Gulfstream Park racing analyst and handicapper Ron Nicoletti will take on all challengers in this week’s Xpressbet Beat the Host tournament. Saturday marks week 6 of 8 and provides players another chance to qualify for the final round and to garner their share of $60,000 in weekly and seasonal prizes.
Congratulations are in order to Mike Kappel, who was the weekly prize winner of $1,000 on February 4 with $143.50 in parimutuel winnings. Walter Calwell continues to lead the seasonal leaderboard with $393 earned, $10.50 ahead of Thomas Bassett. A total of 26 players have reached $300 or more in cumulative earnings.
So far this season, 588 players have qualified for the March 11 Beat the Host Championship round: 37 in Week 1, 336 in Week 2, 91 in Week 3, 118 in Week 4 and a mere 6 last week vs. Tom Quigley. The 18th season of Beat the Host runs through the end of February. Register here.
Beat the Host encompasses 10 races each contest Saturday, split between Gulfstream Park and Santa Anita. The host picks the races, which are published each Friday at Xpressbet.com. 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 rising up the leaderboard and potentially topping the experts.
Beat the host’s total once to qualify for the BTH Championship (maximum 2 seats per qualifier). Weekly prizes include $1,000 to the contestant with the highest accumulated dollar total, as well as $750 to second and $250 to third. The March 11 Beat The Host Championship will pit all weekly winning players against one another in pursuit of seats in the lucrative Pegasus World Cup Betting Challenge, Xpressbet Santa Anita Derby Challenge and Xpressbet Florida Derby Challenge tournaments.
A sweep the host bonus ($6,500) and season leaderboard champion (Pegasus World Cup Betting Challenge, 1/ST Ultimate Betting Challenge seats) also are in prize play. Through 5 weeks, only 2 players remain eligible to sweep the hosts. Quigley knocked out 12 such hopefuls a week ago.
So which hosts stand in your way?
Jan. 7--Jeremy Plonk (1/ST)
Jan. 14--Millie Ball (Santa Anita & XBTV)
Jan. 21—Brian Nadeau (Gulfstream Park)
Jan. 28--Jeff Siegel (1/ST & XBTV)
Feb. 4--Tom Quigley (Santa Anita)
Feb. 11--Ron Nicoletti (Gulfstream Park)
Feb. 18—Michelle Yu (Santa Anita & XBTV)
Feb 25--Eddie Olczyk (1/ST & NBC)
Registration is open: sign up today and play Saturday.
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