For the 10th 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 2026 Triple Crown and then continuing through the 2026 Breeders’ Cup World Championships at Keeneland. 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 2026 Big Race Showdown season are Thomas Kearney (Track Announcer, Shenandoah Downs), Ashley Mailloux (Freelance Racing Analyst), NoelMichaels (Racing Analyst, Tournament Handicapper), Jessica Paquette (Racecaller for Parx Racing, Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation), John Piassek (Assistant Racing Secretary, Yonkers Raceway),  Roberto Rodriguez (El Potro Roberto, DRF en Espanol), Darwin Vizcaya (Handicapper and Host), and Rowan Ward (Chartcaller at Hawthorne Race Track and a Freelance writer).

This week’s Big-Race Showdown races are: the $500,000 Personal Ensign Stakes Saturday at Saratoga Race Course, a qualifying race for the Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff; the 157^th edition of the DraftKings Travers Stakes Saturday at Saratoga, the famed “Mid-Summer Derby” for 3-year-olds; and the $250,000 Pat O’Brien Stakes Saturday at Del Mar, a “Win and You’re In” race for the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile.

The $1.25 million Travers headlines a Saturday card featuring five other stakes races at Saratoga, three of those being “Win and You’re In” preps for October’s Breeders’ Cup World Championships. FOX Sports will provide day-long coverage at the Spa with broadcasts running from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. ET, divided between the usual “Saratoga Live” show on FS1 and FS2 and a two-hour “Saratoga Saturdays” show on FOX featuring the Travers.

The Pat O’Brien Stakes and the racing action from Del Mar will be televised live on FanDuel TV.