Against All Odds, Bettor Wins Stunning $2.2M

A bettor at Gulfstream Park turned a 20-cent, six-race wager into more than $2.2 million Friday, the AP reports. Someone hit Gulfstream's Rainbow 6 on Friday, the first time that the total jackpot had been claimed for that wager since July 6. To win the entire jackpot, someone must pick winners of six consecutive Rainbow 6 races and hold the only ticket that does so—otherwise, much of the jackpot rolls over to the next day of racing. It wasn't immediately clear how many six-horse combinations that the winning bettor played. The Rainbow races Friday were the fourth through the ninth at Gulfstream.

Paco Lopez rode Resident Liberal, a 5-1 shot, to victory in the ninth race to complete the win that was worth $2,211,783.62 for the bettor. Lopez had two other winners in the Rainbow series, riding Sherpa in the fifth race and Verdict Is In in the seventh race. Other race winners were Angelic Knugget in the fourth, Native Hawk in the sixth and One Hot Drama in the eighth. One Hot Drama was by far the biggest longshot of the six, going off at 14-1 odds. Friday's payout was enormous, but far from the Gulfstream record for a Rainbow 6. A bettor hit the jackpot for $6,678,939 in 2014.

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