One bettor hits Rainbow 6 Jackpot at Portland Meadows

A single ticket had all six winners in a sequence of races at Portland Meadows on Monday called the Rainbow 6 Jackpot, requiring the track to put up tens of thousands of dollars to satisfy the betting pool’s $100,000 guarantee.

The winning ticket paid $78,000, the amount of the guaranteed pool minus a theoretical 22 percent takeout. The carryover going into the Monday sequence was $20,274, and $22,622 more was wagered into the pool, according to mutuel records, so Portland Meadows had to contribute approximately $35,000 toward the payout.

The jackpot-style bet, which was first offered Jan. 11, drew scrutiny from some out-of-state regulators because of the unusual rules under which the races in the sequence were held. All of the horses in the races were owned by Andy Stronach, the son of the owner of the track, and the horses were distributed among the races by the racing office. Jockeys were assigned to horses at random, and all of the races were contested at two furlongs, a distance far more common in Quarter Horse racing than Thoroughbred racing.

The horses who won in the Monday sequence paid $9.20, $15.80, $62.60, $7, $6.40, and $7.80. Portland Meadows said the winning bet was played on an account-wagering service, and that it cost $1,440. Minimum bet for the wager was 20 cents, as long as the total cost of the ticket was $1.

The bet was scheduled to be offered every Monday through Feb. 8, when the bet would payout regardless of whether there was a single winner. On Thursday, Portland Meadows announced that they would hold the bet again on Feb. 8, but without the $100,000-guaranteed pool. The entire pool will be paid out, they said.

Portland Meadows officials had said that they would have been unable to hold a jackpot-style bet without the participation of the Stronach horses, who were purchased privately from racetracks across the country. The officials said the track has struggled to fill races from its standing horse population.

“Regular race-day field size has not been high enough to justify a single-winner wager that has the chance of carrying over and building momentum,” Karsten Hennze, the track’s general manager, said several weeks ago.

Conditions for the races held Monday also stated that the winning horse in each race would be offered for sale in a telephone auction following the race. If the horse was sold, the winning bidder also would receive a “non-transferable breeding” to Giacomo, a stallion who stands at Oakhurst Thoroughbreds in Oregon for a $2,500 fee as property of the Stronach family.