In case you don’t know, Jobby Blevins’s first name is pronounced JOE-bee…as in “Patience of Job.” Patience is a virtue, as we’ve all been told at some point, and so it was for Jobby in Saturday’s $35,000 Guaranteed tourney.
Saturday is a big day in more ways than one. It’s opening day of the Championship Meet at Gulfstream Park, which includes a slew of large-field Claiming Crown races…and it’s Cigar Mile Day at Aqueduct. To befit a day that, it seems safe to say, is the biggest of the rest of 2018, we are offering a Guaranteed $35,000, live-format cash game on Saturday.
It was a busy—and long—holiday weekend at HorseTourneys that saw 21 featured tourneys conducted, and saw several players either continue on their hot streaks or start new ones of their own. The action got started on Wednesday, Thanksgiving eve.
We hope you have some time off over Thanksgiving weekend, because our featured-tourney plate is filled with delectable helpings that may have you coming back for seconds, thirds, fourths or even fifths during the five-day holiday weekend.
For the third consecutive weekend, we had someone pick seven winners in a single tourney. (Evan Trommer did it each of the previous two weeks.) Actually, this past weekend we had two different players do it…including one who did so on Friday when we only offer 10 races.
This blog is sent out annually as a reminder of some tweaks we here at HorseTourneys employ to try and mitigate the effects of winter weather on scheduling. For beginners and veteran tourney players alike, it’s always a good idea for a quick refresher:
As we roll into the winter months of January-February, we wanted to explain our approach to scheduling. We’ve employed this approach every year, and it just bears a quick reminder every November or so as chilly temperatures descend across the land.
As is stated in our Support FAQ section, the race schedule for multi-track tournaments–by which we mean our Featured schedules on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays–are traditionally posted 48-hours in advance of the date of the tournament. So for instance, the race schedule for the Featured Saturday tournaments is typically posted on Thursday afternoon.
Snow, ice and high winds will no doubt descend on some of the racetracks we like to use, be it Aqueduct in New York, Turfway in Kentucky or even some of our friends as far south as Louisiana. We hate cancellations as much as you do and always do our best to avoid them.
Therefore, essentially through March, we’ll post race schedules a day later – or approximately 24 hours prior to the contest. So a race schedule for a Featured Saturday will now be posted on Friday afternoon.
We realize that players like to have access to races as far in advance as possible, but for us, these extra 24-hours are often critical. During these months, weather can change dramatically in a 24-hour span. Having the extra time to survey what we think might happen makes it more likely that we’ll avoid making scheduling mistakes that could result in cancellations. This approach has proven prudent, as it’s helped save more than an handful of schedules that would otherwise have been scrapped.
Generally speaking, we will also avoid using cold-weather tracks in Quick Early Bird schedules whenever an alternative with more predictable weather is available, especially on the weekends. It is essential that Quick Early Bird schedules run on Saturdays and Sundays, since those schedules include so many feeders to the days’ Featured events. So for instance, you’ll be far more likely to see Tampa included in a QEB schedule than Aqueduct–even though we know Aqueduct is a more popular circuit.
Lastly, since many people ask us about replacing races with “alternate” races in the event of cancellations, we feel it’s helpful to explain how we approach scenarios where races are indeed cancelled:
Here at HorseTourneys, Eric Wing and I take scheduling very, very seriously. You spend a ton of time preparing, and we feel the above approach is the best to ensuring your play experiences as few inconveniences as possible.
We hope this provides some insight – email us at support@horsetourneys.com with any questions. Stay warm!
The calendar is winding down to Thanksgiving (a holiday many consider the most fun of all). That means that the focus for qualifying tournaments is narrowing a bit—mainly centering around the Horse Player World Series and, to an even greater degree, the NHC.
(Courtesy of Del Mar Thoroughbred Club)
There were plenty of prices out there Friday and Saturday. On Sunday—not so much. That set the table for a variety of winners—and winning styles—across 17 featured events during the weekend. It all got started on Friday.
We don’t believe in Breeders’ Cup hangovers here at HorseTourneys and HorsePlayers. Energized by an exciting Breeders’ Cup, we offer a strong menu of 19 featured events, including several lucrative cash games to go along with direct qualifiers to a slew of top-notch onsite tournaments. The weekend action kicks off on Friday.
