Lucky Woman Wins $1.2 Million from $18 Bet that Included Kentucky Derby

A lucky Austin-based woman won $1.2 million after placing an $18 bet. This was right after her lucky horse, Justify, won the Kentucky Derby at the Retama Park racetrack in Selma, Texas.

Margaret Raid has been going to Retama for a quite a number of years with her friends before she struck gold. Speaking to reporters, she exclaimed that she felt amazing to win as big as she had. According to her, she felt as if she had just won a mini-lottery given the humongous amount of the winning.

After Raid’s winnings, the track shared a congratulatory post on Facebook

Reid placed a bet on the “pick five” combination, where the winner is determined after winning five successive bets. After a streak of four winnings, Reid was ecstatic to win the fifth race which happened to be the Kentucky Derby. She rightly picked Limousine Liberal, Funny Duck, Maraud, Yoshida, and the Kentucky Derby winner, Justify.

Her lucky horse, Justify, also goes by the moniker “Big Red”. Incredibly, the horse surged forward from the 7^th position to win the race. Her winning was so incredible that it almost matched the horse owners’ $1,432,000 victory.

Reid mentioned that her victory was not that obvious since she had made a couple of long shots in the middle. Bill Belcher, the Retama Park owner shared that Reid was in the sports bar when she discovered that she had won big. He added that “the whole bar went nuts” because the odds are simply unbelievable and also the fact that the payout was humongous.

Following Through

Just like many others present at the track, Reid shared that she had done some thorough homework on the horses in order to determine which horses she would pick as she placed her bet. She mentioned having had prior experience with the bets, thus, she knew exactly what she was doing. Prior to the race, Justify’s odds of winning were 3-1. When compared to one of the other shrewd picks, where she backed a horse with 40-1 odds of winning, it was the easiest bet she made on the day.

In her analysis, she was able to break down the races to her advantage. She did, however, add that it’s not always that the bets work out in one’s favor, luck is also an integral component of the whole thing

When quizzed by reporters about what she would do with the winnings, Reid shared that she would first and foremost take a vacation to unwind. Later on, she would make a couple of smart investments. Notably, she mentioned that her daughter was due for college in three years, thus, she would spend some of the funds to sponsor her daughter’s education.

The Odds

The Kentucky Derby is touted as being the most popular horse race in the US. Remarkably, it is also the longest running sporting event in the nation

Horse betting enthusiasts consider the Kentucky Derby as the Holy Grail of gambling for a number of reasons. Largely, this notion has to do with the fact that it is the largest race of the year. The other is the fact that winners get to walk away with hefty payments because of the unwieldy 20-horse fields. Given the sheer size of the event, many people, both novices, and experts, bet vast amounts of monies in a bid to cash-out at the end of the day.

The odds of massive payouts and mind-blowing scores increased right after Churchill Downs changed the wagering menu by introducing trifectas in 1994 and superfectas in 1996. In 2005, the odds were so impressive that one could win $864,253 by placing a $1 bet after getting the first four finishers correctly.

In recent races, something unheralded has been witnessed where the favorite horses have gone on to win it. However, this change in dynamics should not be considered a fluke since it perfectly lines up with the establishment of a points-based system tied to specific prep races to guarantee qualification to the field. This has ensured that all cheap speed horses with no chances of victory are weeded out right from the start. In the end, the viewers get to witness a true competition with fewer fluky elements.