Show bettor has a day at Ajax Downs

Ajax Downs had some interesting betting going on Monday as the Quarter Horse track just east of Toronto had a seven race card. The parimutuel pools at Ajax tend to be on the smaller side, the first race for example handled $588 in the win pool, $762 in the Exactor, and $513 in the Triactor. I love saying Exactor by the way.

However in that first race, there was $1,682 bet to show on the #2 Caraway's Jet Moon. Now I know there's co-mingling in all the pools between US and Canadian dollars, but the assumption I made and I think my buddy @Raps7 (who brought this to my attention) made, was that someone was betting $2,000 Canadian dollars to show on this horse.

Well Caraway's Jet Moon finished third, almost two in front of fourth, and returned $2.10 for the show wagers. So someone betting $2,000 would get back $2,100 for their wager.

Now we see these kind of show bets often in racing so there wasn't anything terribly unique about it happening. What was unique was that a similar dollar amount was put to show (place in the 4th race with just a 3 horse field) on one horse in each remaining race on the card.

One of my pet peeves anytime there is a lot of money to show on a big favorite in a race is people thinking there's only one "bridejumper" doing it. When I think in reality its probably a number of separate players making the big show wagers. But in this instance, I really do think it was one person. Look at each race on the Ajax Monday card and you'll see one horse with somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,600 or $1,700 to show. Again I'm not smart at math (or in general) but my assumption was they were putting $2,000 to show in Canadian dollars on each bet.

Here's Race 5 pools for example.

And the Race 5 results.

So as we got to the seventh and final race, the big show bettor put their money on the #6. By this time word had started to spread a little bit so you'll see that the show pools on some of the other runners are a bit higher, as savvy players are trying to split up that big bet should the #6 run off the board.

But alas, Theydontlikemyname (#6) broke sharply and ended up finishing second, safely in the money. So at the end of the day, if our hero bet $2000 to show on one runner in all seven races, since they won them all today, they took home a tidy $700 profit. One horse running off the board would have yielded a four figure loss. Tough way to make a living, but it worked today!

To see the charts for the whole day at Ajax, CLICK HERE.