Last year, HorseTourneys unveiled a four-race series of its top events, the Flo-Cal Faceoff in January, the Players Championship in April, the Spa & Surf Showdown in August and the brand new Pick & Pray® Classic in November. Known as the HorseTourneys Grand Slam, the series awarded bonuses to those who, based on a points formula, performed best throughout the four marquee tourneys.
This year, there’s another addition.
HorseTourneys is introducing a fifth competition to the series: the $250,000 Guaranteed New York, New York Challenge. The resulting five-contest sequence will be known, collectively, as the HorseTourneys Champions Series.
Concluding with Belmont Stakes Day, the New York, New York Challenge will be a two-day tourney with an entry fee of $2,000. The event will be comprised of the full cards from Saratoga Race Course on Friday and Saturday, June 6 and 7. Last year’s Belmont Stakes Eve and Belmont Stakes Day programs at Saratoga consisted of a total of 26 races—13 of them graded stakes.
Like the Pick & Pray® Classic, the New York, New York Challenge will be will be contested in HorseTourneys’ popular Pick & Pray® format, which requires players to enter all of their selections each day prior to that day’s first contest race.
Players will receive HorseTourneys Champions Series points at the conclusion of each leg of the five-race sequence. The points formula will award 100 points for a first-place finish, 99 points for second, 98 points for third, down to 1 point for a 100th-place finish.
At the conclusion of the 2025 Pick & Pray® Classic, final positions in the HorseTourneys Champions Series will be determined based on players’ aggregate points totals.
End-of-series bonuses will be awarded as follows:
1st place: The overall points leader at the end of the HorseTourneys Grand Slam series will receive a complimentary entry to all five (5) HorseTourneys Champions Series events in 2026.
2nd place: The runner up will receive entries to three (3) HorseTourneys Champions Series events of his or her choosing in 2026.
3rd place: The third-place finisher will receive an entry to one (1) HorseTourneys Champions Series event of his or her choice in 2026.
The 2025 HorseTourneys Champions Series will begin with this weekend’s $250,000 Guaranteed Flo-Cal Faceoff on February 1-2. The Flo-Cal Faceoff calls on players to make selections in every race on the Gulfstream and Santa Anita cards each day. The Flo-Cal Faceoff carries an entry fee of $1,500, and entries are limited to two per person. Qualifying tourneys will continue to be offered at HorseTourneys through January 31.
In 2024, Michael Solakis won the Flo-Cal Faceoff and earned $168,405 from a final, all-cash prize pool of $437,417.
The second leg of the HorseTourneys Champions Series will be the Players Championship on April 5-6, followed by the New York, New York Challenge, then the Spa & Surf Showdown in August (dates TBA) and November’s Pick & Pray Classic (dates also TBA).
Questions about the 2025 HorseTourneys Champions Series should be directed to McKay Smith, President of HorseTourneys.com. Email: support@horsetourneys.com
