Breaking the Bank: Heating Up North of the Border

Breaking the Bank - featuring data courtesy of Equibase - highlights the biggest scores of the past week in racing. (Photo by Penelope P. Miller)
There was only one six-figure payoff in Thoroughbred racing last week and it happened across the border in Canada.
Hastings Racecourse in Vancouver was the place where handicappers broke the bank as a Pick 6 returned a lucrative $107,741.80 for a $2 wager on Oct. 12.
With $325,117 in the pool, the Pick 6 blended four relatively easy selections with two 20-1 shots to create a pot of gold for savvy handicappers.
The sequence started rather routinely with Snuggles taking the third race at a $4.70 win price.
Then chaos set in with the next two races going to What Goes Around at $50.90 and Crazy Prophet at $43.10.
With a gargantuan payoff in motion, sanity was restored in the final three races, allowing for the wager to be cashed. Touchy Promise ($9), Killin Me Smalls ($4.20) and second-choice Off the Top ($5.50) closed out the card and, perhaps with the help of an “all” button or two, paved the way for a massive payoff.
Click here for Equibase charts for Oct. 12 at Hastings Racecourse
Elsewhere, handicappers were no doubt feeling super if they connected on certain superfectas at Belmont Park and Santa Anita on Oct. 17.
In the ninth race at Belmont that day, the featured $200,000 Athenia Stakes produced a whopping $96,169 superfecta for a $2 wager in a 13-horse field.
The race was won by Stellar Path ($13), who was previously third in an ungraded stakes at Woodbine for trainer Christophe Clement. But that was followed by the head-scratching when 66-1 shot Wiener Valkyrie, a European invader, rallied from seventh at the eighth pole to grab second.
With a  $764 exacta already in place, the superfecta skyrocketed when 3-1 shot Lady Lara grabbed third and 15-1 shot Rusty Slipper took fourth to seal a payoff that just missed six figures.
At Santa Anita, the seventh race also provided superfecta players with a pot of gold.
With 47-1 shot Papa Turf topping the ticket, the $1 superfecta paid an astronomical $77,556.20 with some help from a couple more longshots as horses priced at 12-1, 19-1 and 5-1 completed the order of finish.
Belmont also rewarded Pick 4 players on Oct. 15 with a ritzy $88,697 payout on a $2 Pick Four ticket.
As one might expect, there were no favorites in the sequence as Dream Man’s upset victory at a $69.50 mutuel was matched with winners paying $8.70, $16.60 and $10.80 to produce the fireworks that lit up the tote board.
The “How did you come up with that one?” award was presented at Finger Lakes on Oct. 14, but not in the third race when Saratoga Fields paid $152 for a 7 ¾-length victory.
It actually came a race earlier when You Got the Silver turned into solid gold by posting a half-length win at mind-boggling 92-1 odds, paying a week’s best $187.50 for a $2 win bet.
There wasn’t a double or Pick 3 bet involving those two races, but there was a Pick 4 that started with them and paid $5,957 for a 50-cent bet.
That didn’t break the bank, but it surely gave someone a nice bankroll for the Breeders’ Cup.
Top Payouts for the Week Ended Oct. 18

Wager
 Wager Amount 
 Payoff 
Track
Date
Race#

Win
 $2.00
 $187.50
FL
10/14/2015
2

Place
 $2.00
 $77.60
GPW
10/12/2015
1

Show
 $2.00
 $38.20
GPW
10/12/2015
1

Exacta
 $1.00
 $519.90
SA
10/17/2015
7

Exacta
 $2.00
 $2,349.40
LRL
10/18/2015
2

Quinella
 $1.00
 $55.60
TUP
10/17/2015
6

Quinella
 $2.00
 $41.80
BEL
10/18/2015
2

Quinella
 $5.00
 $610.00
GPW
10/12/2015
10

Trifecta
 $0.20
 $368.86
HAW
10/17/2015
4

Trifecta
 $0.50
 $1,387.00
IND
10/13/2015
5

Trifecta
 $1.00
 $6,310.40
MED
10/12/2015
4

Trifecta
 $2.00
 $8,709.20
LRL
10/18/2015
2

Superfecta
 $0.10
 $5,400.25
FL
10/14/2015
2

Superfecta
 $0.20
 $918.64
HAW
10/17/2015
4

Superfecta
 $0.50
 $8,485.45
MNR
10/17/2015
9

Superfecta
 $1.00
 $77,556.20
SA
10/17/2015
7

Superfecta
 $2.00
 $96,169.00
BEL
10/17/2015
9

Daily Double
 $1.00
 $231.10
DED
10/17/2015
11

Daily Double
 $2.00
 $1,406.20
CT
10/17/2015
7

Pick 3
 $0.20
 $68.42
HAW
10/13/2015
6

Pick 3
 $0.50
 $1,787.75
IND
10/13/2015
4

Pick 3
 $1.00
 $7,547.20
SA
10/17/2015
8

Pick 3
 $2.00
 $9,759.00
BEL
10/15/2015
9

Pick 4
 $0.20
 $113.74
HAW
10/16/2015
5

Pick 4
 $0.50
 $53,939.95
SA
10/17/2015
9

Pick 4
 $1.00
 $79,480.20
RP
10/14/2015
9

Pick 4
 $2.00
 $88,697.00
BEL
10/15/2015
9

Pick 5
 $0.20
 $3,490.48
HAW
10/16/2015
5

Pick 5
 $0.50
 $15,017.45
GPW
10/17/2015
10

Pick 5
 $1.00
 $17,523.30
MNR
10/13/2015
9

Pick 5
 $2.00
 $16,890.00
BEL
10/16/2015
5

Pick 6
 $0.10
 $430.72
LRL
10/16/2015
11

Pick 6
 $1.00
 $41.90
TUP
10/18/2015
8

Pick 6
 $2.00
 $107,741.80
HST
10/12/2015
8

Pick 6 Jackpot
 $0.20
 $28,431.72
GPW
10/12/2015
10

Super High Five
 $0.20
 $587.90
FNO
10/18/2015
12

Super High Five
 $0.50
 $2,237.15
MNR
10/17/2015
9

Super High Five
 $1.00
 $22,083.60
SA
10/17/2015
9

Super High Five
 $2.00
 $916.40
MNR
10/12/2015
9

Click here for a complete list of racetracks with abbreviations.

© 2015 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.

Note: The payouts are reported by individual racetracks. Sometimes the payouts are not reported at the minimum increment for the wager. When the bet is mentioned within the accompanying story, the return for a winning bet at the minimum wager increment also will be listed, however, the data in the table will always be listed as reported by the racetracks to Equibase.

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.