An extraordinary investment opportunity exists for horseplayers on Saturday night (July 16) at the Meadowlands Racetrack when the facility will offer a mandatory payout of its Jackpot Super High Five wager during one of the track’s signature race programs – Meadowlands Pace Night.
The wager features a jackpot carryover of $267,769 and a 15 per cent takeout.
For the first time in harness racing history, the high five mandatory payout will be on a top-class stakes event, the $223,150 Golden Girls, which features the top pacing mares in North America. The field features an overflow field of 12 and will be raced at the extended one-mile-and-one-eighth distance.
The Golden Girls is scheduled as Race 12 – one race after the $732,050 final of the Crawford Farms Meadowlands Pace. ‘The Pace’ and the Golden Girls will be featured during a one-hour live broadcast on TVG Network from 10:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m. (Eastern Time). The broadcast will also be carried on MSG Plus and Fox Sports Southeast.
In June, Mohawk Racetrack offered a mandatory payout of its Jackpot Super High Five on North America Cup Night. The carryover attracted about two-and-a-half times the carryover amount in new money. Using this ratio, the new money would be $669,422, making the Meadowlands Jackpot pool $937,191. The takeout would subtract $100,413, thus leaving a net pool of $836,778. Factoring in the carryover amount, horseplayers would be paid out from a pool of $836,778, or 25 per cent more than the $669,422 of new money wagered. In other words, horseplayers taking a shot at this wager on Saturday would be playing into a pool with a negative effective takeout rate of 25 per cent with the North America Cup Night ratio. Furthermore, the horseplayer will still have a takeout advantage as long as the pool is less than $2 million. Low takeout combined with the sizable carryover has created the rarest of wagering opportunities.
The Jackpot race will also be the final leg of an all-stakes pick four wager that begins with the $471,800 William Haughton Memorial, which will feature the next chapter of ‘the budding Ali-Frazier-like rivalry’ between Wiggle It Jiggleit and Always B Miki, the top two ranked horses in harness racing. The duo, along with Indiana sensation Freaky Feet Pete, created tremendous buzz and interest when racing two weeks ago in a legendary renewal of the Ben Franklin at Pocono Downs. Adding further intrigue to the sequel is that the race will be contested with an overflow field of 12 at the extended distance of one-mile-and-one-eighth. The three charismatic and fan-favourite horses have the potential to give any of the great rivalries in the history of the sport a major run for their money.
As the final leg of Pick Four and Pick Three wagers, horseplayers playing the Jackpot race can also use the posted will-pays for those multi-race wagers to help form an opinion and structure their ticket.
(Meadowlands Racetrack)