Breaking the Bank: This Week’s Huge Payouts
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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)
When one horse keys the week’s top payouts for seven different wagers, it’s not just a conversation starter it’s a story. The fact that the 74.50-to-1 longshot came on the Wood Memorial Stakes card at Aqueduct in a nice allowance/optional claiming race only adds to the intrigue.
This Hard Land failed to finish his previous start, which is always a cause for concern when handicapping a race, but in this case he had stumbled at the start and unseated his rider so it was really just a fluke occurrence. In his two previous races, This Hard Land finished fourth and for his career the Saarland horse had finished in the top three in 17 of 33 races. The point that I’m taking a long time to make is that this was not a horse who had a track record of being uncompetitive entering the sixth race on April 5 at Aqueduct. He did carry an eight-race losing streak into the race, so it made sense that his odds were high in a deep 11-horse field.
This Hard Land trailed early in the one-mile race that featured a swift opening half-mile in :45.63 and rallied with a sweeping bid into the stretch. This Hard Land steadily wore down Golden Itiz in the final furlong to win by a neck under Angel Arroyo to light up the tote board.
In addition to paying $151 for a $2 win ticket and $50 for a $2 place bet, This Hard Land also keyed a $1,625 payout for a $2 exacta when paired with 10.10-to-1 Golden Itiz.
The $2 trifecta with Gotham News third at 10.60-to-1 returned a staggering $29,778 and the superfecta with 3-to-2 favorite Catron fourth produced a $188,567 payout for $2. With only $111,881 in the superfecta pool and a 10-cent minimum, we can deduct that the winning tickets probably were $9,428.25 for the minimum bet.
This Hard Land also set off some fireworks in multi-race wagers. The Daily Double for Races 6-7 with 4-to-1 Sea to Sky winning the second half paid $1,252 for a $2 bet and the Pick 3 for races 6-8, anchored by 7.10-to-1 winner Coup de Grace in the Grade 3 Bay Shore Stakes, returned a whopping $15,942 for $2.
This Hard Land produced some kind of upset.
The chase for the elusive Rainbow 6 continues with a carryover of $4,852,367 from Sunday’s card at Gulfstream Park. The Rainbow Pick 6, which has not had a unique winner since Jan. 10, continues with Friday’s card at Gulfstream. The Rainbow 6 will be comprised of Races 3-8 with post time for the third race scheduled for 2:27 p.m. ET.
Good luck!