Breaking the Bank: Rainbow 6 Edition
Image:
Description:
Breaking the Bank - featuring data courtesy of Equibase - highlights the biggest scores of the past week in racing. (Photo by Eclipse Sportswire)
Ask Chicago Cubs fans or horseplayers who spent the weekend handicapping Monday’s card at Gulfstream Park – the date of the much-publicized mandatory Rainbow 6 payout – about old adage “good things come to those who wait.”
While there are certainly some instances when patience pays off, it seems life in general rewards people who see an opportunity and kick the door open.
Longtime handicapper and racehorse owner Dan Borislow did just that on Sunday.
While the majority of the betting public was buried in the past performances for Monday, which Gulfstream announced earlier this month would feature a mandatory payout, Borislow took a chance that he might be able to catch horseplayers napping and targeted the Rainbow 6 a day early.
For those of you not familiar with the Rainbow 6, it is a multi-race bet with a 20-cent minimum that requires gamblers to select the winners of six consecutive races. The Rainbow 6 is a jackpot Pick 6 wager that pays out only when there is one winning ticket. If nobody has 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 Rainbow 6 had not been hit since Jan. 10 leaving a jackpot carryover of just under $6.4-million for Sunday’s card.
The mandatory payout, which Gulfstream said had been requested by many of its horseplayers, would have meant that the jackpot would have been paid out regardless of how many winning tickets were purchased. That meant that this Pick 6 would essentially have started with about $6.5-million in up-for-grabs money and several estimates suggested the total pool would have surpassed $15-million.
Borislow, inventor of the magicjack phone system, had a different idea after analyzing Sunday’s card. He bought every race but one on Sunday’s card by using the “All” button that gives a bettor every betting option in the race and he was correct on the one race in which he took a stand.
“I thought this would be a good day because everybody was waiting for tomorrow, and I thought today was my chance to get it by myself,” Borislow told the Miami Herald.
The winning ticket cost $7,603.20 and paid $6,678,939.12 for a return of about 848 times the cost of the winning ticket that was purchased at Palm Beach Kennel Club.
Winning Rainbow 6 ticket pic.twitter.com/UK15fptqeJ
— Mike Welsch (@DRFWelsch) May 25, 2014
According to Daily Racing Form, Borislow purchased two tickets, both for $7,603.20, with two different horses keyed in the sixth race, so the return was actually closer to 424 times the cost of Borislow’s two tickets. Either way, the result was a record payout.
The Rainbow 6 got off to a good start for Borislow with 16.90-to-1 Bagration, the second-longest shot in the field, winning Race 3 and Cajun Breeze winning Race 4 at 10.30-to-1 odds. After Little Bart (5.40-to-1), Signofaffection (4.20-to-1) in the race Borislow targeted, and Cajun Sunrise (3.80-to-1) won the next three races, Borislow connected on the life-changing jackpot by the slimmest of margins when Callana held off Russian Knight by a nose to win at 5.40-to-1. Had Russian Night prevailed, there would have been more than one winning ticket and the Rainbow 6 would have carried over to mandatory Monday.
Dream-crushing word of the winning Rainbow 6 ticket spread like wildfire on Twitter as horseplayers and fans were once again reminded that anything can – and does – happen in horse racing.
Top Payouts for the Week Ended May 25
Wager
Wager Amount
Payoff
Track
Date
Race#
Win
$2.00
$112.80
SA
5/24/14
8
Place
$2.00
$90.20
EVD
5/22/14
6
Show
$2.00
$85.80
PIM
5/24/14
9
Exacta
$1.00
$231.30
SA
5/24/14
8
Exacta
$2.00
$1,619.80
SRP
5/24/14
4
Quinella
$2.00
$630.00
LBG
5/25/14
5
Trifecta
$0.50
$308.80
AP
5/25/14
5
Trifecta
$1.00
$3,250.10
GP
5/24/14
9
Trifecta
$2.00
$29,234.40
IND
5/20/14
9
Superfecta
$0.10
$5,842.87
LS
5/23/14
1
Superfecta
$0.50
$1,562.00
EMD
5/24/14
6
Superfecta
$1.00
$100,407.20
WO
5/25/14
10
Superfecta
$2.00
$109,659.60
IND
5/20/14
9
Daily Double
$1.00
$195.00
CBY
5/23/14
8
Daily Double
$2.00
$1,469.20
SUF
5/24/14
8
Pick 3
$0.50
$622.90
BTP
5/24/14
5
Pick 3
$1.00
$3,488.60
LS
5/23/14
4
Pick 3
$2.00
$7,313.00
FL
5/23/14
9
Pick 4
$0.50
$7,538.75
SA
5/24/14
9
Pick 4
$1.00
$9,165.30
CBY
5/23/14
8
Pick 4
$2.00
$18,321.00
BEL
5/21/14
5
Pick 5
$0.50
$27,527.60
MTH
5/25/14
12
Pick 5
$1.00
$2,743.50
HST
5/25/14
8
Pick 5
$2.00
$36,870.00
BEL
5/21/14
5
Pick 5 Jackpot
$0.50
$1,986.60
LAD
5/23/14
9
Pick 6
$0.20
$673.34
LS
5/24/14
9
Pick 6
$0.50
$5,471.15
CD
5/23/14
10
Pick 6
$1.00
$7,550.90
LS
5/23/14
9
Pick 6
$2.00
$113,539.00
SA
5/24/14
9
Pick 6 Jackpot
$0.10
$556.33
CRC
5/23/14
8
Pick 6 Jackpot
$0.20
$6,678,939.12
GP
5/25/14
8
Super High Five
$0.10
$7,112.55
LS
5/23/14
9
Super High Five
$1.00
$91,906.40
GP
5/25/14
8
Super High Five
$2.00
$17,597.20
MNR
5/21/14
9