Qualifiers to January 22 NHC LAST CHANCE Contest at Treasure Island Begin Sat., Dec. 6

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Players can win the $500 entry to the Thursday, January 22 Treasure Island NHC “Last Chance” contest, which will award a MINIMUM of five (5) NHC seats and hotel stays to this year’s NHC, which begins on Friday, January 23.

Note that players that have already earned one seat to the NHC MAY win a second seat in this last chance qualifier.

Qualifiers at HorseTourneys will be held on BOTH Saturdays and Sundays through the weekend of Jan. 18.

If players winning entries to the contest end up qualifying to the NHC before the contest, players may request an exchange of $500 credit – deadline to request is end of day Friday, January 16.

Daily Feeders Available for $16 into select weekend qualifiers.

Contact us with any questions.

MY ACCOUNT Section Upgraded; Includes Transaction Detail, Balance Tracking

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If you visit the “My Account” section (top right near account balance once logged in), you’ll notice some major improvements to that section, especially relating to your transaction history.  This new tracking is effective from October 16 onward.  An example of the new transaction history display is below:

Detail is now provided for all of the following: 
  • Deposits
  • Purchases
  • Withdrawals
  • User Cancellations (when player cancels an entry themselves)
  • Breakage Refunds
  • Prize Credits (winnings)
  • Balance Adjustments (those done manually by administrators)
  • Coupon Redemptions
  • Contest Cancellations (usually, when a contest does not fill to minimum entries)
  • Auto-Entries (when you win an entry into a future contest)
  • Declined Withdrawals (if your withdrawal was declined for any reason)
You may filter by transaction type using the drop-down menu on the upper right of the transaction section.  This will be helpful for players especially around tax season if total amount of purchases or deposits is desired:
You may also change details of your account profile (note that email change requests are sent to us via email and must be changed by HorseTourneys administrators).
We hope you find these new features useful; please contact us with any questions.

Now Accepting Paypal for Deposits

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We’re now accepting Paypal for deposits.  The option to deposit with Paypal is included in the drop-down menu under Payment Type on the main Deposit page.

Also note that Paypal may be used to withdraw amounts up to $600.  It’s a fast, safe and easy way to withdraw more quickly from your account rather than waiting for a check.

Please note that deposits with Paypal will not register correctly for users using Internet Explorer 7 or earlier.  If you have deposited using any of these older browsers and have not seen the credit to your HorseTourneys account, email us for help.

Shawn “Spike” Turner takes “The BIG One” at Laurel; Johnson 2nd, Podratz 3rd

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Longtime tournament horseplayer Shawn “Spike” Turner of Middletown, Maryland, took “The BIG One”, held at Laurel Park Oct 11-12.  Turner turned a single $25 feeder entry into a qualiifer into a haul of $70,500 in grand prize money plus a Breeders’ Cup Challenge and NHC berth.  Gary Johnson of Massillon, Ohio, was second, with Michelle Podratz of Santa Clarita, California, third.

Total prize money was $175,000, with the top five winners earning coveted seats to both the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge and NHC.  Finishers 6th thru 15th earned seats to the Horse Player World Series.  In total, nearly $300,000 in cash, prizes and amenities were awarded at this year’s event.

CLICK HERE FOR FULL FINAL STANDINGS

CLICK HERE FOR FINAL PRIZE LISTINGS

Improvement: Race Names Now Listed on Pick & Pray® Leaderboards

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We’ve added race labels with vertical orientation on all Pick & Pray leaderboards moving forward. This improvement makes it easier for players to recognize the proper picks column for each contest event.

PLEASE NOTE: This improvement involves HTML code that is only supported by more recent internet browsers. Older browsers, particularly older versions of Internet Explorer, will not support this feature. If do not see the race labels on a Pick & Pray contest, this likely means that you are using an outdated web browser and should consider upgrading to a newer version.

This improvement should be supported by the following web browsers:

Internet Explorer version 9.0 or greater
Mozilla Firefox version 3.5 or greater
Google Chrome version 4.0 or greater
Safari version 3.2 or greater

We hope you find this improvement useful.

