The “Bennies” will fly Saturday as the horse-racing industry delivers several versions of big money to nationwide gamblers.
Some bettors will tap into betting pools in graded stakes races, including the $20 Million Saudi Cup at 12:40 p.m. and the $1 million Rebel Stakes at 6:22 p.m. EST.
Another source is the mandatory Rainbow Pick 6 payout at Gulfstream Park in Florida. A jackpot pool of at least $6 million is building for this popular 20-cent wager, in which the bettor selects the winners of six consecutive races.
Large fields in low-level claiming races at Oaklawn add another puzzle piece. They also link us to the popular Bombs Away, Salute to Long Shots recap, in which a group of Fairgrounds Firecrackers lit up the financial skies like July 4 last weekend at the New Orleans track.
All of the action is accessible via TVG.
Let’s unpack.
A rematch at the Saudi Cup
Mandaloun and Midnight Bourbon are at it again.
After going head-to-head in major races like the Kentucky Derby, the Haskell Stakes at Monmouth Park and the Grade 3 Louisiana, they headline the field for the $20 million Saudi Cup, the richest race on the planet.
Winning connections earn $10 million.
Mandaloun is now the apparent winner of the 2021 Kentucky Derby. The late Medina Spirit, who was the initial winner, was disqualified for failing a post-race drug test.
If this holds, Mandaloun will enter the Saudi Cup with four consecutive victories.
Recent Breeders’ Cup winner Marche Lorraine and defending race champion Mishriff are also part of the 14-horse field.
Bettors will have to adjust their betting body clocks to participate based on time differences. But it will be worth it.
The Saudi Cup Card – Saturday, Feb. 26
Race 1 — 8:00 a.m. — Group 3, $1.5M Neom Turf Cup
Race 2 — 8:35 a.m. — Group 3, $1.5M 1351 Turf Sprint
Race 3 — 9:10 a.m. — Group 3, $2.5M Longines Red Sea Turf Handicap
Race 4 — 9:45 a.m. — $1M Jockey Club Local Handicap
Race 5 — 10:30 a.m. — Group 2, $2M Obaiya Arabian Classic
Race 6 — 11:10 a.m. — Group 3, $1.5M Saudi Derby
Race 7 — 11:50 a.m. — Group 3, $1.5M Riyadh Dirt Sprint
Race 8 — 12:40 p.m. — Group 1, $20M Saudi Cup
Wagering on the Saudi Cup card is available in the United States via NYRA Bets.
Rebel unfurls big field
The Rebel Stakes assembles industry hitters in a Kentucky Derby prep. The winner of this 1 1/16 mile event can expect a berth in the Kentucky Derby on May 7. Additionally, the second-place horse in this 50-20-10-5 qualifying-points breakdown from first through fourth will likely also qualify for the Derby.
This race is an industry bellwether. With a big field of 11, all eyes are on the Rebel this weekend.
Side note: How that will affect favored Newgrange, trained by Bob Baffert, is uncertain. Baffert has appealed a two-year suspension from Churchill Downs, site of the Kentucky Derby. His horses are ineligible for qualifying points at the moment. Stay tuned.
This Rebel is famous for noteworthy graduates. American Pharoah, en route to becoming the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years, won the Rebel in 2015.
Curlin captured this race in the spring of 2007 and the Breeders Cup Classic in the fall.
Smarty Jones, who has a stakes race named after him at Oaklawn, prevailed in 2004 and became the first undefeated Kentucky Derby winner since Seattle Slew in 1977.
Capsule information and specific angles
Class: The top five finishers from the $750,000 Southwest Stakes over this track at the same distance last month are entered. That includes victorious Newgrange, runner-up Barber Road, third-place Ben Diesel, fourth-place Kavod and fifth-place Dash Attack. This is a rematch.
Trainers: Baffert, who has saddled a record eight Rebel Stakes winners, trains favored Newgrange.
Outsiders: Un Ojo secured second in the $250,000 Withers behind Early Voting at Aqueduct. He’s a strong finisher and will be considered a viable attraction for trifecta and superfecta wagering. Chasing Time had prohibitive odds of 1-2 in the last race, which he won. He’s been expected to face tougher fields all along, and now he will.
