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- [00:00]
Chad Millman
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- [01:12]
Simon Hunter
Welcome to the Favorites the podcast. We are part of the Volume Podcast Network. I am Chad Millman of the Action Network. Today I'm joined as always by my co host, my companion, my compadre, my bff, Professional Better Simon Hunter. Hello, Simon.
- [01:29]
Chad Millman
Chad. How we doing, dude?
- [01:31]
Simon Hunter
May 1st. You know what that means. The calendar turns. The mar key event on the betting calendar in May is the Kentucky Derby, which is this Saturday at Churchill downs in Louisville, Kentucky. The 151st running of the roses, the greatest two minutes. And sports an American gambling event like none other. Here to help all of us bet and profit on all the festivities in Louisville. Because it's not just about the Derby. Is our Action Network horse racing contributor. One of the very best handicappers in the business. Chicago's finest. We do nothing if not promote anybody from the great city of Chicago, Mr. Mike Conte. How are you, buddy?
- [02:27]
Mike Conte
I'm great. Thanks for having me, guys. Super excited. One of my favorite weekends of the year.
- [02:31]
Simon Hunter
Listen, before we get deep, deep into Mike and all his handicapping knowledge, quick announcement. I want everyone. This is big. This is very big. This is brand new. Everyone listening to the show needs to go subscribe to at real Chad Millman on YouTube. That's right. I'm launching a YouTube channel. We're gonna air clips from the Favorites. We're gonna air the show live there. It's gonna simulcast on Action and on Ealchad Millman. We're gonna have clips on a regular basis. I'm gonna react to news and info from the betting world. I'm gonna throw up opinions. I'm gonna share nuggets from the book I'm reporting, which anybody who likes anything about sports betting is going to enjoy. Like the nugget I had the other day. Why do people call it handicapping? Go subscribe to EAL Chad Millman. We are just launching it. Get after it. I will remind you often. EAL chadmillman. Mike, we talked about this on the show the other day. Do you know why it's called handicapping?
- [03:40]
Mike Conte
You know, when you just said that, Chad, I was thinking about it and I. Much to my mother's dismay, I could read a horse racing program before I could read a book. I actually don't know why it's called handicapping, though.
- [03:53]
Simon Hunter
It's called handicapping because the guy who ran the Jockey Club in London in, I think the late 1700s or 1800s, in order to make the races more interesting and get more action from betters, he would add weights to the horses that were the fastest to handicap them. And so they continued to call it handicapping throughout the history of all of sports betting. Isn't that cool?
- [04:27]
Mike Conte
I love that. I had no idea. That's amazing.
- [04:30]
Simon Hunter
Little nugget, right?
- [04:31]
Mike Conte
That's amazing.
- [04:32]
Simon Hunter
Mike. You can get stuff like that @eal Chad Millman on YouTube, so I hope you'll go subscribe. Can you tell people you just said you knew how to read basically the Daily Racing form before you could read anything else? Explain how that happened?
- [04:51]
Mike Conte
Yeah. So growing up, my, my father owned a sports bar in New Haven, Connecticut. And you know, lo and behold, there was, this is back in the day when you had to call in your bets and there was a phone booth in the corner of the bar and that phone booth was reserved to make your bets. And so every Saturday morning we'd go, we'd open up the. The bar and we'd sit there with the Daily Racing form and learned how to read the papers from all of the cast of characters that were at the bar at 8am on a Saturday morning. And that was my first kind of soiree into horse racing.
- [05:29]
Simon Hunter
God, that's amazing. You know, it's great. A. I love that it was New Haven, which is about 45 minutes from where I am in West Hartford, Connecticut. But since we're on the subject, the Daily Racing form was like the key driver of the modern way sports betting happens in the country because the entire Thing was about the dissemination of information, and it was owned. And there were literal wars. There were wars over the control of this information. Gangster wars. Simon, you're shaking your head like you've either heard this or you're excited about it of people getting killed. Because to control what was basically the. The wire services that communicated who was winning and losing horse racing bets throughout the country. Mike, do you know this story?
- [06:24]
Mike Conte
I actually did not know that story either.
- [06:26]
Simon Hunter
Simon, do you know this story?
- [06:29]
Chad Millman
I've heard about it just from. Yeah, like what? You're talking about old guys telling stories about horse racing.
