On Saturday (3/5/22) Gulfstream Park had nine Stakes races on the card. I decided to place a wager on the late pick 4 and put in a few win and trifecta bets for the money back specials TVG was offering. My pick 4 cost $18 and it had one single in the 11th race and 3 horses in each of the other races. In the first leg (10th race), the favorite Speaker’s Corner ridden by Junior Alvarado won. In the next race I had my single, the favorite Abaan, but I was having second thoughts. Originally, I was going to use Abaan and Temple, but decided to make Abaan my single, despite the 11-horse field. As I was watching the pre-race, I thought to myself; what if Abaan doesn’t win?
I started to look at the other horses to see if I could build a trifecta without Abaan. I settled on #8 Temple, 9 Media Blitz, and #10 Shamrocket. The horses in my trifecta had odds of 4/1, 9/1, and 17/1. As the race got underway, Abaan got stuck mid-pack behind several speedy longshots. My 3 horses were in good stalking positions along the outside. They maintained their positions until they got into the stretch. To move on with my pick 4, I needed Abaan to find a way out of traffic and get to the lead. But that didn’t happen. Instead, my trifecta passed the tiring leaders and crossed the wire with #8 Temple just ahead of #10 Shamrocket. The payout was $145.25. I was expecting more with a 17/1 shot in the mix, but it was enough to put me $100 ahead for the day. I ended up losing the last race in my pick 4, which was won by the favorite Spendarella. The payout for the pick 4 was $165.