There have been 14 Breeders’ Cup races run on Nov. 1-2, 2024, with purses of $1 million or extra apiece, however these weren’t the one occasions held at Del Mar that supplied seven-figure purses. Whereas the horses had been battling it out on the monitor in 14 World Championship races, handicappers had been concurrently competing off the monitor in what was the Breeders’ Cup weekend’s 15th million-dollar-plus occasion – the Breeders’ Cup Betting Problem (BCBC).
The 2024 Breeders’ Cup’s unofficial fifteenth champion was BCBC winner Steven Wells, a 51-year-old achieved event participant from Arizona who now resides in Fordville, N.D., the place he owns and operates a bar in a small city of 200 folks. Wells scored a large payday by accumulating a ultimate profitable bankroll of $152,000 to high a area of 585 entries. He received the BCBC’s first prize of $421,250, which along with his bankroll netted him a complete event payoff of $573,250.
Wells isn’t any stranger to handicapping event success. He has performed the BCBC for the final 10 straight years and has completed as excessive as eighth in 2020. Wells can be a multi-year Nationwide Horseplayers Championship (NHC) qualifier who made waves on the 2023 NHC finals when he superior two entries to the Last Desk and completed seventh and ninth for whole earnings of $150,000.
The BCBC affords deep-pocketed entrants an opportunity to win large cash by betting giant sums into the massive Breeders’ Cup Day pari-mutuel wagering swimming pools. The event yearly attracts fields of huge bettors and handicapping event aces from across the nation who goal all these handicapping contests all year long. Gamers pay $10,000 to enter, of which $7,500 is the dwell event betting bankroll. The opposite $2,500 goes to the purse fund that will get returned to the highest 20 finishers within the type of prize cash.
The format is easy. Entrants should wager a minimal of $600 per race (no most) on a minimum of three races on the Friday Breeders’ Cup card, and a minimum of $600 per race on seven races on the Saturday Breeders’ Cup card. Permitted wager sorts are Win, Place, Present, Exacta, Trifecta, and Each day Doubles.
Wells beat a area of handicapping event excessive rollers to earn his BCBC crown. He did it by sticking to the identical gameplan that has been employed by different current winners of the BCBC. He made principally minimal bets all weekend in an effort to save the vast majority of his bankroll for a number of large wagers on his finest bets.
“In case you have an actual sturdy opinion, you attempt to hold some bankroll collectively so that you’re placing your cash in on what you are feeling finest about,” Wells defined in an interview on “On the Races with Steve Byk.”
Horseplayers could be stunned to search out out that Wells’ profitable performs weren’t large longshots or large bombs within the exotics. His technique revolved round getting the largest wager down that he might on his high collection of the weekend, Extra Than Appears to be like within the FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Mile offered by PDJF.
“I used to be on Extra Than Appears to be like all the best way again in August,” Wells stated. “I watched him run within the Breeders’ Cup final yr and each time he resurfaced, I used to be like ‘They’re going to place two runs into him and so they’re gonna level to the Mile.’”
In an effort to get a sufficiently big wager down on Extra Than Appears to be like to win the competition, Wells needed to get to work rising his unique $7,500 bankroll.
“I assumed $200,000 could be the profitable rating, so I used to be all the time making an attempt to focus to the place I might make a wager in that race to get to $200,000.”
Wells misplaced his three minimal bets on Friday and entered Saturday with a $5,700 bankroll. He then misplaced $700 on his first wager Saturday to drop right down to $5,000. His first large transfer of the event got here within the Bayakoa Stakes on the Breeders’ Cup undercard at Del Mar when he wager a straight $5,000 exacta on Hope Highway and Alpha Bella. The exacta got here in, and regardless that it solely paid $2.80 for a $1 wager, Wells’ $5,000 exacta was sufficient to return him $14,000.
“You must be keen to let your cash journey if you will get there,” Wells stated.
