Of the 552 possible combos in the Derby Futures exacta pool that closed yesterday, 24 of them would pay less than $200 and 25 would pay more than $10,000. Below is a table listing the closing $2 win will-pays on the 24 betting interests, and those 24 highest and lowest $2 exacta will-pays:
Win betting totalled $385,995, and the exacta pool was $80,053. (By comparison, the exacta pool on today's first race at Aqueduct, for $10,000 claimers, was $123,909.) So it appears that the smallest amount wagered on any combination was $6 on the 4-18 ticket of Concord Point over Stay Put. Good luck.
Some oddities and observations:
*Usually, you would expect an exacta of a 3-2 shot on top of an 8-1 shot to pay less than the reverse, but the Lookin at Lucky/All Others exacta was the most heavily bet at $51.20, while All Others/Lookin at Lucky would pay $53.20.
*You have to think that the most popular betting strategies were a)front- and back-wheeling the "All Others" interest and b)boxing All Others with Lookin at Lucky and Buddy's Saint. The #24 was part of 21 of the 24 lowest-paying exactas, and the six combos involcing the three favorites took all six lowest-paying spots.
*The only horses involved in both under-$200 and over-$10,000 exacta will-pays were Conveyance (#5), Noble's Promise (#15) and Tiz Chrome (#20), who made the "short" list running second to All Others but were involved in five-digit payoffs with other longshots.
