It’s all come down to this in the 21st season of the Xpressbet Beat the Host handicapping contest. Saturday’s Championship Round matches 575 entries that managed to take down at least one host’s total during the 9 qualifying weeks this season. They’ll play for $15,000 in prizes.
The $65,000 Beat the Host competition encompasses 10 races each contest Saturday, split between the final 5 Gulfstream Park races and first 5 from Santa Anita. Contestants place $5 win bets on the Xpressbet platform for each of the 10 Beat the Host races, earning their parimutuel winnings as well as prize pools.
Last week, contestant Greg Lesko went into Week 9’s matchup vs. Gulfstream Park handicapper Ron Nicoletti with a chance of collecting the $6,500 Sweep the Host prize. But Nicoletti’s $71.50 total was far and away a host-best this season and denied Lesko the big prize. Lesko did accrue the $4,000 bonus for being the player who swept the hosts the longest in the knockout round format.
Only 7 eligible players topped Nicoletti’s total last week and joined the Championship Round pool. The Week 9 results saw William Epp top all players with a $167.00 bankroll good for the $1,000 weekly first prize. Wardell Dodds was next at $157.00 and earned a $750 prize, while Mark Hayes’ $153.50 bankroll was good for the $250 third-place prize.
The 9-week season cumulative bankroll leaderboard also concluded with the top-5 earners winning $6,000 paid entries into their choice of the 2027 Pegasus World Cup Betting Challenge or this Saturday’s 1/ST Ultimate Betting Challenge. The top-5 players throughout the regular season shuffled during the final week. Steven Busching rallied from third to first and ended with a $619.25 total. Longtime leader Christopher Cupples wound up second at $593.25. Ron Watson ($558.00), John Souza ($553.75) and Steven Dalbec ($548.50) held onto top-5 spots in the final go-around, the latter by a 50-cent margin that proved worth the $6,000 prize.
This season, 575 of 848 registered entries (68%) were able to qualify for the Beat the Host Championship Round. The hosts performed slightly better this season than last, when 496 of 711 entries (70%) forged by to the Championship Round. Saturday’s Beat the Host Championship Round winner earns a $6,000 berth into the 2027 Pegasus World Cup Betting Championship. Players who rank two through seven each earn $1,500 buy-in credits for the March 28 Xpressbet Florida Derby Challenge or the April 4 Santa Anita Derby Challenge.
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