A big carryover led to big play, which led to a big payout in the 20-cent Pick-6 on Friday night, Dec. 20 at The Meadowlands.

A carryover of $15,667 motivated bettors to pump just over $65,000 of “new money” into play to bring the total pool to $80,742. Because of the low 15 per cent takeout – which only applied to the new money – winning tickets would get a return of 109 per cent, a “negative takeout.”

After a sequence with winners’ odds of 3-5, 6-5, 8-1, 22-1, 30-1 and 5-1, one ticket was exchanged for a whopping $70,980.10.

The keys to the sequence were legs four and five, when driver Bradley Chisholm guided B Like Cruiser ($46.40) to victory in the 11th race before Leon Bailey scored with Monis Heaven Cent ($63.60) in the 12th.

The 20-cent Pick-5 provided another potent payoff, as two winning tickets were worth $17,227.74. The sequence had winners' odds of 2-1, 5-1, 10-1, 49-1 and 3-1. The key came in the fourth race, when Justin Irvine kept Chuck, who had gone off stride in each of his two 2024 starts, on gait and won, paying $100.40.

Driver Jonathan Ahle worked out an ideal trip for Keystone Apache on the way to pulling off an 8-1 surprise in the featured $15,714 conditioned trot. The Frank Calcagni trainee picked up cover from You Got It before the half and did not tip off that tow until there was just over an eighth-of-a-mile to go. The nine-year-old gelded son of Explosive Matter-Found An Angel then closed well while bearing out, hitting the wire a safe half-length winner in 1:54.1 for owner R B H Ventures Inc. Reckless Reviver, the 2-1 favourite, closed well along the inside for second, while You Got it finished third in a brave performance.

“He dropped in class and seemed to be in good form,” said winning driver Ahle. “The trip worked out. He came home with a lot of trot.”

Keystone Apache returned $19.80 as he recorded his 46th lifetime win from 214 starts. He now has earnings of $509,603.

Chisholm finished the night atop the driver leaderboard with three victories. In addition to winning one-third of the Pick-6 races, the 27-year-old driver also swept the Late Daily Double, which returned $117.80.

All-source betting on the 14-race program totalled $2,393,959.

Racing resumes on Saturday at 6:20 p.m.

(With files from Meadowlands Racetrack; Photo of Keystone Apache winning on Dec. 20)