Breaking the Bank: Look Back at Breeders’ Cup Bombs

Breaking the Bank - featuring data courtesy of Equibase - highlights the biggest scores of the past week in racing. This special edition takes a look at the biggest payouts since 1998, from which point Equibase has complete data. (Photo by Eclipse Sportswire)
If you’re the kind of handicapper who dreams about hitting a life-changing score at the races, then your heaven-on-earth is at hand.
The Breeders’ Cup starts Friday.
Scenic Keeneland Race Course will be the site of this year’s festivities and the upcoming two days of spectacular action at the Lexington, Ky., track figure to provide as much fireworks as ever at the mutuel windows.
Where else but the Breeders’ Cup can you find multiple Grade 1 winners going off at 10-to-1 odds or more? And it’s the presence of so many underappreciated stakes winners that fuels numerous huge payoffs at the world championships. When you get balanced, full fields with a bevy of contenders, quality horses often get overlooked – until they cross the finish line and pay $44.80 to win.
If you’re a fan of the sport, you can probably remember some of the huge Breeders’ Cup payoffs that either allowed you to roll up hundred dollar bills and use them for a cigar or gave you one heckuva of a bad beat tale to relate for the rest of your life.
But if the memories are a little fuzzy, let’s take a look back at some of the huge payoffs since 1998 in hopes of recapturing that same magic at this weekend’s Breeders’ Cup.
$3,058,138.60 Pick 6 for $2 in 1999: When Cat Thief stole the Breeders’ Cup Classic at 19-to-1 it sealed a gargantuan seven-figure payoff that seemed preposterous at the start of the sequence. Silic started the Pick 6 at 7-1 but then a couple of 7-2 shots followed, only to have Anees win the Juvenile at 30-1 odds and turn tons of Pick 6 tickets into rubble. Favored Daylami ($5.20) gave chalk players hope that punching the ALL button once could allow them to break the bank, but Cat Thief put an end to that.
$692,907 superfecta for $1 in 1999 Breeders’ Cup Classic: Cat Thief at 19-1 wasn’t the highest-priced horse among the top four finishers – he was the lowest. The 1999 Breeders’ Cup no doubt had some people pulling their hair out when Cat Thief was followed to the wire by Budroyale at 26-1, Golden Missile at 75-1 and Chester House at 63-1 for a trifecta that paid $39,031.20 for $2 and a unfathomable superfecta that put someone on easy street.
$187,256 Pick 4 for $2 in 2011: The 2011 Breeders’ Cup Mile might be memorable to some folks for Goldikova falling short in her bid for a fourth straight victory in the race. Others, who used the victorious Court Vision at 64-1 in multi-race or horizontal wagers, might recall it as the day they became rich. Putting Court Vision together with St Nicholas Abbey at 6-1, Hansen at 7-1 and Drosselmeyer at 14-1 was quite a challenge but it was worth every penny of the payoff.
$114,156 Pick 3 for $2 in 2000: The 2000 Breeders’ Cup at Churchill Downs wasted little time in getting down to the serious business of elevating handicappers into higher tax brackets. The first Breeders’ Cup race – the Distaff – went to Spain at 55-1 and then Caressing won the Juvenile Fillies at 47-1. The end result was a six-figure Pick 3 with an undercard race and a daily double worth $3,935.80 that made it a very happy – and profitable – day for astute handicappers.
$131.60 to win 2011 Breeders’ Cup Mile: Yeah, Court Vision was the most unlikely winner in recent years, but with Gleneagles racing in this weekend’s Classic, it seems fitting to recall that day  in 1993 when another European ran in the Classic. We’re talking, of course, about Arcangues, who posted a two-length win and paid a still-Breeders’ Cup record $269.20 to win – with Jerry Bailey in the saddle, no less.
Don’t look for Gleneagles to pay anything even remotely close to that, but that doesn’t mean someone else can’t steal a page from the European’s playbook and help some handicappers bust open the bank.
It is, after all, Breeders’ Cup weekend.
Highest Payoffs in Breeders’ Cup Races 1998 through 2014

Wager
 Wager Amount 
 Payoff 
Track
Date
Race#

Win
 $2.00
 $131.60
CD
11/5/11
10

Place
 $2.00
 $51.40
SA
11/1/14
4

Show
 $2.00
 $32.80
CD
11/4/06
6

Exacta
 $1.00
 $778.60
SA
11/1/14
4

Exacta
 $2.00
 $1,979.60
CD
11/5/11
10

Trifecta
 $1.00
 $11,309.00
SA
11/1/14
4

Trifecta
 $2.00
 $39,031.20
GP
11/6/99
10

Superfecta
 $1.00
 $692,907.00
GP
11/6/99
10

Superfecta
 $2.00
 $113,911.80
CD
11/4/06
6

Daily Double
 $2.00
 $3,935.80
CD
11/4/00
4

Pick 3
 $0.50
 $1,436.85
CD
11/5/10
10

Pick 3
 $1.00
 $6,751.50
OSA
11/7/09
5

Pick 3
 $2.00
 $114,156.00
CD
11/4/00
4

Pick 4
 $0.50
 $32,691.80
SA
11/1/14
7

Pick 4
 $1.00
 $36,538.90
OSA
11/7/09
5

Pick 4
 $2.00
 $187,256.20
CD
11/5/11
11

Pick 5
 $0.50
 $71,510.80
CD
11/5/11
5

Pick 6
 $2.00
 $3,058,138.60
GP
11/6/99
10

Super High Five
 $0.50
 $60,015.00
SA
11/1/13
9

Super High Five
 $1.00
 $156,424.00
CD
11/5/11
11

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.

Breeders' Cup Pre-Entries

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.