Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale | Horse Racing Free Tips

With the Kentucky Derby still 23 weeks away, the pari-mutuel field of “All Other 3-Year-Old Colts and Geldings” closed as the 3-5 favorite in Pool 1 of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager (KDFW) and Smile Happy was the 8-1 second choice.

Smile Happy, the 3 ¼-length winner of Saturday's $400,000 Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., had his odds drop from 15-1 to 9-1 around 5 p.m. ET when Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale, the Houston furniture store owner who campaigned Smile Happy's sire Runhappy, bet $10,000 to win on the Kentucky-bred colt who is unbeaten in two starts. Additional money flowed late until the 6 p.m. ET deadline and his odds closed at 8-1.

Jack Christopher, the impressive G1 Champagne winner for trainer Chad Brown who was expected to be the $2 million G1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile favorite before he was scratched, is expected to resume training in early 2022 following surgery to heal a left shin stress fracture.

Other horses who attracted mild interest from bettors: Breeders' Futurity winner Rattle N Roll (21-1); G1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile and G1 American Pharoah runner-up Pappacap (23-1); G1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf runner-up Tiz the Bomb (24-1); and G1 Hopeful winner Gunite (25-1).

Horses in order of the public's betting choice (with trainer, Pool 1 odds and $2 Win Will Pays): #24 All Other Colts and Geldings from the 2019 Foal Crop (3-5, $3.40); #18 Smile Happy (Kenny McPeek, Runhappy, 8-1, $19.20); #11 Jack Christopher (Chad Brown, Munnings, 10-1, $23.20); #17 Rattle N Roll (Kenny McPeek, Connect, 21-1, $45.80); #16 Pappacap (Mark Casse, Gun Runner, 23-1, $49.40); #19 Tiz the Bomb (Kenny McPeek, Hit It a Bomb, 24-1, $51); #9 Gunite (Steve Asmussen, Gun Runner, 25-1, $53.80); #3 Commandperformance (Todd Pletcher, Union Rags, 31-1, $64.80); #7 Giant Game (Dale Romans, Giant's Causeway, 37-1, $77.40); #13 Mo Donegal (Todd Pletcher, Uncle Mo, 37-1, $77.60); #23 All Fillies from the 2019 Foal Crop (41-1, $85.20); #12 Major General (Todd Pletcher, Constitution, 43-1, $88.60); #10 Howling Time (Dale Romans, Not This Time, 43-1, $89.60); #2 Classic Causeway (Brian Lynch, Giant's Causeway, 44-1, $90.20); #5 Epicenter (Steve Asmussen, Not This Time, 52-1, $106.80); #21 Varatti (Todd Pletcher, Into Mischief, 54-1, $111.80); #22 Zandon (Chad Brown, Upstart, 56-1, $114.40); #1 Ben Diesel (Dallas Stewart, Will Take Charge, 66-1, $134.20); #4 Double Thunder (Todd Pletcher, Super Saver, 72-1, $147); #15 Oviatt Class (Keith Desormeaux, Bernardini, 87-1, $177.20); #20 Trafalgar (Al Stall Jr., Lord Nelson, 98-1, $198.80); #8 Graphic Detail (Bill Mott, Practical Joke, 133-1, $269); #6 Forced Ranking (Chad Brown, Mastery, 138-1, $279.80); and #14 Osbourne (Ron Moquett, Tapiture, 155-1, $312.80).

Total handle for the Nov. 25-28 KDFW pool – the first of five scheduled wagering pools in advance of the 148th running of the G1 Kentucky Derby presented by Woodford Reserve on Saturday, May 7 – was $326,448 ($263,008 in the Win pool and $63,440 in Exactas), up 30.9% from last year's $249,331 ($191,984 in the Win Pool and $57,347 in Exactas).

Inaugurated in 1999, the Kentucky Derby Future Wager has been offered for a 24th consecutive year, but this marks just the ninth time that Churchill Downs has hosted a KDFW pool on closing weekend of its Fall Meet.

This year's early Derby betting menu also included the Kentucky Derby Sire Future Wager, which, for the seventh consecutive year, provided bettors with a unique opportunity to wager on select breeding stars and their entire crop of juveniles with the hope of winning next year's Kentucky Derby.

“All Other Sires” at 7-2 and Runhappy at 7-1 attracted the most attention from bettors – and McIngvale, who plunged $3,000 on his prized sire around 5 p.m. to lower his odds from 17-1 to the second betting choice. Gun Runner progeny was the 9-1 third betting choice.

Sires in order of favoritism for the Kentucky Derby Sire Future Wager (Odds and $2 Win Will Pays): #24 “All Other Sires” (7-2, $9.60); #16 Runhappy (7-1, $16); #6 Gun Runner (9-1, $20); #15 Quality Road (10-1, $23.20); #7 Into Mischief (14-1, $30); #4 Empire Maker (16-1, $35.80); #3 Curlin (17-1, $37.80); #19 Tapit (18-1, $38); #10 Munnings (18-1, $39.80); #1 American Pharoah (20-1, $42.60); #11 Not This Time (23-1, $48.20); #5 Giant's Causeway (24-1, $51); #21 Uncle Mo (25-1, $53.40); #22 Union Rags (29-1, $60); #9 Medaglia D'Oro (32-1, $66.60); #14 Practical Joke (33-1, $69.60); #2 Candy Ride (ARG) (37-1, $76.80); #12 Nyquist (40-1, $83.20); #18 Street Sense (41-1, $84); #23 Violence (45-1, $93.80); #20 Twirling Candy (48-1, $98.80); #13 Pioneerof the Nile (53-1, $108.40); #17 Speightstown (75-1, $152.40); and #8 Mastery (76-1, $155.80).

