May, 2021 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Despite Losing Bet, McInvgale, Racing Come Out Winners

Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale made what is believed to be the largest losing wager in horse racing history Saturday, as a $2.4-million win bet on Essential Quality (Tapit) went down in flames as the favorite in the GI Kentucky Derby finished fourth. But, for McIngvale, there were no wounds to be licked.

The bet was tied into a promotion at his Gallery Furniture Stores in Houston. Anyone buying a mattress worth $3,000 or more prior to the Derby would get the mattress for free if the betting favorite won the Derby. The promotion was so successful that McIngvale sold about 2,000 mattresses, making their combined value $6 million. McIngvale said the markup on the mattresses was 100%, meaning he would have been out of pocket about $3 million on the mattresses if the horse had won.

Once McIngvale started to do the math, he realized he could create what amounted to a no-lose situation.

With Essential Quality going off at 2.90-1, McIngvale's $2.4-million bet would have turned into a profit of $6,960,000 had he won. That would have been enough to cover the costs associated with giving away so many mattresses for free. The defeat meant that McIngvale was out $2.4 million, but that is less than the near $3 million he made by selling so many mattresses.

“I'm very glad I did it,” McIngvale said Monday. “It made the store really busy for two weeks. Not only did they buy mattresses, they bought a lot of other things. In this crazy age of Amazon retailing, if we don't do something that sets us apart we're going to be put out of business by the Amazon people or by people that sell these inexpensive mattresses in a box. The promotion was great for bringing people out. It was fun. It's too bad Essential Quality didn't win but it was an exciting race and I hear the ratings were good. It was something that gave horse racing a shot in the arm.”

McIngvale has run similar promotions that tied into bets he made on the World Series, the Super Bowl and the NCAA tournament. He made a successful $3.46-million bet on the Tampa By Buccaneers to cover the spread in this year's Super Bowl.

“I was really amazed to find that out that we sold as many mattresses for this as we did for the Super Bowl,” he said.

McIngvale made all $2.4 million of his bets on track at Churchill Downs rather than through an ADW or in Las Vegas. The cut for purses for on-track bets is 10%, which adds up to $240,000 infusion into the purse account. The cut from an ADW bet is just 5%, and had someone in Las Vegas booked his bet, the horsemen would have gotten no money.

“The people in Kentucky were very happy that I bet all this money on track,” he said. “I could have gone to Las Vegas and bet the money with someone out there or bet it offshore. If I did that, the track would have gotten nothing. I wanted to support the ecosystem of horse racing so I made the bet at Churchill Downs. That way we maximized the amount of money that horsemen got, that the ecosystem got. It's crazy that some people in the horse racing business bet with a bookie or go offshore to a place like Costa Rica. They're not supporting racing.”

Prepared to bet more than the $2.4 million, McIngvale had $4 million wired to Churchill Downs before his arrival. He made his bets over time and in increments, starting with a $500,000 wager on Friday.

“We wanted to seed the money into the pool where it wasn't such a shock to the system,” he said. “I didn't want to bet it all early and I didn't want to bet it all late. I wanted to give the betting public a chance to react to my bet.”

With the money having been wired to Churchill before the race, McIngvale wasn't required to make his wagers through a mutuel clerk. He did, however, make a $100,000 win bet at the windows that was staged for the benefit of the NBC cameras.

McIngvale said he will consider bringing the promotion back for future runnings of the Derby.

“The difference between this bet and the sports bets is the best you're going to do on a sports or football bet is +140 or +150,” he said. “With this, I got +280 on the favorite. That's a pretty good deal. The problem is that not too many horse races can handle a bet that big.”

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O’Brien, Dettori Team Up To Win 1,000 Guineas With Mother Earth

Frankie Dettori celebrated winning the 20th Classic of his career with victory on Mother Earth in the QIPCO 1,000 Guineas – then joked he has “plenty of time” to beat the legendary Lester Piggott's record of 30.

It was a fourth victory in the race for the 50 year old Italian jockey and a seventh for trainer Aidan O'Brien.

Taking the lead just inside the final quarter mile, Zoffany filly Mother Earth, a 10-1 chance, kept on finding more and at the finish had a length to spare over the staying on Saffron Beach (9-1). A futher neck back in third was 22-1 chance Fev Rover.

