A total of 496 players managed to Beat the Host at least once during the 8-week regular season and have qualified for Saturday’s Championship Round. Three players – Rick Quayle, John Souza and Michael Arena – topped the hosts in every week of the handicapping contest to share the $6,500 Sweep the Host prize ($2,166.67 apiece).

Kudos also go out to Glenn Gulden, who comfortably topped the cumulative season leaderboard. The top-5 players on the season standings each earned $6,000-valued berths into either the 2025 Ultimate Betting Challenge or the 2026 Pegasus World Cup Betting Challenge. That list of players included Lawrence Wise, Michael Arena, Steven Counihan and Peter Grau.

As for the $2,000 weekly prize pools throughout the contest ($1,000 to first place), the top players rounded out this way.

Week 1: Elizabeth Huffman
Week 2: Glenn Gulden
Week 3: Glenn Gulden
Week 4: Gary Flynn
Week 5: Greg Peterson
Week 6: Steven Counihan
Week 7: John Fallon
Week 8: Rick Quayle

Overall, 711 players participated in Beat the Host during the season, meaning just under 70 percent of players defeated a host at least one week to get to the Championship Round. Hosts during Season 20 included Pete Aiello, Brian Nadeau and Ron Nicoletti from Gulfstream Park; Millie Ball, Frank Mirahmadi, Tom Quigley and Jeff Siegel of Santa Anita; and 1/ST BET and Xpressbet’s Jeremy Plonk.

Beat the Host encompasses 10 races each contest Saturday, split between the final 5 Gulfstream Park races and first 5 from Santa Anita. 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 prize pools.

The BTH Championship pits 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.

For more on Xpressbet tournaments: visit the tourneys page here.