Wells’ subsequent try to extend his bankroll additionally was profitable when he cashed a $12,800 win wager on Thorpedo Anna within the Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff. The ensuing payoff gave Wells $17,920 and put him in place to make his subsequent bets within the Longines Breeders’ Cup Turf.
Within the Turf, Wells wager a pair of $500 exacta containers with Insurgent’s Romance and the 2 Japanese invaders within the race, Rousham Park and Shahryar. One exacta got here in as Insurgent’s Romance completed first and Rousham Park second. It paid $53.90 on a $2 wager for one more $13,475 addition to Wells’ whole.
Wells made a pair bets after the Turf to satisfy the minimums which introduced him to the Breeders’ Cup Mile that he had been ready for. The leaders at that time within the event had greater than $140,000 of their bankroll and Wells knew he needed to wager sufficient to go that quantity along with his wager on Extra Than Appears to be like, whose put up time odds had been 6.90-1.
Wells’ wager was $20,000 to win on Extra Than Appears to be like within the Breeders’ Cup Mile, and Extra Than Appears to be like delivered with a last-to-first rally to win the race by three-quarters of a size. Extra Than Appears to be like paid $15.80 to win, and the earnings raised Wells’ whole into first place with $158,000. He didn’t money his ultimate bets within the final race of the competition and his bankroll fell in need of his $200,000 purpose, however Wells’ ultimate whole of $152,000 nonetheless proved to be sufficient to carry on for the victory.
Wells’ whole ended up $21,400 forward of the second-place participant, Tyler Sprague, who nonetheless had an opportunity to win within the final race of the event however misplaced his $4,700 wager within the Massive Ass Followers Breeders’ Cup Dust Mile. Sprague settled for second with a bankroll of $130,600 and took house purse cash in extra of $250,000 along with his bankroll. Sprague has been on a tremendous roll on the BCBC after ending fifth final yr with a $90,350 bankroll that earned him $79,950 extra in prize cash.
Ty Hoffman, 31, from San Gabriel, Calif., ended the event in third place with a ultimate whole of $115,500, due to an enormous rating within the final race, the Dust Mile, when he hit a $2,000 exacta on Full Serrano and Put up Time that returned $103,000. He added these money earnings to his roughly $140,000 in third-place purse cash to finish an enormous payday. Kevan Strom ($109,384 ultimate whole) and Ken McMahan ($78,620) rounded out the highest 5. Prize cash was paid down to twentyth place.
Others within the area included 2023 BCBC winner Sean Boarman from Lexington, Ky., 2022 champion Drew Coatney, 2021 champion Matt Miller, 2020 champion Marshall Gramm, 2019 champion Brad Anderson, 2018 champion Chuck Grubbs, 2017 champion Nisan Gabbay, 2014 champion Robert Traynor, and the one 2-time champion from 2011 and 2012, Patrick McGoey.
The 2024 BCBC attracted a record-breaking area of 585 entries leading to a record-high purse of $1,462,500. BCBC annual progress continues. The event had 571 entries in 2023 and 549 entries in 2022. proportion of the BCBC gamers participated from the Breeders’ Cup host web site at Del Mar. Others performed at Santa Anita Park or participated on-line at TVG, Xpressbet, NYRA Bets, or TwinSpires. Wells performed the competition remotely on TVG.
Wells attributes his success to handicapping with Each day Racing Type, watching replays, journey handicapping, and enjoying principally win bets. He has been watching horse racing for greater than 40 years since going to the monitor along with his dad and grandfather when he was little.
“The benefit of (handicapping) is it’s one thing you are able to do till you don’t dwell anymore,” Wells quipped.
The highest 15 BCBC finishers additionally all earned qualifying berths into the subsequent finals of the Nationwide Horseplayers Championship, which is scheduled for March 14-16, 2025, at Horseshoe Las Vegas. This extra perk was not misplaced on Steven Wells.
“If you’re on the NHC, I can’t emphasize sufficient how enjoyable that event is as a result of that room is crammed with people who love horse racing and are good at it,” Wells stated. “It’s a great way of being round people who have the identical curiosity as you.”
