Meadowlands: $267,769 Mandatory Payout Super Hi-5 offers value

An extraordinary investment opportunity exists for horseplayers on Saturday night at the Meadowlands when the track will offer a mandatory payout of the Jackpot Super High Five wager on one of its signature race programs – Meadowlands Pace Night. The wager features a jackpot carryover of $267,769 and a 15 percent 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 featuring 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 Crawford Farms Meadowlands Pace Final. 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, Fox Sports Southeast, and on DRF Harness Live.

In June, Mohawk Raceway 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 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 percent 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 percent 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 featuring 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 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-favorite horses have the potential to give any of the great rivalries in the history of the sport a major run for their money.

--edited release (Meadowlands)