Hitting the Jackpot

However enticing the sound “jackpot” makes, there really is no sure-fire way of winning it. Much of the wins that people often claim are one part luck, one part gut-feel, one part intensive research and one part strategy. And let’s not forget the monetary investment. After all, a wager won’t really pay back much if all you put down is a dime or a nickel.

Horse racing jackpot money is as elusive as the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. You’ve probably heard stories about it, but you haven’t really met anyone who can be certified as the, no, THE winner. A horse race is a gambling sport, a game of chance where there are risks and stakes. Hitting the jackpot then becomes a strategy with large stakes. Some seasoned players would rather have small wins over long periods of time rather than one haul, but then again – players follow their own rules and make decisions based on gut feelings.

For some, the simplest strategy would be to bet on the pick of the top favorite and place a large wager “on the nose.” This may work fine, and it certainly would work for the hundred other players who follow the same strategy, making the jackpot money less than the entire bulk. Pari-mutuel betting dictates that the winners share the jackpot money. $2,000 may seem a lot, until you discover that there are also 200 “on the nose” bets for your winning horse. $20 dollars isn’t a bad pay-off, especially if you bet only a dollar in the first place. However, it still doesn’t feel like you’ve “hit” the jackpot, does it?

Others prefer staking a lot on the longshot runners. These are horses that have the least likelihood of winning the race. In which case, the odds are stacked against their favor. If they win with the supposed odds of 100-1, then your one dollar pay-off would be multiplied a hundred times. Supposing then you bet $100; that’s $10,000 easy. Supposing then that there are only 2 players with the winning ticket; then you’ll be going home with $5,000. Jackpot indeed! For many however, longshot bets are far too common. They use these to enhance exotic bets like the exacta, superfecta or other exotic bets.

Jimmy Mayon (MBA, BSEE) is a technologist with an enthusiasm for Horse Racing. During the last 25 years he has been managing banking and online transaction processing technologies for private and public sectors. Today he specializes in open source development using Java, PHP, Linux, and MySQL.

Premier Turf Club
Kanati Inc.