My Wife Hit the Exacta

As animal rights people, my wife and I have been against horse racing, up until a week ago. My wife is horse crazy. She's been taking hunter-jumper lessons and she visits and rides her parent's horses every weekend. Last week she found a channel on cable that's totally devoted to horse racing: TVG. It's not her usual thing but she became addicted to watching these people talk about the horses and how they train, and how the horses were spending their time leading up to the Kentucky Derby today.

So last night I encouraged her to bet on the race, since she suddenly knew a lot about the horses who would be in the race. She went online but was discouraged by the fact that to create an account, they needed her social security number. She decided that she wanted to sleep on it.

This morning, while I was out mowing the lawn, trying to beat the oncoming rainstorm, she came out to ask me how much she should bet. We agreed on $50. She let them have her social security number. The die was cast.

When I came inside, she was still betting. She was betting her $50 in $2 increments. And she was still learning how all the bets were done and how they paid. For one bet she accidentally bet that the same horse would finish 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the same race. Oops! Of these 20 horses, she bet 14 different horses to show. Not really a good use of those $2 bets.

For the last bet she placed, she was left with $3.25 and the online bookie takes the .25, so she decided to bet $3 on an "exacta", which is betting on a horse to win and another to place, the #1 and #2. She picked the favorite and a long shot that she liked because of "his look and his movement". That horse's name is Bluegrass Cat. It was her only $3 bet, and kind of an afterthought.

So we went to her parents to watch the race, and sure enough the horse she had bet to win, Barbaro, had won. And the #2 and #3 horses were ones that she had bet to show. But she forgot about the exacta bet. Her parents' house's internet connection was down, so we couldn't see what she had won, but I figured that she won about $40 of her $50, while she guessed she had won about $10 from the $50 (leaving her $40 in the hole).

When we were returning home, just as we turned the block, I mentioned that her long shot, Bluegrass Cat, had come in second. Then she suddenly remembered her exacta bet.

So when we got home, 3 hours after the race, we pulled up her account online. Fully expecting a moderate loss, but hopeful about the possible exacta, we were surprised to find the following account balance:

My wife started screaming. She was especially happy because her father and myself had made fun of her 14 "to show" bets. But somehow she picked the winner and a longshot to come in second. The measly $3 bet paid $880.50!

Her total winnings were $917.90!

This screenshot shows her betting history:

You can see that the last bet was the big payoff. And also that while she agonized for minutes about the other bets, she decided on this one within one minute.

I was dumbfounded. I couldn't believe that a $3 bet would payoff that big. But sure enough, it's legit.

She's cashed out all but $50, which she will use to bet on the Preakness. But I'm thinking she might have a new at-home career on her hands. She basically earned an extra paycheck in less than an hour's worth of wagering. Then we can retire early; I'm hoping by age 35.