Breaking the Bank: Striking Gold at Fair Grounds

Grandstand Photo at Fair Grounds by Eclipse Sportswire

Breaking the Bank - featuring data courtesy of Equibase - highlights the biggest scores of the past week in racing.

Last week’s Breaking the Bank blog focused on the Rainbow 6, a jackpot wager at Gulfstream Park that had a massive carryover entering the Feb. 26 card. Lo and behold, it was not that jackpot bet – there was not a unique Rainbow 6 winner last week and there is now a carryover jackpot of $2,141,640 entering the March 5 card – but another jackpot wager that produced the biggest payout for the week ended March 2.

Jack Ninio on Saturday, March 1, at Fair Grounds held the lone winning ticket in the Black Gold 5, earning him a massive payout of $463,219.45.

A 51-year old horseplayer from Las Vegas, Ninio told the Fair Grounds publicity department that he has been playing the races for more than 30 years since being introduced to the sport while attending the University of Arizona.

His love of the game paid off handsomely on Saturday when Ninio held the lone winning ticket for the Black Gold 5.

“When I was at school in Arizona, I was at a fraternity pledge meeting, and I heard someone talk about how a player had won a Pick 6 at the Tucson Dog Park for $17,000,” Ninio said. “I started playing the races and have been playing horses for a long time and feel very happy – very excited. That was a life-changing score for me.”

Like the Rainbow 6, the Black Gold 5 is a jackpot bet that produces a carryover when either nobody has the winner for all five races in the sequence or there is more than one ticket with all five winners. The jackpot builds and builds until there is only one unique winning ticket. 

Ninio told Fair Grounds that he had been following and playing the Black Gold 5 pool for several months as the pool that started building on Dec. 14, 2013, grew and grew. Ninio said he focused on the bet only on cards when he thought the jackpot could, perhaps, pay out.

“There were some days when there were some small fields or lots of favorites that I thought would win, and I would sit those days out, but Saturday’s races looked like the kind of day when there could be just one winning ticket,” he said. “And I saw the first few races in the sequence yesterday and thought there were some vulnerable favorites, so I threw out some horses I thought could get beat, but that I also thought would be used heavily on other players’ tickets.”

Ninio’s strategy paid off. Charlie’s Ring won the first leg of the sequence, Race 5, at 7.60-to-1 by defeating 9-to-5 favorite Forest Henri by two lengths. In the next race, Ninio took down the favorite with 12.70-to-1 Pretty Petal and he was on his way to the score of a lifetime.
Take a look at last week’s top payouts:

Top Payouts for the Week Ended March 2: http://www.americasbestracing.net/en/the-latest/blogs/2014/3/4/breaking-...

There were a number of other massive scores for the week that ran from Feb. 24 through March 2, including another multi-race bet that produced a life-changing payday on Feb. 28 at Aqueduct. The Pick 6 for that Friday card at Aqueduct returned $333,055 to one lucky bettor, and amazingly the six-race sequence included one favorite and three second betting choices.

The Pick 6 started with 1.15-to-1 favorite Star Magnolia taking Race 4 and 2.60-to-1 second choice Your Time Is Up winning Race 5. After Winter Games struck at 12.40-to-1 odds in Race 6, the Pick 6 closed with 3.10-to-1 second choice Bileaps and Bounds in Race 7, 8.50-to-1 third choice Make the Moment in Race 8 and Insighting taking the final race in the sequence as the 2.40-to-1 second betting choice.

Make the Moment’s win in Race 8 included the heavily favored (1-to-2 odds) entry of Lost in Success and Aliana finishing third and fourth, respectively, which undoubtedly wiped out a ton of live tickets.

Also notable:

The $2 superfecta for Race 9 on Feb. 26 at Penn National produced a payout of $238.963.40, but with only $17,080 wagered into the pool we can deduct that a 10-cent bet returned $11,947.67. All of the top-four finishers had odds of at least 10.30-to-1, including 34.70-to-1 winner Rebeldia.

Tampa Bay Downs late Pick 4 on Feb. 28 – Races 7-10 – produced a payout of $190,747 for a $2 bet. Only $58,157 was bet into the pool, however, so we’re looking at a $47,686.75 winning ticket for a 50-cent bet. Nothing wrong with that! There wasn’t anything easy about this sequence, though, as there were four beaten favorites capped by a 24.60-to-1 longshot holding off an even-money favorite by a neck in the final leg.

Race 6 on Feb. 26 at Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races was won by 57.20-to-1 longshot Street Parade. With 26-to-1 Prufrock edging 7-to-5 favorite Garden Tavern by a neck for second, Charles Town had a $116.40 winner ($2 bet) - the highest for the week – and a $22,867.40 trifecta return for $2 (actually $11,433.70 for $1), also the highest of the week.

We had an inquiry last week about the highest win payout for the year so far in 2014.  The answer, courtesy of Equibase, for the longest of longshot winners in 2014 is Warmhearted Windy, who won the tenth race at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 17 at 81.10-to-1 odds. A $2 win bet on Warmhearted Windy returned $164.20.

Warmhearted Windy finished a well-beaten fourth in her career debut on the main track at Gulfstream Park on Dec. 26 but made switched to the grass for her second start three weeks later and rewarded her backers with the monstrous payout.

If you are chasing the $2.1 million jackpot on Wednesday, good luck! The Rainbow 6 at Gulfstream starts with Race 5 with a scheduled post time of 3:06 p.m. ET.