For the eighth year in a row, America’s Best Racing is challenging some of the brightest minds in horse betting to come up with their top three picks for key races every weekend leading up to the 2024 Triple Crown and then continuing through the 2024 Breeders’ Cup World Championships. The handicappers face off in what we like to call the “Big-Race Showdown.”

The players’ picks will be posted here and a running bankroll will be kept to track their success all year long. Bankrolls will be tabulated on the basis of $2 exacta and $2 trifecta box bets of each player’s top three selections. We will also be keeping track of which player correctly selects the most winners.

Your players for the 2024 Big Race Showdown season are Edison Hatter (In The Money Media Podcast Host & Track Announcer), Thomas Kearney (Track Announcer, Shenandoah Downs), Ashley Mailloux (freelance racing analyst), Jessica Paquette (Racecaller for Parx Racing, Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation), John Piassek (Communications Manager, Maryland Horse Breeders Association),  Roberto Rodriguez (El Potro Roberto, DRF en Espanol), Mike Somich (VSiN Host; The Magic Mike Show – The Racing Dudes), Darwin Vizcaya (Handicapper and Host), Rowan Ward (Chartcaller at Hawthorne Race Track and a Freelance Writer), and Alexa Zepp (Handicapper, DRF).

This week’s Big-Race Showdown races are: the $1.25 million DraftKings Travers Stakes on Aug. 24 at Saratoga Race Course, the famed “Mid-Summer Derby” that is the most prestigious race for 3-year-olds outside of the Triple Crown races; and the $250,000 Pat O’Brien Stakes Aug. 24 at Del Mar, a “Win and You’re In” qualifier for the Big Ass Fans Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile.

The Travers itself plus four other Grade 1 races on Aug. 24 at Saratoga will air nationwide during a three-and-a-half-hour “Saratoga Saturdays” program on FOX. The Pat O'Brien Stakes plus all other races from Del Mar during the week will air on FanDuel TV.