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 Beverly D. Stakes, a 1 3/16-mile turf race for fillies and mares Saturday at Colonial Downs; and the $750,000 Resorts World Casino Sword Dancer Stakes Saturday at Saratoga Race Course, a “Win and You’re In” qualifier for the $5 million Longines Breeders’ Cup Turf in November at Del Mar.

Catch full coverage of Colonial’s Saturday card on FanDuel TV, including the Arlington Million Stakes, Secretariat Stakes, and the Beverly D. NYRA’s “Saratoga Live” rolls on this month and will showcase a Saturday card at the Spa featuring the Sword Dancer Stakes. The Sword Dancer plus other races from Saratoga will be broadcast nationwide on FOX during a three-hour “Saratoga Saturdays” show.