In The Money Telegraph
Friday, August 21, 2026 · By ITM Staff
Friday’s $20 Path to the Breeders’ Cup
Every Friday on the road to the Breeders’ Cup, the ITM Horseplayers Tour runs a $20 Pick & Pray feeder with a real prize at the end of it — and two ways to reach a BCBC seat. Win your way through Friday’s game and you advance to Saturday’s qualifier, where a Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge seat is on the line. Finish in the top four on Friday and you also lock a place in the season-ending ITM Tour Playoffs, where another $10,000 BCBC seat is awarded at no extra cost. The house cut on your $20 goes straight to Breeders’ Cup Charities, and you can play up to three entries.
PTF broke down this week’s card — a blend of Saratoga and Del Mar races — with Jackson Muniz, who has moved to the other side of the counter this year, now running the contests over at NYRA Bets after making his own first BCBC appearance a year ago. They dig into the contest angles, including a wide-open Fleet Indian Stakes, and the philosophy of when to take a favorite in a large-field feeder. Watch below, and enter this week’s game at the link.
Enter Friday’s Tour feeder on HorsePlayers →
Saturday’s Coast-to-Coast Blockbuster
Something PTF and Jackson are both fired up about: Saturday’s NYRA Cross Country Pick 5 links Saratoga and Del Mar on one of the deepest stakes days of the summer, with graded action coast to coast. It’s a 50-cent minimum at a low 15% takeout — and the kind of multi-track sequence the big computer teams tend to leave alone, which is exactly why the players like it. Here’s the lineup:
Saratoga R10 — Ballston Spa (G2) — 6:07 p.m. ET
Saratoga R11 — Alabama (G1) — 6:42 p.m. ET
Del Mar R5 — Green Flash (G2) — 7:00 p.m. ET
Del Mar R9 — Del Mar Oaks (G1) — 9:00 p.m. ET
Del Mar R10 — Pacific Classic (G1) — 9:30 p.m. ET
The Alabama has Counting Stars looking the one to beat, and the $1 million Pacific Classic is a “Win and You’re In’’ to the Breeders’ Cup Classic. JK and PTF will have full coverage Saturday.
Friday’s Cards
Del Mar. Dean Keppler makes Captain Shreve his best bet in Race 2, and notes a $30,899 Pick Six carryover that begins in Race 3 — a live target for the sequence players. Keppler’s card →
Monmouth. A turf-sprint lover’s six-race card, with four of the six at five furlongs on the grass and first post at 2:00 p.m. ET. Eric Solomon has it all. Solomon’s card →
Still Developing: The Gramm Case
PTF’s reported piece on the HISA case against Marshall Gramm — who, in the interest of disclosure, is a friend and ITM contributor, and whose Ten Strike Racing was the company’s first sponsor — remains up on the site, and he’s signaled a possible follow-up as the story develops toward September’s hearings. He and JK plan to take it up on the YouTube channel as well. Read the piece →
ITM Plus
Alabama Day and the Road to Travers
A huge Saratoga Saturday leads into Travers week ahead. ITM Plus members get the members’ bet share, Nick Tammaro’s daily Saratoga notebook, exclusive shows, and full coverage through Travers and on to the Breeders’ Cup.
More all weekend at inthemoneypodcast.com and on the ITM YouTube channel, with premium coverage on ITM Plus.
