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 $2.5 million FanDuel TV Mint Millions Invitational Stakes and the $2.5 million KTDF Kentucky Turf Cup Invitational Stakes, both on Saturday at Kentucky Downs. The Mint Millions Invitational is a one-mile turf race that serves as a prep for the $2 million FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Mile Presented by Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund in November at Del Mar; and the Kentucky Turf Cup, a Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series “Win and You’re In” qualifier for the $5 million Longines Breeders’ Cup Turf.

All of the action from Kentucky Downs will be broadcast on FanDuel TV.