Breaking the Bank: This Week’s Huge Payouts

Breaking the Bank - featuring data courtesy of Equibase - highlights the biggest scores of the past week in racing. (Photo by Penelope Miller)

Another week of carryovers for the Rainbow 6 at Gulfstream Park has left horseplayers with a life-changing $3,325,154 jackpot to target this week.

The Rainbow 6 is a jackpot Pick 6 wager that pays out only when there is one winning ticket. If nobody correctly selects all six winners in the sequence, or if more than one person correctly selects all six winners, a portion of the money bet into the day’s Rainbow 6 pool, plus the money already carried over, rolls into the jackpot for next card. The carryovers continue until there is one unique winner.

This Breaking the Bank blog has been following the cash in recent weeks and readers know there has not been a unique winner of the Rainbow 6 at Gulfstream since Jan. 10, which has allowed the jackpot to steadily build. This week’s first opportunity will come on Wednesday’s card with the Rainbow 6 comprised of Races 5-10. Post time for Race 5 is 3:01 p.m. ET.

While the Rainbow 6 was not taken down during the week ended March 16, as always there was money to be made at racetracks across the country.

Let’s start with a couple of huge payouts on superfectas.

A $1 winning superfecta ticket on the eighth race on March 16 at Gulfstream Park returned a whopping $70,766.20 for a race won by 14.30-to-1 longshot Size with 42.20-to-1 bomb Princess Violet finishing second. Each of the top four finishers was a first-time starter in the six-furlong maiden special weight race and 13-to-10 favorite, Hanalei Hailey, finished 11th.

On March 14 at Fair Grounds, the second race produced a $2 superfecta payout of $137,316.80 thanks to 59.50-to-1 winner Passing Pfast. The pool for the superfecta for that race was only $27,601, however, so we can deduct that there were a handful of winning 10-cent tickets that returned a robust $6,865.84.
There also were a couple of very nice Pick 5 payouts for the week, which I’ll get to shortly, but first let’s take a look at a Turf Paradise race that led to five different top payouts.

The final race on the card (Race 9) on March 11 at Turf Paradise featured an overwhelming 1-to-5 favorite in Victory for Ce, who faced nine other horses in the 6 ½-furlong claiming race on the dirt main track. Victory for Ce went right to the front but was pressed every step of the way through an opening quarter-mile in :22.16 and a half-mile in :44.91. The gelding opened a clear lead in the stretch but faded late and was passed by three horses near the finish line.

With the heavy favorite out of the top three, the table was set for some big numbers to light up the tote board. When 76.80-to-1 Sleipnir’s Rule edged 15.50-to-1 Dynawaki for the victory, big became huge.

The winner returned $155.60 for a $2 win bet and $63.20 for a $2 place bet. The $1 exacta paid $787.30 and the race also produced the top $1 quinella payout for the week at $169.60. The grand finale of this fireworks display came with the trifecta, anchored by 27-to-1 longshot Mercy Star in third, that paid $14,405.70 for a $1 ticket.

The Pick 5 was a lucrative wager for the week ended March 16.

If you were fortunate to have one of the winning Pick 5 tickets for Races 7-11 on March 16 at Gulfstream Park, you are very likely a damn good handicapper and a very pleasant person to be around this week being $83,348.25 richer.

Make no mistake, this was a difficult multi-race wager to win. The sequence kicked off with 30-to-1 Best Man – the longest shot in the 8-horse field – taking Race 7 and 14.30-to-1 Size (who was part of the aforementioned $70,766.20 superfecta) winning Race 8. Why Katherine led every step of the way as the 3-to-2 favorite in Race 9 and a “no contest” in Race 10 when jockey Edgar Prado was unseated on the first turn moved all remaining live tickets through to the finale. Arissa struck at 13.70-to-1 odds in Race 11 to provide the final piece of an $83,348.25 puzzle.

A jackpot Pick 5 produced a payout of $87,835.35 on March 13 at Laurel Park for Races 5-9 with odds ranging from a 9-to-10 favorite up to 10.20-to-1. There were no huge longshot winners in the sequence but there were beaten favorites at 3-to-5, 6-to-5 and 3-to-2.

Good luck to everyone chasing the life-changing Rainbow 6 this week and also to everyone heading out to their local track for a day at the races or signing in to their online account to try to win a few bucks.