Speaking after the race Dettori said: “I was super excited to win that! I didn't have the pressure to ride the favorite and had a very willing partner on a filly who I knew would give me everything.

“Aidan gave me a lot of confidence this morning and said to forget about (favored) Santa Barbara and just ride my own race. He told me to get cover and I did and like I said I forgot about the favorite and just kicked at the top of the hill.

“I knew she'd stay really well and I won – it's as simple as that! It's my 20th Classic (in Britain) at 50 years old. I'm only 10 behind Lester now so I've got plenty of time!

“It's great to do it at Newmarket. I'm extremely happy and I got lucky to get that ride. Lester was 56 so I've got six years left and Kevin (Manning, 54, winner of Saturday's 2,000 Guineas with Poetic Flare) won yesterday – come on the oldies!”

Before the QIPCO 1000 Guineas, many had expected an O'Brien victory in the race to come via his 5-2 joint favorite Santa Barbara, who finished fourth under Ryan Moore.

But O'Brien said of Mother Earth: “She's a very good filly and always was. It was unfair to the favorite (Santa Barbara) to come but we had to come with the view to coming back over here for the Oaks.

“Santa Barbara is only a baby and Ryan said that he'd liked to have waited longer but he saw Frankie coming down his outside and he had to come then and she was just green in the dip, but after having one easy run it was a great run.

“Mother Earth is a very consistent filly – she had a great run in America last time out last year and that was very professional. She relaxed and quickened and did everything really well, so we're delighted. I think Mother Earth will stick to a mile and we'll step Santa Barbara up in trip – the latter was always going to go to the Oaks next time and this filly was always going to go to the Irish Guineas next. That was the plan.

“We won't go again with Santa Barbara (before the Cazoo Oaks). We felt that she would learn as much coming here as she would for three runs, but it was a risk doing it that she was going to get beaten.

“She'll be fine, she's classy and she would have learnt a lot today and she has plenty time to get over that. Ryan was very happy and he said to me that in an ideal world he didn't want to commit as early.

“But with Frankie coming he had to keep going then and she was a little bit unbalanced going into the dip, which is understandable as we've never taken her off the bridle at home. Hopefully she'll come out of it ok and it will do her good.

“I didn't ask Frankie anything afterwards – I just listened. I'm sure you could hear it all as well! It's great to have him and he's an unbelievable rider.”

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Rombauer Confirmed for Preakness

John and Diane Fradkin's Rombauer (Twirling Candy), third in the GII Toyota Blue Grass S. in his most recent start, is headed to the May 15 GI Preakness S. at Pimlico Race Course.

“That's the plan,” trainer Michael McCarthy told the Pimlico notes team Monday.

The homebred automatically qualified for a starting berth in the 146th Preakness with his victory in the El Camino Real Derby Feb. 13 at Golden Gate Fields. He was third, beaten 5 3/4 lengths in the Blue Grass behind champion Essential Quality (Tapit) and Highly Motivated (Nyquist), who finished fourth and 10th, respectively, in Saturday's GI Kentucky Derby. Rombauer ran second by three-quarters of a length in the GI American Pharoah Sept. 26 at Santa Anita and completed his 2-year-old season with a fifth in the GI TVG Breeders' Cup Juvenile Nov. 6 at Keeneland.

“He's done everything and made a nice little progression from 2 to 3,” McCarthy said. “He's put on a little weight. He's a horse that takes pretty good care of himself, so he's been pretty easy that way.”

McCarthy said that Rombauer will have his final work at Santa Anita and will ship to Pimlico early next week.

Get Her Number (Dialed In), who defeated Rombauer in the American Pharoah, will not run in the Preakness, trainer Peter Miller said Monday.

The post Rombauer Confirmed for Preakness appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Baffert Confirms Concert Tour For Preakness; Barnes Staying At Churchill To Oversee Preparations

Last September, Jimmy Barnes watched on his phone in an ambulance as his boss Bob Baffert captured a record-tying sixth Kentucky Derby (G1) with Authentic in the COVID-delayed Classic. Saturday, Baffert's long-time assistant trainer was back watching the race in person at Churchill Downs as Medina Spirit provided Baffert a record-breaking seventh Kentucky Derby victory.

