For the ninth 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 2025 Triple Crown and then continuing through the 2025 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 2025 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 (Assistant Racing Secretary, Yonkers Raceway),  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, America's Best Racing). 

This week’s Big-Race Showdown races are: the $500,000 Personal Ensign Stakes, a marquee 1 1/8-mile race for older females Saturday at Saratoga Race Course that is a “Win and You’re In” qualifier for the 2025 Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff Nov. 1 at Del Mar; the 156^th DraftKings Travers Stakes, the 1 ¼-mile “Mid-summer Derby” at Saratoga;  and the $250,000 Pat O’Brien Stakes Saturday at Del Mar, which offers an expenses-paid starting spot in the Big Ass Fans Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile Nov. 1 at Del Mar.

The Travers is the final of six graded stakes scheduled at the Spa on Saturday, and five of those will be broadcast nationwide on FOX as part of a three-and-a-half hour “Saratoga Saturdays” show produced by NYRA. That show runs from 3 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. ET. The Personal Ensign has a post time ogf 3:45 p.m. ET, and the Travers has a scheduled post time of 6:14 p.m. ET.

Live racing from tracks such as Del Mar (including the Pat O’Brien Stakes Saturday), Ellis Park (final weekend), Gulfstream Park, Woodbine, and Charles Town (including its marquee Charles Town Classic Stakes card Friday, Aug. 22) will be shown on FanDuel TV as part of its usual comprehensive weekly package.