The Cash Payout for the Thunder EquiGames Open Barrel Race, presented by Charmayne James, has risen from $40,000 last year to over $100,000 this year, not including the prizes. The payback is 125% of the total entry fees at this point, which is great for racers. As is, 57% of the racers will receive a check and that is after we have already doubled the number of racers from last year.
The race has recently undergone a payoff change. After some subtle urgings from contestants, Denny and Charmayne agreed that the average payoff was out of balance with $50K to first place. Thus, earlier this week they asked if the contestants wanted to stay with a front-loaded race, or to take the actual added money and do a regular added-money distribution. The response was overwhelmingly in the favor of the regular added-money, with 1st place still paying at least $20,000. So yes, the Open Barrel Race will do a normal payoff calculation with the $41,000 ADDED.
We are reducing the late fee to $100 to hopefully encourage more entries and get more money into the pot. (Also, please note that there are no late fees for those adding a second horse if you are already entered). All entries that come in from this point forward will be added to the average. With enough new entries we are hoping that we may be able to get 1st place up over $25,000 with standard payback.
Again, we are very optimistic that we can entice more late entries with the revised payout. Our payout looks tremendous at $100,000, but with just a little more support and entries, we can really turn the burner up.
To see the updated payout information and contestant list, visit www.equigames.com
>
