A total of 664 horseplayers will match up Saturday in the 18th annual Xpressbet Beat the Host Championship Round. Those players were able to defeat the weekly host’s contest total at least once during the 8 sessions throughout January and February. Now, they’ll take on one another over 10 contest races for $15,000 in handicapping tournament prizes – topped by a $6,000 valued entry into the 2024 Pegasus World Cup Betting Challenge. Places two through six will earn $1,500 entries of their choosing into either the Florida Derby Day Challenge or the Santa Anita Derby Day Challenge on April 1 and April 8, respectively.

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. Xpressbet has selected the contest races for Saturday, which will include:

Gulfstream Races 7,9,10,11,12
Santa Anita Races 1,4,5,7,8

Here’s a look at the seasonal results, week-by-week (weekly top prize $1,000):

Feb. 25: top total $127.00 Shoko Mizumoto | vs. host Eddie Olczyk
Feb. 18: top total $128.50 Rick Millard | vs. host Michelle Yu
Feb. 11: top total $108.50 Eddie Chen | vs. host Ron Nicoletti
Feb. 4: top total $143.50 Mike Cappel | vs. host Tom Quigley
Jan. 28: top total $132.00 Ray Barlow | vs. host Jeff Siegel
Jan. 21: top total $173.50 Walter Calwell | vs. host Brian Nadeau
Jan. 14: top total $171.00 John Morrow | vs. host Millie Ball
Jan. 7: top total $161.00 Nathan Beringer | vs. host Jeremy Plonk

Top cumulative bankrolls for Beat The Host 2023, earning seats to either the 2024 Pegasus World Cup Betting Challenge ($6,000 value) or 2023 Ultimate Betting Championship ($3,500 value):

1-Tom Bassett ($571.00)
2-Walter Calwell ($567.50)
3-William Epp ($533.00)
4-Karen Toyama ($514.00)
5-John Deville ($488.00)

Tom Bassett was the only player to sweep the hosts all 8 weeks and earned the contest’s $6,500 bonus for doing so. His consistency was rewarded throughout the season despite not winning any of the 8 individual weekly top prizes.

For more on the expansive tournament scene online at Xpressbet, visit: https://www.xpressbet.com/tournaments.