After driver Braxten Boyd guided 6-5 favourite Geronimo Trio IT to the winner’s circle in the 10th race on Friday, March 27 at The Meadowlands, one shrewd player betting in Canada had a big smile on their face after taking down the entire $1 Pick 8 pool.

Entering the night, the carryover of $108,452 USD motivated punters to bet $10,034 USD of new money into the pool, for a grand total of $118,486 USD. Had the winning ticket been purchased in the United States, the payout would have been $116,966 USD, but with the conversion to Canadian funds, the ticket was exchanged for $162,454.

A look at a $1 win parlay reveals what remarkable value that player received. Winners' odds for the sequence were 5-2, 7-5, 1-1, 4-5, 2-1, 2-1, 6-5 and 6-5. Given that the longest price returned $7 for a $2 bet, maybe it’s more remarkable that there weren’t multiple winning tickets.

The win parlay for the eight races, based on starting with a $1 wager (which is the base bet for the Pick 8), returned $1,574.55 USD, substantially less – to say the least – than the payout of $116,966 USD, had the winning ticket been called out in the U.S.

Peter Kleinhans, the sponsor of the $1 Pick 8, will now seed the bet with $50,000 USD of his own money for a third time, no doubt hoping that this time around the wager goes unhit for longer than the 11 misses it experienced heading into Friday’s card.

The $1 Pick 8 is offered nightly on races three through 10.

Maximum Exposure, a four-year-old gelded son of Muscle Hill-I Feel Love, stayed red hot in the featured eighth race, a $20,548 high-end conditioned trot, winning a third straight race for trainer Mike Terpolilli after starting his career winless in 13 tries. Driven by Anibal Borjas, Maximum Exposure stopped the clock in a lifetime-best 1:53.2 and returned $6.20 as the 2-1 favourite after holding off Yank My Halo and Joe Bongiorno by a neck.

“He was pressed too early as a two and three-year-old, so the owner, who is Amish, put him on the road for six months, and I swear, that’s what fixed him,” said Terpolilli. “I was the lucky one to be able to get to train him. He’s got unbelievable talent for what he went through. He is very resilient.”

Boyd was the top driver on the night, sending four to the winner’s circle. Geovany Hernandez and Per Engblom topped the trainers with two victories apiece.

All-source betting on the 14-race program totalled $2,324,220 USD.

Racing resumes on Saturday at 6 p.m.

(With files from Meadowlands Racetrack; photo of Maximum Exposure winning on March 27)