There was social media chatter Thursday about how that night's race card at Canterbury Park was filled with wide-open races, meaning that you stood a pretty good chance of making some good money -- if you picked the right horse or horses from among the many options.
In the fourth race, the right horse went off at 79-1 odds in a turf race among horses who had never before crossed the finish line first.
Congregation caught the race favorite at the wire -- paying $161 to win, $46 to place and $14.20 to show. The assortment of other bets you could make on the race also paid out very well, but the $161 was a record for a $2 win bet.
In addition, if you bet the Pick-4 suggested by Star Tribune handicapper Johnny Love (in which he chose the winners of Races 3 through 6), your $45 investment resulted in a $1,476.80. (One track veteran noted that the payoff would have been even bigger if Love hadn't suggested it to his followers as his 'Best Play' on the race card.)
How did he do it?
"When I first looked at Race 4, I saw a group of maidens that were unreliable and unsure about getting their picture taken in the winners circle," Love explained. "I thought they all had a fighting chance to win."
And he noticed something about Congregation that made her worth adding to the Pick-4 prediction:"Congregation was trying the turf for the first and caught a sloppy track last out. Her turf pedigree was better than many of her rivals, so why not give her a shot?"
Here's the race:
