Solid action in four states has many bettors hitting road

Many contest players this weekend will double as road warriors, with brick-andmortar action in four states: New York, Florida, Nevada, and California.

At the center of the storm is the Horse Player World Series in Vegas, a three-day tournament at the Orleans in Las Vegas that concludes Saturday. Also on Saturday is the $500 live-bank contest at Aqueduct, a strong card featuring two graded stakes in the Gotham and Tom Fool.

On Sunday, action shifts to Gulfstream and Santa Anita with the Ultimate Betting Challenge, a $4,500 live-bank event in which players can compete at either venue. Of that $4,500, $3,000 will act as a live bankroll, with the remaining $1,500 fueling the prize pool. Many players are expected to finish off in Vegas and head to Santa Anita for the UBC, hopping on cheap flights or driving through the desert.

Meanwhile, action will continue online at DRF Tournaments. With multi-tabling – entering multiple tournaments at once – becoming more popular, many of the UBC participants will also be involved online, playing a Sunday sequence that’s expected to lean heavily on the Gulfstream and Santa Anita cards they’ll have already handicapped.

Sunday’s featured event is the first qualifier for the World Horseplayer Tour/Santa Anita Preakness contest, in which all purse money will be added. This means that the $5,000 entry fee will act entirely as a live bankroll with no entry fee. The new two-day contest format will be filmed for a television pilot and will feature the first-ever live-bankroll final table. For more information about the WHT/SA Preakness tournament, check out http://www.drf.com/news/ new-event-unveiled-preaknessweekend.

As for Sunday’s qualifier, players must put up $458, and one in 12 will win their $5,000 seats. That’s a player-friendly takeout of less than 10 percent. The only place to qualify for the WHT/SA Preakness contest is DRF Tournaments.

Also on Sunday, there will be a one-day qualifier for NYRA’s Wood Memorial Day contest. Entries cost $60 and one in 10 will win a spot worth $500.

Saturday’s racing is loaded from coast to coast with a contest lineup projected to include stakes races from Aqueduct, Tampa Bay, and Santa Anita – though players should be aware that weather out west is not expected to be good. The featured DRFT contest is a Grade 1 qualifier for the World Championship of Handicapping that will award one in 10 entries a $5,000 buy-in to next year’s WCH, DRF’s big-money, no-takeout online contest.

Also on Saturday, there’s a $410 chance to win into Keeneland’s Grade 1 Gamble on Sunday, April 15. Those prize packages are worth $3,500 – $3,000 for the Keeneland buy-in plus $500 in travel. It’s possible a special Keeneland event will be added Sunday, so be on the lookout.

All the big games on DRF have feeders, most of which are running every operating day. A feeder is simply a qualifier for a qualifier – a lower buy-in to win into events such as the $458 WHT/SA Preakness qualifier or the $580 Grade 1 qualifiers for the WCH.

For a full list of all the games on DRF Tournaments, go to tournaments.drf.com.