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It was an active weekend in the tournament world — both onsite and online. HorseTourneys sends hearty congratulations out to Brent Sumja, who won the three-day Orleans Fall Classic this past Thursday, Friday and Saturday in Las Vegas. And also to Ryan Steigmeier, who scored a resounding victory in Sunday’s Keeneland NHC-BCBC Challenge. (We spoke to Ryan earlier today, and you can read more about his terrific win in our separate blog post about the Keeneland tournament.)
Ryan Steigmeier never really considered himself a serious tournament player. That may be changing, though, following the 38-year-old Title Insurance executive’s win in Sunday’s Keeneland NHC-BCBC Challenge, which earned the North Royalton, Ohio resident a total of $26,370 in cash, an NHC seat and a Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge seat.
Before we take a look at this weekend’s action, we want to send out special good luck wishes to the 17 HorseTourneys qualfiers who will be competing this weekend at the Keeneland NHC/BCBC Challenge and the 21 HorseTourneys winners who will do battle at the Orleans Fall Classic. Nothing would make us happier than to see HorseTourneys graduates take first place in both events.
From NTRA Press Release
NHC Q&A: Dan Flanigan
Dan Flanigan of Medina, Minn., bested a field of 51 players to win The BIG One last month at Laurel Park, taking home first-place money of $35,200 on top of his $5,850 bankroll. He also earned spots in the $2.8 million (estimated) Daily Racing Form/NTRA National Handicapping Championship (NHC) presented by Racetrack Television Network and Treasure Island Las Vegas, and the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge (BCBC).
It’s not just a great weekend of Breeders’ Cup prep races. Opening Day at Keeneland is Friday and we’re ready for it here at HorseTourneys. We’ll be hosting 24 full-card, Keeneland-only tourneys on Friday (including three guaranteed cash games) with prices ranging from $5-$110 so that you can jump right in to what is always an exciting meet each fall. Here are just a handful of them:
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.