- [06:34]
Simon Hunter
Yeah. So like the Annenberg media fortune. Annenberg, which I think, you know, endows the USC journalism school. It's a massive philanthropic organization in Philadelphia. Simon. Because the Annenberg family owned the Philadelphia Inquirer. The guy made his money as a circulation director for William Randolph Hearst. And he was running newspapers in Chicago, in Milwaukee, Matt Mitchell in Milwaukee. And this was literally like bloody, bloody business. People were being killed to own street corners where they could distribute newspapers because it was so much money. Annenberg was really good at this. Hearst loved him. He made a lot of money. And then he bought the Daily Racing form. And the Daily Racing form became his primary driver of income as he grew a massive, massive media empire. And he had the Daily racing forum for 20 years. And this became the primary way through the Telegraph that a lot of information was distributed for sports bettors. It's. It's a phenomenal story and everyone's going to get going to get to read about it in my book when it comes out in August of 2027. And now you get to see this clip on EAL Chadmill and God, on YouTube. I did that all off the top of my head. It just happened.
- [07:59]
Chad Millman
Chad, I feel like all you're doing right now is figuring out that America is literally built on guys with sports betting and a lot of killing. All these businesses in America you're finding out are like, oh, yeah, this guy wanted by sports betting, this guy wanted by horse racing. It's like, what are you uncovering right now? It seems pretty incredible.
- [08:14]
Simon Hunter
It's, it's pretty incredible, Simon, how many businesses that we know of today as being legit businesses started as completely illegitimate businesses with deep, deep roots in criminal activity that over time evolved. And we can look at it right now, look at sports betting, look at a lot of the drug trade, like in every single capacity. Some of these things over time, by the way, alcohol distribution in the 20s, you know, then became something that was legit and Legal, like all these things. So much of what powers the domestic economy started as stuff that was very, very illicit. But what's not illicit is trying to win money on the Kentucky Derby. Mike, the Derby is a different race for people who don't know. Explain how it's different than, you know, regular stakes races than the other Triple Crown races. Give people the differences.
- [09:16]
Mike Conte
Yeah. So first and foremost, a horse can only run in the Kentucky Derby one time in his or her life. It is only for three year old horses. I say his or hers. Most of the time it is for three year old colts, male horses, that's not to exclude the Phillies, the females, they can run. It is always the first Saturday in May. Most of the time it is the most, it's the deepest field. So there are 20 horses in every year's Kentucky Derby. Most of the time these horses at most have run against 10, 12 other horses. So they get one chance at this. They, you know, you get one chance. It's the deepest field that they're going to run in. And up to this point in their careers, this is the longest race at a mile and a quarter that these horses have ever run.
- [10:07]
Simon Hunter
Is it harder for these horses?
- [10:10]
Mike Conte
Absolutely. You know, I think for a number of reasons. One, you talk about the crowd noise, right? Horses definitely react to the noise. And when you think about, you know, how packed the stands are and how packed Churchill Downs is, the infield and the grandstands, there's a lot of noise for these horses. There's a lot going on. Again, it is a 20 horse field. A couple of years ago they actually just created a new starting gate for the Kentucky Derby so that the one hole wasn't at such a disadvantage starting on the turn. But with that now the starting gates are a little bit tighter. So now you've got a deeper field, a tighter starting gate, all of the noise going a mile and a quarter and you know, these young three year old horses, you know, for those that don't know horses cannot start racing until they're two and most of them start racing, you know, mid summer of their two year old year. So you're talking about horses that have less than a year of total experience ever racing that are now coming into the biggest race of their lives.
- [11:12]
Simon Hunter
Yeah, whenever I watch the Derby and you see them packing the horses into the gates, I always feel the worst for the horses that have to be in there early because even though it takes maybe two minutes total to get 20 horses into the gate, these are really young horses. And the horses in the number one position and the number two position versus if it goes all the way out to 20, they're in there for a long time and. And it seems like it starts to stress the animal a little bit. Like that in itself seems like a.
- [11:49]
Mike Conte
Disadvantage, without a doubt. You know, and that's. It's a very interesting thing is, like, how does. And you have to give the assistant starter. So those are the guys who are loading the horses, and then they're standing in the starting gate with the horses. Their job is to help keep those horses calm. Obviously, the jockey, you know, is on board, and that's part of the jock's job. But, you know, an overlooked aspect of this is the assistant starter helping these horses to stay calm while they load before they open the gates.
- [12:16]
Simon Hunter
When you watch this, do you get a sense, even from that moment, like, if you've got a bet that is going to crash as. As soon as the gates open, just by how the horses are reacting to being put in the starting gate?
- [12:35]
Mike Conte
Without a doubt. I mean, there's a couple of things you look at, right. Like, how are the horses acting in the starting gate? Are they relaxed or, you know, are they tossing their head around? The worst thing, obviously, is if they have to back a horse out, because that's only going to delay the start even further. And then once, you know, those starting gates open, there's a huge roar from the crowd. And you're talking about 20 horses all sprinting right to that first turn. You know, there are horses, especially the speed horses, that the race is won or lost in the first few jumps for them, depending upon how well they break. Yeah.
