Breaking the Bank: Sharp Rainbow Connection

Breaking the Bank - featuring data courtesy of Equibase - highlights the biggest scores of the past week in racing. (Photo by Penelope P. Miller/America's Best Racing)
When your name is R.F. Sharp and your handicapping lives up to your name, the results can be priceless.
In assembling a ticket for Gulfstream Park’s Rainbow Pick 6 on March 12, Mr. Sharp’s selections were sharp, astute, clairvoyant, amazing and befitting of about a thousand other superlatives, including life-altering.
With a $336 ticket he submitted through twinspires.com, Sharp hit the first five legs of the Rainbow Pick 6 and then had the lone ticket that completed the sequence and took down a jackpot worth a staggering 1,079,444.22 for a 20-cent bet.
Take a look at the PDF charts from the March 12 card at Gulfstream
According to twinspires.com, after his stroke of genius at Gulfstream, an ecstatic Sharp told his wife “Now, we’re going shopping.”
Shopping? Perhaps for gold bars at Ft. Knox.
For Sharp, his feat at Gulfstream was hardly a blind stroke of luck. A month earlier, he collected $188,491.40 on the Pick 6 at Santa Anita Park and he also took home roughly $10,000 recently in the Pick 6 at Gulfstream, but missed out on the Jackpot because he did not have the lone winning ticket.
“I’ve been trying to hit [the Jackpot] at Gulfstream,” Sharp told twinspires.com, “and I did last week for about $10,000, but I had to share it. I wanted the pool all to myself.”
Sharp was all by his lonesome on Forest Funds, who was sent off as the 2.20-to-1 favorite in the 11th and final race of the day on March 12. The filly battled for the lead and was passed at the eighth pole, but she showed some grit and battled back to win by a neck and break the bank for one sharp handicapper.
The winning ticket had one single selection in a 1 x 5 x 2 x 7 x 6 x 4 wager and included a few strokes of brilliance, such as using Renombre ($52.20) as one of six selections in the 10-horse 10th race and Silver Lucky Q ($40.60) as one of seven choices in the nine-horse ninth race.
The first three winners in the gargantuan sequence returned no more than $7.60.
“I’ve done this a lot. It’s definitely like having a job,” Sharp, who also had a losing $440 Rainbow Pick 6 ticket in addition to his winning ticket, said to twinspires.com. “I spend three to four hours on a Pick 6. It’s pretty much a part-time job. Fortunately, [on March 12] it was pretty well paying.”
Though it was the largest payoff of the week, the Rainbow Pick 6 jackpot was not the only tax bracket-busting payoff.
On March 13 at Aqueduct, the Pick 5 to start the program returned a wheel barrel full of gold bars as it returned a reported $210, 871 for a $2 wager. With only $186,135 total in the pool for the wager, a little math reveals that the winning tickets were for the 50-cent minimum and returned $52,717.75 each.
There were no favorites in the sequence, but the massive payoff was due largely to Zabaione, who paid $85 for winning the penultimate race in the sequence, the fourth race.
Zabaione also trigged several other huge payoffs, topped by a $72,474 return for a $2 superfecta (or $3,623.70 for the 10-cent minimum bet), $6,942 for a $2 trifecta and $1,086 for a $2 exacta.
Take a look at the PDF charts from the March 13 card at Aqueduct
The Pick 6 at Santa Anita on March 15 also stretched into six figures as it returned $104,042.40 for a $2 bet.
Tampa Bay Downs joined the party on March 15 returned with a $50,936.60 return, or $5,093.66 for the 10-cent minimum, for a $1 superfecta wager on the ninth race. The first four finishers in that race were dismissed at odds of 12.10-to-1, 8.30-to-1, 7.10-to-1 and 78.50-to-1.
Last week’s “how did you come up with that one” award went to Jazillion Smiles, who no doubt generated beaming smiles on the faces of the folks who backed him in the second race at Tampa Bay Downs on March 11. Off a seventh and a pair of fifths in her last three races, the 6-year-old mare woke up and returned a week’s best $130 payoff for a $2 win wager.
It no doubt took a “sharp” handicapper to wager on her.
Top Payouts for the Week Ended March 15

