What is the biggest payout in horse racing history?

Question

What is the biggest payout in horse racing history?

Answer 1

The world's record win payoff on a $2 pari-mutuel bet for a Thoroughbred race was thje $2,922 payoff on Power to Geaux at Aksarben on Dec. 8, 1989, according to the American Racing Manual.

Second highest price was $1,885.50, on Wishing Ring at Latonia in Kentucky on June 17, 1912.

There can be much higher payoffs on "exotic" wagers that involve multiple horses, such as Superfectas, Pick Sixes, and other wagers.  

As other have noted, the person who owns a racehorse that wins a big race gets a big payout, but the investment of the racehorse owner is typically pretty high-- so when the horse's earnings are contrasted with the expenses, it's often not such a good deal.

FWIW, I have to believe that in terms of hitting the jackpot of all time, Overbrook Farm really grabbed the brass ring with Storm Cat.  In terms of stud fees and sales prices of offspring, Storm Cat has brought in well in excess of $100,000,000 in revenue to Overbrook.  (FWIW, an argument can be made that the "Slew Crew" of the Hills and Taylors that bought Seattle Slew for $17,500 as a yearling got as big a payout, but Storm Cat has consistantly been bred to bigger books of mares than Slew was;  I think that Overbrook has done better, financially, from Storm Cat than the Taylors did from Slew, but it may be 6 of one, half a dozen of the other, when all the money is counted.)

I think the biggest loser(s) in Thoroughbred history were the people who bought into the Spectacular Bid syndication.  "Bid" was syndicated for $22 million, at the time a record sum;  with his race record, there was every reason to believe that he would be a sire of note.  Upon his death in 2003, "Bid" was standing for an advertised fee of $3500/live foal, with not many takers, and was being marketed as a sire of sport horses more than race horses.

None of this takes into account the side bets and private wagers that have been made on horse races.  In the days before pari-mutuel wagering, it was common for the sportsmen who owned the horses to "stake" their horses against all comers, with odds and size of wagers a private matter.

It was a desire to get better odds that led to one of the wagers that has come down through Thoroughbred history.  A certain Captain Denis O' Kelly, a gambler of some note, offered to name the exact order of finish of a race.  The bookies said "you're on!" and accepted.  O' Kelly proclaimed that the order of finish would be "Eclipse first, the rest nowhere!"  (Yes, it was "that" Eclipse, the founder of the Darley Arabian bloodline of Thoroughbreds;  and in those days, if a horse finished 240 yards or more in front of the rest of the field, the field was considered "distanced" and therefore unplaced-- ergo "nowhere.")

Answer 2

One of the biggest payouts that I can remember was the $2 superfecta in the 2005 Kentucky Derby which paid $1,728,506.40. I'm sure that there have been some multi-million dollar Pick 6 payouts.

Additional comment: Perhaps the biggest pay out of all time was the fools that coughed up $16 million to buy the Green Monkey.

Answer 3

for the owners it's the $6 million Dubai world cup, for the bettors it's the pick 6......

Answer 4

the dubai race has a purse of 6 million, so a payoff to the winning owners of over 3 million, the biggest pick 6 payoff was an Ultra 6 which paid 3.1 million in 2003