Woodbine Winners is an inside look at how horseplayers and bettors – from novices to pros – strike gold when playing the races at Woodbine. As part of the ongoing Woodbine Winners series, we're going to show you tickets that result in life-changing scores, get insights into how the bets were made and learn more about the people who hit those winning tickets. 

One of the newer exotic bets in horse racing, the Super Hi-5, has grown in popularity in recent years among bettors who adhere to the bedrock maxim of “bet a little, win a lot.” Tracks offer the wager on select races, often in the last race of a day’s card, and may have carryover pools if the bet is not hit.

It’s certainly very difficult to do so. Consider the superfecta bet, where a person must select the top four finishers in a race, and then go one horse further. Wheeling several horses in a position is usually advised to add combinations, but that can increase the overall cost of the bet very quickly. Still, the payoff can be substantial.

Last month at Woodbine, several bettors netted over $13,000 apiece in a Jackpot Hi-5 on the 10^th and last race of the track’s Thoroughbred card. On Sept. 5, a skillful and lucky horseplayer betting the Mohawk Standardbred races at Woodbine did even better – taking down the Jackpot Hi-5 for $40,910.19 on a .20-cent wager totaling $14.40.

Mohawk’s 12^th race was a one-mile conditions race for pacers with a $16,000 purse, and was won by #6 Jm Jack of Hearts, who left the moving starting gate well, yielded the lead on the backstretch while pocketed in second, and then regained it again in the homestretch after driver Yannick Gingras wheeled him out to score at odds of just over 4-1.

Jm Jack of Hearts was the third betting choice in the race, but the next three horses that filled out the field were much higher odds and contributed to the high Jackpot Hi-5 payout. A trio of longshots rallied late on the outside, with #9 Highland Tartan (17-1) edging out #7 Royal Renegade (23-1) for second and #1 PL Jackson (17-1) getting third. Meanwhile, favored Tremendous Play’s rally on the inside stalled, but he still finished fifth as the 5-2 favorite.

The winning wager was made by a TVG account customer via its Oregon hub, and constructed his/her ticket as follows using a .20-cent base as noted: 2,6,7/2,6,7,9/1,2,6,7,9/1,2,6,7,9/1,2,6,7,9 equaling $14.40. In this case, the handicapping was very solid as all five of the top finishers were included in the third, fourth, and fifth slots of the Jackpot Hi-5 ticket.