Recently we made the final Saturday HT Tour event of the month a $50,000 Guaranteed tourney (instead of $30,000 Guaranteed)—while holding the line on the entry fee ($350). It’s time for another one this Saturday, and value-minded contest players should pay attention because the May renewal wound up going off with an extremely horseplayer-friendly takeout rate of 0.1 percent. As always, real-time tracking of the prize pool can be easily viewed on the right-hand side of the HorseTourneys homepage.

There were plenty of big prices floating around out there basically every day except Thursday, and since it was a “Pick & Pray weekend” here, one might have expected lots of multiple winners. That was not the case, however. A single big price can be great for a deft multi-tabler. Two or more can bring about chaos. We also had a 39-1 bomb on Sunday that, to this observer, was really hard to dope out—and not many could. 

If you’re a dad who’s a contest player, it’s always fun to try and qualify for the NHC for not a lot of money. The same holds true for mothers, daughters and sons. On Father’s Day, all four groups will have their chance at HorsePlayers in an atypical three-seats-guaranteed NHC qualifier—with an equally atypical entry fee of $100.

We couldn’t use as many Belmont Stakes Day races as we might have expected to, but the three that made the cut turned out to be exciting and/or lucrative heats. Obviously 19-1 winner Tribhuvan in the Manhattan was a key horse to have. Most—but not all—of the Saturday winners had that Chad Brown trainee. On Friday and Sunday, however, the top winners were all in a pretty tight, $15-$20 range. That meant multiple paths to victory and no single-day mega winners. In fact, two of the few to pull off multiple victories last week recorded their triumphs on different days. 

It’s Belmont Stakes Day on Saturday, so we’re raising the stakes by adding a $15,000 Guaranteed Pick & Pray to the day’s lineup—which already includes a $30,000 Guaranteed Live-format tourney. Both will serve as HT Tour events this Saturday, so the opportunities to earn valuable HT Tour points will be doubled.

It was a fun week at HorseTourneys and HorsePlayers—particularly with respect to NHC qualifying. We saw one of the event’s most storied names win her way back to the 2023 renewal. Meanwhile, a similarly happy outcome befell one of the most talked-about participants in NHC history.

We’ve got a tournament to fill on September 17th and 18th—The BIG One here at HorseTourneys. It offers cash and 10 top contest seats to a field that will number no more than 57. To get to that 57 number—or at least fairly close to it—we need to start offering two guaranteed qualifiers per week rather than one. So starting this week, look for a play-in to The BIG One on Saturday…as well as the one on Sunday to which you may have already grown accustomed.

No one is playing better right now than Drew Keaton.

With the upcoming holiday weekend encompassing the final Saturday of the month in addition to Memorial Day, there’s a lot going on at HorseTourneys over the next four days.

Looking back at last weekend, three of the biggest winners had to be Early Voting—for his performance in Baltimore; Rich Strike—for not going to Baltimore (where, in hindsight, the track most likely would not have suited him); and, of course, Lawrence Kahlden.