Barnes had sustained a fractured wrist when the barn's other 2020 Derby entrant, Thousand Words, reared and flipped as the assistant trainer attempted to saddle him in the paddock's walking ring. Knocked off balance, Barnes fell and landed awkwardly on his right wrist. Barnes was back at Baffert's Churchill Downs barn the next morning after the break was set at Louisville's Norton Audubon Hospital, but he ultimately had surgery in California with screws inserted to stabilize the injury.

“Especially if you win, you want to be here,” Barnes reflected Monday at Churchill Downs. “But I'd been here enough and we'd won it enough that I knew what was ahead of me. They didn't know how hard it was going to be to get out of here. They said we could either go now (to the hospital) or it could be like 8 o'clock when you get out of here. I knew I probably had four or five hours at least ahead of me, setting it and doing all that. So I said, 'Let's go.' And I watched it on my phone.”

The mishaps weren't over, however, as Authentic later knocked down Baffert in the Derby winner's circle on the turf course.

“It was nice to have Jimmy there and nobody fell down in the winner's circle,” Baffert said Sunday of Medina Spirit's victory in the 147th Kentucky Derby. “It was very enjoyable, and it was good to do it in front of fans.”

Now back on his pony, Barnes again is overseeing Baffert's Pimlico-bound contingent, which, in addition to the Derby winner, could include Rebel Stakes winner Concert Tour for the May 15 Preakness (G1) as well as horses for other stakes next week.

Baffert told the Daily Racing Form's Jay Privman Monday that Concert Tour will run in the Preakness, because owner Gary West “wants to take a shot.”

Concert Tour worked five-eighths of a mile in 1:00.60 Sunday and is scheduled to work again this weekend. Gary and Mary West's son of 2007 Derby winner Street Sense walked Monday and will jog Tuesday, Barnes said.

Baffert will be out to break a tie with fellow Hall of Famer Robert Wyndham Walden, who had seven Preakness winners between 1875 and 1888. Baffert's most recent of seven Preakness champions include Triple Crown winners Justify in 2018 and American Pharoah in 2015. Each of his Preakness winners went on to be voted 3-year-old champion.

Medina Spirit, who has never been worse than second in six career starts, paid $26.20 to win as the sixth betting choice of 19 while marking the seventh California-based horse to win the Derby in the last 10 years.

“Was I surprised?” Barnes said. “He was running against good horses in California. California horses are usually right there in the Kentucky Derby. He'd run second to (now-injured stablemate) Life Is Good. He was second to John Sadler's horse (Rock Your World) in the Santa Anita Derby. So he'd run respectable races, maybe not the way we needed him to run. He wants to be up front, out in the clear and we had other horses who were faster than him. It just didn't work out for him. He ended up having to be behind and having to close. But going a mile and a quarter, you just never know: Are we going to go on the lead the whole way?

“… I thought there was enough speed that someone would have gone with us.”

Barnes began working for Baffert in November of 1998. His first Derby victory with for Baffert was the trainer's third, front-running War Emblem in 2002. However, Barnes first came to Churchill Downs for Derby weekend in 1999, with Silverbulletday winning the Kentucky Oaks (G1) and Baffert attempting to win a third straight Derby with the filly Excellent Meeting and the colt General Challenge. Excellent Meeting rallied from 18th to take fifth (beaten a total of 2 1/4 lengths) and Santa Anita Derby winner General Challenge was knocked sideways shortly after the start and struggled home 11th.

“I saw what it took,” Barnes said. “You need a pretty good horse and you want to be out in front. You need to be up close in the clear to have your best chance.”

Medina Spirit had a second walk day Monday since keeping runner-up Mandaloun at bay for a half-length victory Saturday, with third-place Hot Rod Charlie and fourth-place favorite Essential Quality both beaten about a length for everything.

“He'll probably walk three days – that's our typical deal,” Barnes said. “Maybe Wednesday he'll jog. We'll see how the weather is. It's hard to give them too many days off when we're coming right around. But all systems look good right now. Everything is good.”

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