Mike Mayo, 1954-2014

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From NTRA Press Release

Photo by NTRA/HorsePhotos

Mike Mayo, a handicapping tournament mainstay and the longtime Chairman of the NHC Players’ Committee, passed away Thursday, September 18 after a brief illness. Mike and his wife, Marsha, were familiar faces at racetracks and handicapping tournaments around the country, including at the NHC, where he was a 10-time qualifier.

Beyond the pari-mutuel windows and out of sight from most tournament players, Mike had a lasting and profound impact on the development and growth of the NHC, handicapping tournament play and Thoroughbred horse racing in general.

As Chairman of the NHC Players’ Committee, Mike was a tireless advocate for the horseplayer and a staunch believer that the NHC could help grow the popularity of horse racing. The Players’ Committee serves as a voice for all NHC tournament players and assists the NTRA with the establishment of NHC rules, formats and procedures. Under Mike’s steady hand, the committee helped set the stage for the 2008 launch of the NHC Tour, which connects tournaments through a points system and prize money. The Tour has helped fuel record participation in NHC tournaments and record purses at the NHC, which began in 2000 with a purse of $192,000 and this January will offer a purse of well over $2 million.

Mike was a longtime proponent of a “Final Table” format for the NHC. His vision become reality earlier this year when the NHC instituted a ”Final 50” and “Final Table.” By all accounts, the result was the most exciting NHC in the event’s 15-year history. Several years ago, Mike sent a letter to the NTRA formally requesting that the organization appoint a horseplayer to its Board of Directors. Mike felt strongly that horseplayers, whose wagering dollars fuel every aspect of the industry, deserved a seat and voice at the table. In August, Judy Wagner became the first horseplayer elected to serve on the 13-member NTRA Board.

Funeral arrangements for Mike were still pending, however, Mike did make it clear that he was not a big fan of flowers. He asked that horseplayers and friends consider a contribution to Old Friends retirement farm, to go toward the care of the beautiful animals that brought him so much pleasure. Contributions can be made directly to Old Friends, 1841 Paynes Depot Road, Georgetown, KY 40324 or online via PayPal at www.oldfriendsequine.org.

– Keith Chamblin

 

NEW Player-Friendly Feature – Copy Picks from One Entry to Another

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  • Accessible through “Speed Picks”
  • Entries must have same race schedule

Players may now copy picks from one entry to another entry that is run under the same contest schedule (i.e., uses the same races). This is a useful, time-saving feature for players that play multiple entries in multiple contests. To access the copy feature, please follow the instructions below:

1. Make picks for one of your entries using either the standard or Speed Picks interface – the copy function will not be available until picks have been made for the entry you wish to copy FROM.

2. Access the “Speed Picks” function through the blue button on your entry you wish to copy FROM. The copy function is ONLY accessible through the Speed Picks interface (but you may still use the standard interface to make your selections):

3. Locate the “Copy these picks to entry” menu available beneath the contest title:


4. Choose the other entry you wish to copy picks from your existing entry TO. A list of your active entries using the same contest schedule will display in the drop down menu:

5. A confirmation dialogue box will appear to make sure that you indeed want to copy picks. Choose OK if you wish to do so:

6. Once you click OK, your picks will be copied to the other entry and a dialogue box will appear confirming the copied picks:


7. You can return to the “View/Make Picks” summary page to confirm that your entry has been successfully copied:


IMPORTANT!

A few important notes to be aware of when copying picks:

(1) You MAY copy selections from an entry into another entry that already has selections made. If you do this, your copied picks will replace any picks that have already been made in the other entry – so be careful to ensure that you wish to copy before doing so.

(2) If you copy picks from an entry that contains NO SELECTION into another entry that already contains a pick for that particular race, the existing pick in the entry that you are copying TO will remain. This is intended to make sure that players are not accidentally stuck with NO SELECTION if an error has been made by the player.

(3) You MAY copy selections from entries that include races that have already closed. If you do this, picks will only copy for the races that are still OPEN (only relevant in the Live format).

While this feature has been extensively tested, if you experience any issues, please send us an email at support@horsetourneys.com with as much detail as possible about what you are experiencing.

We hope you enjoy this new feature, and we look forward to introducing more player-friendly improvements down the road.