- [13:06]
Chad Millman
You just said this is such a huge field. 20 horses. Like, what jumps out to you as horses. You're just right away getting out of there. You don't want to bet at this field right now.
- [13:16]
Mike Conte
Yeah. So, you know, in terms of horses that I'm tossing, the first horse is the number 13, publisher. He's a maiden. And for those unfamiliar, a maiden means that they've never won a race. So it is so unique that we have a maiden in the Kentucky Derby. In recent memory, I can't remember another maiden that ran in the Kentucky Derby. So first and foremost, I'll be tossing the number 13 publisher. Uh, I'm also tossing the number 11, Flying Mohawk, the number 12 East Avenue, who appears to be the pace of the race and the fastest early horse. I don't think that he's going to be able to last. The number 20, Owen Almighty, the trainer, actually didn't want to run in this race. But obviously every owner's dream is to get their horse to the Kentucky Derby. So the owners of number 20 own Almighty are the ones who really pushed for this race. Because of that, if the trainer doesn't want to really be in the race, I don't really want that horse on my ticket. Number 15, render judgment. The cool story to number 15, render judgment is he is Toby Keith, rest in peace. He owns a stable of horses and did own a stable of horses that's still in his name. Render Judgment is one of Toby Keith's, the first runner for Toby in the Derby. But I am tossing that horse. The number one, Citizen Bull is another horse that I will be tossing. And then there are two Japanese horses in this race, one of whom I like. The other one I'm tossing, the one that I'm tossing is number six, Admire Daytona.
- [14:48]
Simon Hunter
Bob Baffert coming back. Been away a while. What do handicappers think of Bob Baffert? What do they think of. Of his history, both the good and the bad? For those who don't know Bob Baffert, obviously, decade long career, decades long career as a legendary trainer winning Triple Crown races, but also suspended the past few years because of drug. Because. Because he was drugging horses. Is that right? Am I allowed to say that?
- [15:17]
Mike Conte
Yeah.
- [15:17]
Simon Hunter
Yeah. Okay. Because he was drugging horses. So this is his first year back. Do you have an opinion on Baffert as a trainer? Both the good and the bad.
- [15:28]
Mike Conte
Look, this is. So Bafford's got two horses in here. One of them is one of the horses that I'm tossing, number one, Citizen Bull. The other one we'll talk about in a little while is number four, Rodriguez. Look, like you said, Chad, Bob Baffert is one of the greatest horse trainers of all time. He's had two Triple Crown winners in terms of winning the actual Triple Crown, not just winning the Derby or one of the other Triple Crown races. He's a top notch trainer. You know, do I love Bob Baffert? No. But he's a trainer that you know when he's putting a horse in the race that the horse is going to most likely be live. And so you've got to consider, even though I'm throwing out one of his.
- [16:08]
Simon Hunter
Two runners in here, here's a random question. Can you make a living as a handicapper of horses these days?
- [16:20]
Mike Conte
There are people that do. You know, for me, it's much more of the fun and the hobby of it, but there are definitely people that make a living handicapping the horses. Right. And these weekends are the best weekends. Because you mentioned before, Chad, you know, graded stakes races are the premier races of horse racing. And there are graded stakes races, grade ones, which is the highest level, Grade two and grade three. Those are your top tier races. And that, that's where, in my opinion, you get horses that most likely are going to run to their form. You have, you can draw a better opinion of it, you know, but on any given Thursday afternoon when they're running a, you know, a claiming $5,000 race, meaning that if any of us showed up to the track with $5,000, we could buy the horse out of that race. Those races obviously much harder to handicap, but there are guys and gals that do make a living handicapping the horses.
- [17:16]
Simon Hunter
Journalism, sovereignty. It sounds like this is a theme, like we're turning this into a politics podcast about the state of the country. It's actually the name of two of the horses that have the shortest dots currently, as we head to post coming out of Whisper Wednesday, Sandman. Do you have an opinion on any of these horses and their chances to win the Derby, or do you think they're overpriced and you're going to stay away?
