The next-to-last week in the Xpressbet Beat the Host contest features Santa Anita racing analyst and handicapper Michelle Yu. Saturday marks week 7 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.

Thomas Bassett leads the seasonal leaderboard at $461.50 … a sum $33.50 more than any other player. Bassett also is the only player this season to top the hosts’ totals all 6 weeks to date. If he takes down the Week 7 and 8 hosts, he’ll win $6,500 in the Sweep the Host bonus. He’s already assured of a $4,000 consolation prize for outlasting all other players in terms of weekly ‘sweeps.’ Congratulations also are in order to Eddie Chen, who was the weekly prize winner of $1,000 on February 11 with $108.50 in parimutuel winnings.

So far this season, 595 players have qualified for the March 11 Beat the Host Championship round. 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.

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.