Breaking the Bank: This Week's Huge Payouts
Image:
Description:
Breaking the Bank - featuring data courtesy of Equibase - highlights the biggest scores of the past week in racing. (Photo by Eclipse Sportswire)
The Kentucky Derby is a race that handicappers and casual fans look forward to each year because of the potential for massive payouts.
The Preakness Stakes? Not so much. The Preakness usually is a very formful race with favorites enjoying plenty of success in the second jewel of the Triple Crown. So while the Derby brings out legions of betters searching for a big score, the Preakness leads most gamblers to explore all options to try to scratch out a profit. With California Chrome’s win in the Preakness on May 17, bettors needed to explore multi-race wagers like Pick 3s and Pick 4s or exotic bets like trifectas and superfectas to generate any bang for their betting buck.
Last week, it was a superfecta that produced an eye-opening return, although it didn’t come at Pimlico Race Course on Saturday (not with California Chrome winning easily at 1-to-2). No, the number that jumps off the table below at first glance is $484,443, which was the listed payout for a $2 superfecta for the fourth race on May 15 at Belmont Park. Now, with less than $100,000 in the pool for the superfecta, we can pretty easily deduce that the winning bets were at the 10-cent minimum, which still produced a whopping $24,222.15 payday. In fact for a 10-cent bet, that’s remarkable.
As you might expect, this six-furlong turf race was a tough superfecta to solve.
The winner, Captain Davrick, struck at odds of 41.75-to-1. He had won a maiden special weight race in his only previous race at Belmont (also his only victory in seven attempts prior to May 15), but that came on a sloppy track. Captain Davrick finished 10th in an 11-horse field in his only previous start on turf.
The payout also was bolstered by the fact that the top four betting choices finished sixth or worse. It didn’t hurt that the third-place finisher, Pegasus Red, was a 63.75-to-1 bomb or that the second- and fourth-place finishers were 9.40-to-1 and 14.60-to-1, respectively.
This was a tough bet to hit. Fortunately, the 10-cent minimum allows bettors to expand their options.
If you liked Captain Davrick, you might also have found a very nice return via the trifecta, which paid $14,806 for a $2 bet. The quinella paid $381.50 for a $2 bet, which was the top payout for that bet for the week.
Another tough bet to crack that produced a massive reward came on Saturday at Santa Anita Park. The Pick 6 (Races 6-11) returned $121,054.80 for a $2 bet.
There were a pair of winners with double-digit odds – 15.80-to-1 Indexical in Race 6 and 19.20-to-1 Natalie Paige in Race 10 – but what made this sequence so challenging was the failure of all six favorites. A 9-to-10 favorite, a 6-to-5 favorite and a 9-to-5 favorite all tasted defeat during this Pick 6 , meaning players who like to find at least one horse to single when playing this wager probably found themselves ripping up their ticket(s).
Top Payout for the Week Ended May 18
Wager
Wager Amount
Payoff
Track
Date
Race#
Win
$2.00
$126.60
CD
5/16/14
10
Place
$2.00
$68.90
WO
5/16/14
9
Show
$2.00
$54.40
PRM
5/15/14
9
Exacta
$1.00
$253.30
GG
5/17/14
7
Exacta
$2.00
$1,124.40
EVD
5/17/14
2
Quinella
$2.00
$381.50
BEL
5/15/14
4
Trifecta
$0.50
$1,779.65
AP
5/17/14
9
Trifecta
$1.00
$2,312.30
PIM
5/15/14
1
Trifecta
$2.00
$14,806.00
BEL
5/15/14
4
Superfecta
$0.10
$1,387.44
LS
5/17/14
10
Superfecta
$0.50
$825.35
EMD
5/17/14
8
Superfecta
$1.00
$37,326.80
TDN
5/17/14
4
Superfecta
$2.00
$458,443.00
BEL
5/15/14
4
Daily Double
$1.00
$85.00
LA
5/18/14
2
Daily Double
$2.00
$1,486.00
FP
5/13/14
3
Pick 3
$0.50
$1,266.75
EVD
5/17/14
4
Pick 3
$1.00
$2,343.10
LS
5/17/14
10
Pick 3
$2.00
$5,858.00
MNR
5/12/14
5
Pick 4
$0.50
$13,788.95
PIM
5/15/14
5
Pick 4
$1.00
$28,260.90
GP
5/18/14
8
Pick 4
$2.00
$27,192.40
PEN
5/17/14
9
Pick 5
$0.50
$34,107.25
CD
5/15/14
9
Pick 5
$1.00
$327.20
DEL
5/17/14
7
Pick 5
$2.00
$58,750.00
BEL
5/14/14
5
Pick 5 Jackpot
$0.10
$209.24
PIM
5/16/14
12
Pick 5 Jackpot
$0.50
$13,352.40
LAD
5/15/14
8
Pick 6
$0.20
$865.60
LS
5/15/14
9
Pick 6
$1.00
$9,341.10
AP
5/16/14
9
Pick 6
$2.00
$121,054.80
SA
5/17/14
11
Pick 6 Jackpot
$0.10
$6,436.10
MTH
5/17/14
11
Pick 6 Jackpot
$0.20
$18,651.30
GP
5/18/14
8
Super High Five
$0.10
$2,393.52
LS
5/16/14
9
Super High Five
$1.00
$26,977.00
SA
5/16/14
8
Super High Five
$2.00
$27,803.60
PIM
5/17/14
13
With no unique winners since Jan. 10, the carryover Gulfstream Park’s Rainbow 6 jackpot has ballooned to $6,303,426. On May 10, Gulfstream announced that there would be a mandatory payout of the jackpot on Memorial Day, May 26, in the event that the Rainbow 6 does not have a unique winner between now and then.
The mandatory payout was originally scheduled for June 29 but Gulfstream President Tim Ritvo said the track moved the date because customers had been unanimous in asking the track to do so.