Total betting on the Kentucky Derby Sire Future Wager was a record $50,205 ($38,073 in the Win pool and $12,132 in the Exactas), up 5.5% from last year's $47,567 ($33,269 in the Win pool and $14,298 in Exactas).

The KDFW and Sire Future Wager combined to handle $376,653, a 26.9% jump from last year's $296,898.

The other Future Wager dates are set for Jan. 21-23 (Pool 2), Feb. 11-13 (Pool 3), March 11-13 (Pool 4), and March 31-April 2 (Pool 5). The lone Kentucky Oaks Future Wager will coincide with Kentucky Derby Future Wager Pool 4 on March 11-13.

Visit www.KentuckyDerby.com/FutureWager for more information.

The post ‘All Others’ Closes As 3-5 Favorite In Kentucky Derby Future Wager Pool 1 appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Horse owner and master promoter Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale is no stranger to making big sports bets, but never anything like this. If his beloved Houston Astros win the World Series, McIngvale will make $35.6 million off of a series of bets he made in June. It would be the largest winning wager ever in U.S. sports betting history.

McIngvale often combines his wagers with promotions at his Gallery Furniture Stores in Houston. Earlier this year, he promised his customers that any mattress they bought worth $3,000 or more would be free if the favorite won the GI Kentucky Derby. McIngvale hedged, wagering $2.4 million to win on 5-2 favorite Essential Quality (Tapit), who finished fourth. A winning bet would have been worth a profit of just less than $7 million, which would have more than covered the amount he lost giving away free mattresses. A loss by Essential Quality still meant that he sold thousands of mattresses he otherwise would not have sold. Either way, McIngvale would come out a winner.

In February, McIngvale won $2.72 million on a Super Bowl wager in which he bet $3.46 million on Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to cover the 3.5 point spread. It was the single largest legal wager placed on the game.

The latest promotion follows the same blueprint as the Derby wager. An Astros World Series win would mean that anyone buying a mattress during the promotional period would get it for free. Prior to the American League Championship Series, McIngvale estimated that having to give away the mattresses would cost him $20 million. It looks like that number has gone up.

When reached Saturday, a day after the Astros advanced to the World Series with a win over the Boston Red Sox, McIngvale said his store was being overrun by customers looking to take advantage of the promotion.

“Today is the biggest day in the store's history,” he said. “By a factor of about four and it's going up all the time. We're going to sell thousands of mattresses. I can't even count them. We're trying to buy them as fast as we can get them. We can't buy them fast enough. It will literally be thousands of mattresses.”

Believing that the promotion would prove to be a huge success, McIngvale made his wagers on June 10, when the Astros were still considered one of many teams with a good shot at going all the way. He bet $2 million that the Astros would win the World Series with William Hill at odds of 10-1 and another $1 million at 10-1 with Fanduel. He also made two smaller wagers at outlets that gave him 16-1. In total, he bet $3.2 million on the Astros.

The Astros are now an odds-on favorite to win their first World Series since 2017.

“I like to gamble,” McIngvale said. “I gamble big all the time. It's a promotion and it's a hedge. My heart and soul are with the Houston Astros, and, just as with Runhappy, I'm all in.”

For a while, it looked like McIngvale had backed a loser. The Astros fell behind, 2-1, in the series with Boston and their starting pitching was a mess. Many a pundit had already given the series to the Red Sox. Instead, the Astros rallied to win the next three games to close out the series and advance.

“I was not worried,” McIngvale said. “After they got beat Monday night, I was in Boston having a good time and saw some of the players that I know and they were upbeat and positive. I knew that sooner or later every batter on the Red Sox would stop hitting. 500. I knew there would be a statistical swing and things sure swung the Astros way over the last three games.”

Having a potential World Series winner at 10-1 means that McIngavle could “save” and bet some amount to win on the National League team. By doing so, he could lock in a guaranteed profit. It's not going to happen.

“I would consider that treason,” he said. “I would never do that to my boys. I wouldn't do that in a thousand years.”

With so many customers buying mattresses on Saturday, it was difficult for McIngvale to do the math. He knows he will make $35.6 million if the Astros win, but there was no telling how much he would lose giving away so many mattresses. That didn't matter with him. Not only is his heart with his hometown, he wants nothing more than to reward his customers with free mattresses.

“It will make customers happy and that's the whole idea,” he said of an Astros World Championship. “That's the whole idea, making customers happy. That's the name of the game. If the customers get their money back, they will talk about this for decades to come.”

The post For Jim McIngvale, an Astros World Series Win Would Mean $35.6 Million appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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