-out winner because check out what happened in Sunday’s $7,500 Guaranteed game:
…Yep, Browning, our third-place finisher on Saturday, came out of that race…err, contest…to win our featured Sunday cash game. And check out who ran third on Sunday: Saturday winner Anthony Trezza. If there IS such a thing as a key contest, then I guess last Saturday’s $12,500 game was it. For the record, Trezza collected a total of $7,500 for his win and third — and Browning received $6,750 for his second and first.
Before we move on to the rest of Sunday, kudos to Ben Clayton and Anthony Garafalo who each won full packages to the Orleans Fall Classic on Saturday…and to Peter Milburn and Howard Welsh won won $1,500 entries into next year’s Horse Player World Series.
On Sunday, Kevin Jones and William Epp became the final two online qualifiers for The BIG One, which will be held this Saturday and Sunday at Laurel.
The live-bankroll event, limited to a maximum of 57 players (all with one entry each), awards cash along with 10 NHC spots, eight BCBC entries and 10 HPWS seats. Participants in The BIG One have an excellent chance of walking away with a seat in a “major” tourney. If you want in and haven’t qualified, you can buy in for $9,000 but there are only five buy-in seats available so contact HorseTourneys ASAP if you are interested in one of these five buy-in seats.
Scores were high in Sunday’s 3-seat Guaranteed NHC qualifier. Congratulations to Gary Gristick ($139.70), Edward Osterhout ($125.20) and Dan Flanigan ($124.20) who finished at the top of the heap and all punched their tickets to the big dance.
In other high-end qualifiers on Sunday, Jim Klein ($134.50) and Bill O’Neal ($122.80) won $3,500 packages to next month’s Keeneland NHC/BCBC Challenge. And Pete Acocella ($96.60) took top honors in winning a $4,500 package to November’s Del Mar Fall Classic.
Last but not least, Ruben Lopez had $1 exacta payoffs of over $90 in both Woodbine’s 8th race and Woodbine’s 9th race to win the $600 first prize in Sunday’s $1,500 guaranteed Exacta Box tourney. Ruben is undoubtedly hoping that this becomes a “key contest” for next Sunday’s guaranteed exacta box tourney!
Thanks to all of our participants in last weekend’s tourneys, and good luck in all of your contest endeavors this week. We’ll be bringing you updates here and on Twitter live from The BIG One at Laurel this weekend.
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