The final week of the $10,000-added Xpressbet Fun in the Sun Handicapping Tournament provides a double shot of contest excitement. Saturday’s seventh and final regular season round leads into Labor Day Monday’s Final Table showdown among the 35 total weekly qualifiers.
Saturday’s final 5 races at Saratoga and first 5 races at Del Mar once again make the up the contest, and this time include the Travers Stakes as headliner.
Last week, Jon Vanniel took the top prize of $1,029 with a top bankroll of $232.50. Mathew Mcaleer finished second ($428.75 prize, $205 bankroll) while third place went to Anthony Caruso ($257.25 prize, $194 bankroll). Joining that trio in last week’s top-5 and earning seats to the Final Table were Tom Mulligan ($187.50 bankroll) and Steven Hilbert ($187 bankroll).
Fun in the Sun offers its Final Table format for the fifth straight year and the progressive contest jackpot for 2024 stands at $15,010 with $10,000 seeded by Xpressbet. So far, 30 of 35 seats have been filled by 29 different players. They are:
Week 1: Lyle Nordby, Barry Hill, Bob Rea, George Smith, John Alders
Week 2: Thomas Guadagno, Michael Taran, Dino Sampo, Lance Kawamura, Steven Daniel
Week 3: Steven Jones, Jeffrey Danner, Terrence Severson, Sean Omalley, Kevin Jones
Week 4: William Tilley, John Wonkovich, Nelson Jaramillo, Gordon Maruya, Joe Rotell
Week 5: Greg Knepper, Steve Echolds, William Tilley (dual qualifier), Jeff Falconio, Christopher Couples
Week 6: John Vanniel, Matthew Mcaleer, Anothony Caruso, Tom Mulligan, Steven Hilbert
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Qualifying Weeks (Saturdays)
July 20, 27
August 3,10,17,24,31
Final Table
September 2 (Monday)
The weekly contest format includes a $100 buy-in and $25 entry fee, which includes the tournament’s 10 weekly $10 win bets from Saratoga (last 5 races) and Del Mar (first 5 races). The Top-5 finishers by earnings each of the seven qualifying weeks earn berths into the Final Table. With 100% of tournament fees paid back to players, weekly prize pools compromise of 70% paid out to the Saturday leaderboard, while 30% rolls over to the Final Table (in addition to the $10,000 seed from Xpressbet).
Last year, Joe Tambasco topped Week 2 of the contest and later earned the $8,911 first prize at the Final Table, which had a prize pool in excess of $16,000.
Fun in the Sun Final Table Winners
2020 Robert Rosen
2021 Wayne Tam
2022 Kevin Saunders
2023 Joe Tambasco
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