The fondest wish of every horseplayer, of course, is to spend a little to win a lot. That’s why jackpot pools, which were first introduced at Gulfstream Park a dozen years ago (the Rainbow Pick 6), are so successful. But on a race-to-race basis, the best opportunity lies in superfecta play. A longshot finishing somewhere in your superfecta “sandwich” can yield hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars. And that’s for a bet costing little more than pocket change.
Take race 7 on the Saturday card at Woodbine. The 20-cent superfecta paid $565. And that was because a 25-1 horse finished in the “sandwich” (second) with the top three favourites in the race finishing first, third and fourth. The way to have nailed this super was simply by wheeling “all” horses between the three favourites. The three favourites in the nine-horse field were 1, 4 and 10. So obvious wheels to play were 1,4,10/1,4,10/1,4,10/ALL. Cost $4.80. And 1,4,10/1,4,10/ALL/1,4,10. Cost $4.80. And the winning ticket 1,4,10/ALL/1,4,10/1,4,10. Cost $4.80. So an outlay of $14.40 produced a handsome $565. The superfecta result was 1-8-4-10. See the program page for race 7 here.
My favourite wheel is to play “all” in the third position, surrounded by the top three horses. The logic is this: the best horses in the race use up their energy going after each other and one of them tires, allowing a longshot to pass him for the third position.
Just looking at the odds board — and not the program at all — can land you a nice score. Sometimes a ticket that looks like this: ALL/favourite/ALL/second fav, yields big money especially when the favourite is less than even money. Speaking of which, when there’s a less-than-even-money horse in a field of 10 or more, I like to play an exactor wheel with the favourite underneath. Handicapping books have suggested that this is a long-term money-maker. The payoffs are often huge and make up for the times you don’t win.
Consider this, too. Superfectas give you the best chance of maximizing the value of longshots. A $10 wager on a 25-1 horse yields $250 and maybe half of that in the place position. But you’ll often get a return of many times more when that horse is in the superfecta which may have cost you as much as the win or place wager.
And I shouldn’t have to mention that superfectas often pay surprisingly more than triactors. Here are the 20-cent triactors and superfectas for each Woodbine race Saturday. Note races 8 and 10 in particular:
Race 1: $21, $70.
Race 2: $37, $226.
Race 3: $73, $340.
Race 4: $11, $32.
Race 5: $12, $66.
Race 6: $13, $29.
Race 7: $166, $565.
Race 8: $24, $338.
Race 9: $5, $16.
Race 10: $128, $1,926.
UPDATE ON LAST WEEK’S PICK-5 POOL WINNER: Taking down the entire $47,697 U.S. pick-5 pool at Woodbine last Saturday (see last Monday’s column) was not a wheel but a simple 20-cent ticket with all the correct horses in races 6 to 10 (7-1-9-2-5). That suggests a quick-pick ticket or a ticket with numbers punched at random was the winner. However, Woodbine says the U.S. bettor spent more than $8,600 in tickets on the pick-5 and the single 20-cent ticket was part of that purchase. Interesting.