Wager
 Wager Amount 
 Payoff 
Track
Date
Race#

Win
 $2.00
 $130.00
TAM
3/11/15
2

Place
 $2.00
 $67.80
GP
3/14/15
6

Show
 $2.00
 $34.60
GP
3/14/15
12

Exacta
 $1.00
 $470.30
TUP
3/9/15
5

Exacta
 $2.00
 $1,086.00
AQU
3/13/15
4

Quinella
 $1.00
 $164.40
TUP
3/9/15
5

Quinella
 $2.00
 $413.50
AQU
3/13/15
4

Trifecta
 $0.50
 $668.80
PEN
3/13/15
2

Trifecta
 $1.00
 $7,535.30
SUN
3/14/15
10

Trifecta
 $2.00
 $6,942.00
AQU
3/13/15
4

Superfecta
 $0.10
 $9,423.81
GP
3/15/15
6

Superfecta
 $1.00
 $50,936.60
TAM
3/15/15
9

Superfecta
 $2.00
 $72,474.00
AQU
3/13/15
4

Daily Double
 $1.00
 $474.60
DED
3/14/15
4

Daily Double
 $2.00
 $1,576.20
GP
3/12/15
10

Pick 3
 $0.50
 $5,745.10
DED
3/13/15
8

Pick 3
 $1.00
 $49,628.20
GP
3/15/15
8

Pick 3
 $2.00
 $4,494.00
AQU
3/13/15
4

Pick 4
 $0.50
 $39,250.40
OP
3/13/15
9

Pick 4
 $1.00
 $13,537.40
GP
3/12/15
11

Pick 4
 $2.00
 $35,113.40
TAM
3/14/15
6

Pick 5
 $0.50
 $23,525.00
TUP
3/11/15
8

Pick 5
 $1.00
 $10,197.30
HOU
3/9/15
10

Pick 5
 $2.00
 $210,871.00
AQU
3/13/15
5

Pick 5 Jackpot
 $0.20
 $734.04
LRL
3/12/15
9

Pick 5 Jackpot
 $0.50
 $7,081.95
FG
3/14/15
11

Pick 6
 $1.00
 $2,413.10
TUP
3/9/15
8

Pick 6
 $2.00
 $104,042.40
SA
3/15/15
9

Pick 6 Jackpot
 $0.20
 $1,079,444.22
GP
3/12/15
11

Super High Five
 $0.50
 $10,383.55
FG
3/15/15
11

Super High Five
 $1.00
 $12,093.70
SA
3/12/15
8

Super High Five
 $2.00
 $1,919.40
MNR
3/14/15
9

Click here for a complete list of racetracks with abbreviations.

© 2014 Equibase Company LLC, all rights reserved. Data provided or compiled by Equibase Company LLC generally is accurate, but occasionally errors and omissions occur as a result of incorrect data received by others, mistakes in processing and other causes. Equibase Company LLC disclaims responsibility for the consequences, if any, of such errors, but would appreciate their being called to their attention.

Commonly Used Gambling Terms

Account wagering – Betting by internet or phone, in which a bettor must open an account and deposit money with which to bet.
Across the board – A bet on a horse to win, place and show. If the horse wins, the player collects three ways; if second, two ways; and if third, one way, losing the win and place bets. Actually, three bets.
Bounce – An especially poor performance on the heels of an especially good one.
Box – A betting term denoting a combination bet whereby all possible numeric combinations are covered for certain horses.
Bridge jumper – A person who wagers large amounts of money, usually on short- priced horses to show, hoping to realize a small but almost certain profit. The term comes from the structure those bettors may seek if they lose the bet.
Chalk – Betting favorite in a race.
Chalk player – Gambler who wagers on favorites.
Daily Double (or Double) – Type of bet calling for the selection of winners of two consecutive races.
Exacta – A wager in which the first two finishers in a race, in exact order of finish, must be picked.
Exacta box – A wager in which all possible combinations using a given number of horses are selected.
Exotic (bet) – Any bet other than win, place, or show that requires multiple combinations. Examples of exotic wagers are trifecta, Pick 6, Pick 4.
Handle – Amount of money wagered in the pari-mutuel system on a race, full day of races, or entire racing season at a track.
In the money – A horse that finishes first, second or third.
Key horse – A single horse used in multiple combinations in an exotic bet.
Morning line – The starting odds set by the track handicapper.
On the board – Finishing among the first three.
On the nose – Betting a horse to win only.
Overlay – A horse whose odds are greater than its potential to win.
Pari-mutuel – System of wagering where all the money is returned to the bettors after deduction of track and state percentages.
Parlay – A multi-race bet in which all winnings are subsequently wagered on a succeeding race.
Part wheel – Using a key horse or horses in different, but not all possible, exotic wagering combinations.
Pick (6 or other number) – A type of multi-race bet in which the winners of all the included races must be selected. Pick 3, Pick 4, Pick 5, Pick 6 are commonly used by tracks in the United States.
Place bet – A bet on a horse to finish first or second.
Quinella - Bet in which the first two finishers must be picked in either order.
Show bet – A bet on a horse to finish in the money; third or better.
Speed Figure – A metric that rates a horse’s performance in a race, which is determined by a combination of the horse’s performance and the level of competition he/she competed against.
Trifecta – A bet in which the first three finishers must be selected in exact order.
Trifecta box – A trifecta wager in which all possible combinations using a given number of horses are bet upon.
Underlay – Horse whose odds are more promising than his potential to win.
Win – A bet on a horse to finish first.
Wheel – Betting all possible combinations in an exotic wager using at least one horse as the key.