When live harness racing resumes on Friday, April 24 at The Meadowlands, patrons will have an extra 20-cent Pick-5 as well as an additional 10-cent Hi-5 (or Pentafecta, if you prefer) to titillate their exotic-bet palates.

The $1 Pick 8 on Saturday, April 18 was hit by three superb players for $21,417.50, but the bet, which was sponsored by Peter Kleinhans, has now been discontinued.

“We appreciate Peter’s generosity during the time we had the $1 Pick 8. It created a great amount of excitement, especially when the carryover exceeded six figures,” said Jason Settlemoir, Meadowlands Chief Operating Officer and General Manager, referring to Kleinhans, who seeded the wager four times with $50,000 USD of his own money. “Now, moving forward, we are out to show that at The Meadowlands, we are never afraid to try something different to keep things fresh for our fans.”

Here is the new lineup of wagers that will be offered every racing night. They all offer a low 15 per cent takeout:

• Races 1-5: 20-cent Early Pick-5
• Races 3-8: 20-cent Pick-6
• Races 6-9: 50-cent Early Pick-4 ($50,000 guaranteed pool)
• Race 7: Early 10-cent Pentafecta (Hi-5)
• Races 8-12: 20-cent Late Pick-5
• Races 10-13: 50-cent Late Pick-4 ($50,000 guaranteed pool)
• Race 14: Late 10-cent Pentafecta (Hi-5)

“We may not be done making changes to the betting menu,” said Settlemoir. “We have seen other tracks change things up and change specific wagers’ minimum bets to possibly stir up interest. We may try something different with our denominations and we are analyzing that now.

“As for the extra bets we are adding this week, the Pick-5 is one of our more popular bets, with big carryovers common. So, adding one of those was something we felt our fans would go for in a big way. The Hi-5 is something we added because we didn’t want to merely offer one on the last race of the night. And when one of those doesn’t get hit, the carryovers are considerable. Now, we have twice as many opportunities for that to happen.”

(With files from Meadowlands Racetrack)