Horse player wins $11,325 on 20-cent wager

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/06/2021 (709 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A very lucky U.S. bettor who wagered all of 20 cents on a horse race at Assiniboia Downs to win $11,325 was one of eight highlights in the first month of live racing at the west Winnipeg track.

Get this: The player, who wagered the 20 cents using an online account, predicted 7-6-4-2-3 would be the correct order of finish in a bet called the Jackpot Hi-5 and the player was dead on.

All horses were longshots. Sounds like someone who could be cleaning up at keno.

Other highlights:

• With the track closed to spectators, online wagering on Downs’ pools continued at a brisk pace from account-holders around the world. Totals were down from last year when ASD was one of the few tracks racing at the time but the average of $97,200 currently being wagered per race is about triple pre-COVID betting.

• Hidden Grace, a mare bred in Russell, Man., was voted 2020 Manitoba-bred Horse of the Year in a poll by the Manitoba division of the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society. She has 12 wins from 17 starts including the most important race for top females — the Distaff Stakes.

• The biggest longshot winner of the first month of racing was a mare named West Princess at 25-1, a horse you might have bet had you been watching ASD race-caller Kirt Contois on your phone, computer or MTS channels 179-180 before her race. Contois told viewers the horse has a good record of finishing in the money so he was betting $10-$15-$20 (win-place-show) on the horse. She paid $52.70, $17.30, $9.40 for $2 win-place-show when she swept from last to first.

• The five-year-old mare, Miss Imperial, wowed race-watchers by winning the $35,000 La Verendrye Stakes for top older fillies and mares in a sizzling time of 1:11.20. That distance of six furlongs (three-quarters of a mile) is commonly run in times of 1:13-1:14. That was her fifth stakes victory since being claimed for $25,000 US two years ago at Oaklawn Park in Arkansas by astute horseman Murray Duncan from Carberry, Man.

• Last year’s leading trainer, Jerry Gourneau, with more than 52 horses, is continuing to dominate trainer standings with twice as many wins as anyone else. His horses are winning at about a 20 per cent clip.

• With the usual complement of riders from the Caribbean kept away for a second season by COVID-19 restrictions, a new face at the Downs, Jorge Carreno, 38, a native of Mexico City, is dominating the jockey standings, winning at the impressive rate of 26 per cent. He recently celebrated his 1,500th career win.

• Wayne King, active for years in backstretch activities, is the first of five horseplayers to earn a free trip for two to Las Vegas to play in the Horse Player World Series where a top prize of about $300,000 is at stake. He turned $42 into $96.90 in a tournament in which players bet $2 win-place-show on the seven races on an ASD card. He was best of 75 entrants. The next tourney is Mon., July 5, and you can enter for $50.

Live racing continues spectator-free Monday to Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. Watch and wager on an online account you can set up at www.HPIbet.com