Officials with the Meadowlands Racetrack have announced that there will be carryovers for a pair of exotic wagers on the raceway’s program of live racing this Friday (March 8).

Those who like playing the 20-Cent Jackpot Super High-Five have a pair of carryovers to shoot for when racing resumes Friday at 7:15 p.m. In the fifth race, a carryover of $58,339 awaits, while in Race 13, the pot will begin at $20,278.

Big pools, big payoffs and the first taste of purse increases highlighted the action during the first weekend of March (1-2) at the Meadowlands Racetrack.

After a highly successful February at the windows, betting at the ‘Big M’ last weekend was just shy of $6.5 million, far and away the highest two-day total of 2019.

Saturday was the big night, as the all-sources handle totalled $3,603,187, which crushed the previous yearly single-card high of $3,166,920 (which was set on February 16) by 13.8 per cent. The average wagered per race was $277,168 and five races saw action in excess of $300,000.

The mile oval’s popular multi-leg bets also saw 2019 highs, as $134,613 was poured into the 50-Cent Pick-4 pot while the 50-Cent Pick-5 pool totalled $79,818. Both wagers, which have a low 15 per cent takeout, yielded handsome payoffs, with the Pick-4 returning $1,025 and the Pick-5 coming back $6,441.

“All of us at the Meadowlands were pleased at how things went last weekend, especially Saturday,” said Jason Settlemoir, the track’s chief operating officer and general manager. “We got off to a good start with $332,662 bet in the first race and things just kept rolling from there. We appreciate our horsemen, whose participation allow us to card fuller fields, and our faithful fans, who like betting into big fields.”

Free Pick-4 program pages for the upcoming Friday and Saturday race cards are available at playmeadowlands.com and ustrotting.com.

Some Saturday night pool bests:

· Win: $86,713 (Race three)
· Exacta: $90,888 (Race five)
· Trifecta: $66,203 (Race six)
· Superfecta: $48,713 (Race 10)
· Daily Double: $40,182 (Race one)
· Pick-3: $32,596 (Race 11)

Despite four winning favourites and two other winning 9-5 non-chalks, the average win payoff was $17.32, helping the average payoffs of the Exactas ($136.15), Trifectas ($833.46) and 10-Cent Superfectas ($156.70).

(With files from the Meadowlands Racetrack)