Outside of Triple Crown winners, one of the most exclusive clubs in horse racing is that of the NHC Champions. Sadly, that club decreased by one not long ago when the unforgettable John Conte passed away.

This past week, there was much happier news on the NHC “Alumni” front, as two past champions rose to the top once again to post important victories here at HorseTourneys and HorsePlayers.

Gulfstream Park kicked off the most anticipated portion of its season on Wednesday, and to ratchet up the excitement of their opening weekend just a bit more, we’re unveiling a weekly Friday Big Bucks tourney this week—in addition to the ones that have already become staples of our Saturday and Sunday schedules.

They’ve always been “Big” and now they’re more frequent.

By popular demand, HorseTourneys has added a third Big Bucks event to the featured-tourney schedule each week. The new addition comes on Friday — an up-to-$20,000 Pick & Pray with $7,500 Guaranteed. As with the other Big Bucks games on Saturdays and Sundays, the entry fee is $1,150.

With fewer people traveling for Thanksgiving this year, perhaps it afforded people more quality time to spend with their computer or hand-held electronic device. Whatever the reason, things were busy around here with 26 featured tourneys during the holiday week. The first of those took place on Wednesday.

Thanksgiving weekend is understandably being celebrated on a smaller scale this year—but not at HorseTourneys! With so many staying home, we’re ramping up with 24 marquee competitions from Thursday to Sunday, including five features on Turkey Day itself.

You may have heard that the Flo-Cal Faceoff (January 9-10, $150,000 Gtd.), the Players Championship (April 2-3) and the Spa & Surf Showdown (August 14-15) make up the new 2021 Tourney Triple series here at HorseTourneys. And you may already realize that annuity bonuses worth $2 million and $1 million are available should someone sweep the series or capture two of the three legs.

Did you know, though, that three valuable bonus prizes will definitely be won by those who perform the best across the three events?

With 20+ featured tourneys every week, you’d think a somewhat monotonous “sameness” would set in, with one contest playing out pretty much the same as the next one. However, high volume can yield a wider range of outcomes, and we certainly saw an unusual one on Friday.

As we get closer to the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, the featured-tourney pace remains brisk at HorseTourneys and HorsePlayers with 22 marquee games this Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

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, it’s a good idea that we explain our approach to scheduling, which we tweak this time of year.  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.

Some days, you need to hunt down that one longshot hiding out there in order to succeed. Other days call for stringing together a bunch of shorter-priced winners. We saw examples of both last week at HorseTourneys—and, perhaps more surprisingly, we saw players who were able to prosper by shifting gears from one day to the next.