Before 1980, the ticket machines and the rules would not allow a refund prior to the start of a race. Keeping this in mind, I walked into Monmouth Park in Oceanport, New Jersey on or about 1975. (If this would have happened today, I would have been able to either exchange tickets or received a full refund.)
Once my bet was made, it bought tickets which could only be sold. I bought my ticket on a horse which was the 2nd horse down on the program. I missed the fact that there was an “entry”!!! This means the second horse was “coupled” with the first listed horse.
When I had already bought a few tickets, I ran back to the ticket line and asked the cashier if I could exchange my #2 horse for the #1 entry. He said, “I will try to sell it for you, but this #2 horse doesn’t really have a chance!”
The tickets which I bought, showed a 25 to 1 shot. The first race of the day was coupled with the winning horse in the 2nd race in a separate pool. In other words, in order to win, the two horses must win both races.
I had bought a five dollar ticket on the first horse, coupled with five or six horses in the 2nd race. I spent a total of thirty dollars on the first horse. ($5.00 x 6 = $30.00) Then, I also bet $10.00 to win and another $10.00 to place on this same horse. Total of all bets was $40.00.
The sale of the tickets became futile. Nobody wanted these tickets. I was willing to accept less than face value but, again, nobody wanted to buy these tickets almost at any price.
Well, I thought, I was stuck with this horse who had started just one race and came in last in a 12-horse race. “No chance was right!”, I thought!
The race went off and my horse took the lead. He was ahead by a few lengths and then a few more … I couldn’t believe this horse was actually in the first pack of horses. At the final turn, he was ahead by four or five lengths ….. wow … he won by two lengths.
The winnings were incredible. At the end of the first race, I was ahead by $750.00. I had a chance to win more, depending on whether or not my second race choices won that half of the Daily Double. The second race was about to start .. and I could see my possibilities were as follows :
#2, $340.00 for $2.00 … #5, $145.00 for $2.00 …. #6, $280.00 for $2.00 and finally, #7, 440.00 for $2.00. I had five dollars on each of these ..
The winner of the 2nd race was ……………………………………… ……………………………………….. #5, the favorite. ……………..….. $145.00 x 2 ½ = $362.50 for just the Daily Double.
I went back to the cashier’s window and the same cashier looked at me and said … ALL THE CASHIERS HERE, WERE AMAZED. YOUR HORSE WAS AN ABSOLUTE SURPRISE.
I EXCLAIMED, “HE WAS NOT EVEN MY HORSE!” AGAIN, “I WOULD RATHER BE LUCKY THAN GOOD”!