Breaking the Bank: Thanksgiving Windfall
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Breaking the Bank - featuring data courtesy of Equibase - highlights the biggest scores of the past week in racing. (Photo by Eclipse Sportswire)
The Thanksgiving holiday is surely a time to express gratitude for many things, and for one very grateful handicapper there were more than 200,000 reasons to be thankful.
We’ll start with all of the appreciation at Churchill Downs on Nov. 27, the day after Thanksgiving, when one fortunate customer broke open the bank by having the lone winning ticket on the Pick 6 Jackpot that returned $274,577.60 for a 20-cent wager.
In a sequence that featured three stakes races, the longshots arrived on the scene early as the first three races went to Daddy Dearest ($37.80), Paden ($17.80) and Super Saks ($28.80). Together they formed a $2,309.40 Pick 3, creating a rather lucrative indication of how difficult it was to stay alive halfway through the wager.
Things didn’t get easier in the 10th race, the Commonwealth Turf Stakes, when Almasty prevailed at a $24.40 mutuel.
Normalcy returned in the final two races, when the favored Effinex ($7) captured the Grade 1 Clark Handicap, and Thread of Life triumphed in the 12th and final race at $6.40, but with a boost from a carryover of $172,006 someone ended the day saying “Thank you, thank you, thank you” after cashing a ticket worth more than a quarter of a million dollars.
Click here for Equibase charts for Nov. 27 at Churchill Downs
At Aqueduct, the fourth race on Nov. 29 offered a fairly unique circumstance when two horses were sent off at identical odds of 54.50-to-1. A strange as it might be to see horses at the same exact price with odds that high, it was even more rare to have both of them finish in the money.
Dreamy Breaker, at $54.50-1, won the race over Holy Week, a 5-1 shot trained by Bill Turner who swept the 1977 Triple Crown with Seattle Slew. Checking in third was Brudda Cotton, the other 54-1 shot, and Risky Sour was next at 22-1.
With Mind Magic, the 3-5 favorite, finishing ninth of 10, the mix of those four led to some rather sweet payoffs. The $2 trifecta retuned $23,709, while the $2 exacta was worth $801 and the 10-cent superfecta paid $11,473.
The Pick 5 at Aqueduct on Nov. 27 also generated some holiday cheer with the combination of Stormy Sky ($19.20), Elusive Talmo ($12.80), Jan’s Reserve ($44.40), My Impression ($37.80) and Towering Moon ($10.20) paying a highly festive $95,583 for each winning 50-cent ticket.
The week’s “How did you come up with that one?” award was delivered in the unlikely setting of a Grade 1 stakes.
The $300,000 Matriarch, a turf stakes for fillies and mares, was the closing-day featured race at Del Mar on Nov. 29 and it attracted such proven graded stakes winners as the favored Filimbi, Recepta and Hard Not to Like.
Yet in the final furlong, the horse closing fastest of all was Stormy Lucy, who had not visited the winner’s circle since she won the Grade 3 Santa Barbara Stakes in April of 2014.
Though she was never higher than 24-1 in her eight losing efforts after that, the 6-year-old mare was dismissed at 66-1 in the Matriarch.
With a rider switch to Kent Desormeaux, Stormy Lucy woke up and surged past Recepta and Filimbi in the final yards to prevail by a head and return $132.80 for a $2 win ticket while topping a $1 superfecta payoff of $83,880.
As you might expect, those folks who backed her were quite thankful as well.
Highest Payouts for the Week Ended Nov. 29
Wager
Wager Amount
Payoff
Track
Date
Race#
Win
$ 2.00
$ 132.80
DMR
11/29/2015
8
Place
$ 2.00
$ 72.00
RP
11/28/2015
9
Show
$ 2.00
$ 34.00
DED
11/24/2015
3
Exacta
$ 1.00
$ 923.90
DMR
11/29/2015
8
Exacta
$ 2.00
$ 2,631.00
RP
11/28/2015
9
Quinella
$ 1.00
$ 97.50
TUP
11/27/2015
2
Quinella
$ 2.00
$ 712.60
DMR
11/29/2015
8
Trifecta
$ 0.20
$ 240.92
HAW
11/28/2015
1
Trifecta
$ 0.50
$ 3,785.90
DMR
11/29/2015
8
Trifecta
$ 1.00
$ 8,289.70
RP
11/28/2015
9
Trifecta
$ 2.00
$ 23,709.00
AQU
11/29/2015
4
Superfecta
$ 0.10
$ 9,296.48
RP
11/28/2015
8
Superfecta
$ 0.20
$ 1,427.52
HAW
11/28/2015
1
Superfecta
$ 0.50
$ 9,498.95
LRL
11/29/2015
1
Superfecta
$ 1.00
$ 84,894.35
WO
11/28/2015
10
Superfecta
$ 2.00
$ 229,460.00
AQU
11/29/2015
4
Daily Double
$ 1.00
$ 985.20
TUP
11/28/2015
3
Daily Double
$ 2.00
$ 1,657.60
DMR
11/29/2015
9
Pick 3
$ 0.20
$ 66.92
HAW
11/25/2015
6
Pick 3
$ 0.50
$ 4,657.45
LRL
11/26/2015
10
Pick 3
$ 1.00
$ 13,816.60
CD
11/29/2015
7
Pick 3
$ 2.00
$ 8,597.00
LRL
11/29/2015
10
Pick 4
$ 0.20
$ 390.78
HAW
11/25/2015
5
Pick 4
$ 0.50
$ 25,229.95
DMR
11/29/2015
9
Pick 4
$ 1.00
$ 73,635.10
CD
11/25/2015
7
Pick 4
$ 2.00
$ 74,023.00
AQU
11/25/2015
9
Pick 5
$ 0.20
$ 3,807.42
PM
11/24/2015
10
Pick 5
$ 0.50
$ 24,893.10
DMR
11/27/2015
5
Pick 5
$ 2.00
$ 382,335.00
AQU
11/27/2015
5
Pick 6
$ 0.10
$ 5,001.26
LRL
11/29/2015
10
Pick 6
$ 1.00
$ 458.40
TUP
11/24/2015
8
Pick 6
$ 2.00
$ 93,134.60
DMR
11/28/2015
9
Pick 6 Jackpot
$ 0.20
$ 274,577.60
CD
11/27/2015
12
Super High Five
$ 0.50
$ 4,377.15
DED
11/27/2015
2
Super High Five
$ 1.00
$ 20,038.80
DMR
11/29/2015
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.
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.