Weather angle: Dash Attack has a victory over others in this field in the Smarty Jones, run in slop earlier this year. Initial forecasts called for rain on Saturday, which could impact the track surface. Later forecasts reduced the chance of rain. That’s a good angle for people to stay on top of.
Say What?: Ethereal Road made up roughly 20 lengths to win his last race, albeit in cheaper company. A better break could put him in the superfecta picture, perhaps at a price.
The Honeybee Sting
Besides the Rebel, Oaklawn offers the $300 Honeybee Stakes with considerable talent and a small field of six fillies at 3:10 p.m. EST.
Bettors will need to drill down to a few win or exacta wagers, because the trifectas and superfectas won’t pay that well.
Secret Oath, the initial favorite, crushed the Martha Washington Stakes field in her last race. She won by seven over Optionality, who also entered the Honeybee.
That race would indicate she’s coming into her own. But in an earlier race, she was crushed by Yuugiri, who is also running the Honeybee.
So, who do you like?
Yuugiri ran a game second at the Golden Rod at Churchill Downs. She may want the lead with Optionality, setting the race up for Secret Oath.
These are 3-year-olds, continually evolving.
Ice Orchid comes up from maiden special weights but has a win at the distance.
Red Queen also has a victory at the distance in maiden claiming and thus takes a significant step up in class. She has a win at the track and is lightly raced, indicating her connections believe she’s ready for bigger purses. This is the test.
Cha-ching with the claimers
Immediately after the Honeybee comes a 12-horse race, the cheapest on the card. It is listed as a six-furlong race with a purse of $12,500.
It’s a far cry from the $1 million Rebel, but possibly just as valuable to some bettors.
In this colossal field, one is likely to find horses with long layoffs and several with inconsistent form. Those are the claimers. Horses in this category often take turns winning.
These fields can deliver some excellent payouts, because it’s often hard to trust a favorite.
Some strategies bettors follow in these fields:
Don’t be bashful about placing a win bet on a horse with medium or long shot betting odds. Take an economical hedge. A five-horse 10-cent superfecta box costs $12. Some players even take six-horse boxes for $36. The key to this type of wager is the belief that the favorite may run out of the money and several midrange to long shot-price horses will run in.
If there is one horse a bettor likes best, it can be keyed. A 10-cent superfecta key putting the horse in the first and second positions with five other horses costs $12.
To some, betting claimers is about as reliable as trying to skate on an oil slick. But low level-claimers in big fields often spell payouts.
Why do we harp on big fields to yield big dollars?
That takes us right into one of our favorite segments …
Bomb’s Away: This week’s salute to long shots
Fairgrounds delivered not one or two, but three superfecta payouts exceeding $10,000 on Feb. 19.
One towered above the rest.
A 12-horse allowance field produced a $2 payout of $77,916. That’s nearly $39,000 for the $1 super and almost $3,900 for the 10-center.
Continental Coins won the turf race at 8-1. Shippingport was second at 37-1 and keyed the exacta, which paid $943.
New Year Surprise took third at 20-1 and rounded out a $1 trifecta worth $4,751.50.
And Blue Lou Boyle, at 7-2, was fourth.
What made the payday? Shippingport had been off for a while and had not run often at a long-distance race. Yet horses, like human beings, can suddenly feel in the mood to run one day.
In light of the big field, it would have taken a genius to project Shippingport running free on an uncontested lead, stretch out to a longer distance and run second.
Yet some bettors took a hunch on that, liked him on looks or simply tossed him into the mix because of his price.
By any method, congratulations to anyone who was even in the same zip code as this payout. Fair Grounds added the coup de grace in the Fair Grounds Stakes and Rachel Alexandra Stakes. In back-to-back races with 11-horse fields, the $2 superfecta paid more than $12,000.
Gulfstream Park: Letruska returns
St. George Stable LLC’s Letruska is scheduled to make her 2022 debut in Saturday’s $150,000 Royal Delta (G3) at Gulfstream Park, where the Eclipse Award champion made an eye-opening US debut a little over two years ago.
Letruska was 6-for-8 last year and won nearly $2 million.
The Royal Delta, a 1 1/16-mile stakes for older fillies and mares, will headline Saturday’s 12-race program at Gulfstream Park. The Saudi Derby (11:10 a.m.), Riyadh Dirt Sprint (11:50 a.m.) and Saudi Cup (12:40 p.m.) will be simulcast.