- [17:52]
Mike Conte
Yeah. So I'll start with the last one that you mentioned, Sandman. A couple of months ago, he was atop my selections for the Derby. The interesting thing with Sandman, a couple of things. One, he's a closer, meaning that he's going to do his best running late. He's not going to be involved in the early stages of this race. So if you bet Sandman and he's towards the back, that's actually where you want him to be. You, you're hoping for a fast, hot pace up front so that he has something to run into. The challenge, as we talked about, is in a 20 horse field, that means he's going to need to work out a trip. Not always the easiest thing to do, but I do see him, you know, flying late and being in the mix. The other interesting note on Sandman is he's breaking from the 17 post. The 17 post is the only post that has never won in the Kentucky Derby. So there's a little bit of a curse and a jinx to the 17 post. So just something interesting there. Journalism, you mentioned he is the morning line favorite. He is, you know, from, from all aspects, he looks to be the best horse in this field. Am I going to allow him to beat me? No. But what I will say is that in his last three starts, he's only beaten a combined 12 horses his last three starts. They were five horse fields. Yes. He won all three of those races. He's going to need to beat 19 others come Saturday at post time. And so, you know, I don't know as though that I love that for him. And he found himself in some traffic trouble in a five horse race. Imagine what it's going to be in a 20 horse field. But again, I do feel as though that he's the most talented horse on paper and visually and all signs are saying, you know, he's training extremely well and he's ready to fire. But you don't have a top jockey trainer combination for journalism with trainer Mike McCarthy and jockey Umbert Reese. Bully.
- [19:51]
Simon Hunter
What do you mean you're not going to allow journalism to beat you?
- [19:56]
Mike Conte
What I mean by that is in the way that I structure my bets is that I will be including journalism in all of my bets. There's nothing worse than when you handicap a race and you handicap it pretty accurately and you're like, well, this is the best horse in the race. I'm going to look elsewhere to try to increase the value for myself in the race. But I don't want that horse that I genuinely believe to be the most talented, best horse in the field to beat me, to ruin my bets. Right. To blow my bets up. So I will be including him in everything that I'm doing.
- [20:30]
Chad Millman
Chad just wanted to make sure.
- [20:31]
Simon Hunter
I just want to understand.
- [20:33]
Chad Millman
Yeah, and it's interesting too. The, the Derby. The last three years we've had some long shot horses win. Do you have any bets for this season? Like long shot, you're taking a shot on or do you think it's going to be heavily chalk this year? The, the one year I remember Chad was the year I think we were. That was the same year we went down to Kentucky ourselves. The guy was like added that day, won the Derby. I mean that was like the craziest one ever. Where.
- [20:55]
Simon Hunter
That's right.
- [20:55]
Chad Millman
Some pros.
- [20:56]
Simon Hunter
That's right.
- [20:56]
Chad Millman
Hit that at like 120 to 1. Bet it down to I think what it closed at. Mike, do you remember was it 70 to 1?
- [21:02]
Mike Conte
80 to 1? Yeah.
- [21:04]
Chad Millman
Hit it. The books couldn't believe it. They moved it. They still kept hitting it. Guy. Guy wanted. So I would love if you. Any long shot this year?
- [21:11]
Mike Conte
Yeah. So, you know, and to your point, Simon, I mean the last four years we had Mandaloon in 2021 at 26 to 1. We had Rich Strike in 2022 at 80 to 1. We had Mage in 23 at 15 to 1. And last year we had Mystic Dan at 18 to 1. Interestingly enough, my top choice in this year's Kentucky Derby is the number seven, Luxor Cafe, who is 15 to 1. So, you know, trying to continue with that trend. Before the last four years, I believe it was like eight straight years that we had the favorite win. So, you know, it's either been favorite or pretty heavy long shot. And the thing is, in a 20 horse field, even a favorite, typically you're going to get three, four to one. And in, you know, in typical sports betting, you look at three or four to one and we salivate. Right. In horse racing, you look at 3 or 4 to 1 and you're like, that's okay because of these, the field sizes and what we've got going. So. Yeah. But you know, to your point, Simon, the number seven Luxor Cafe, he is coming over from Japan and so he has run in some pretty high quality races over in Japan. He's run against deeper fields, 10, 12, 16 horse fields and he's been able to win. He also the father or the sire of Luxor Cafe is American Pharaoh, who back in 2015 won the Kentucky Derby, went on to win the Preakness and then won the Belmont to break the Triple Crown streak. So he's bred to get the distance and so he's the horse that I'll be using on top. And then in terms of some other long shots to consider, the number three Final Gambit is a price that I really like. He's another one of these horses like we talked about. Sandman Final Gambit is going to do his best running late. So he is going to be far back early. So when you see him far back early, you don't mail it in, know that he's going to be coming late, which is really exciting. We talked about Bob Bafford before. He's got the number four Rodriguez at 12 to 1. Rodriguez ran in a race called the Wood Memorial about a month ago now and won that race fairly easily. He had a pretty easy early pace and ended up opening up in the lane on those horses and didn't really appear to be asked. So those are the three horses that interest me the most at longer odds.
- [23:37]
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- [24:28]
Simon Hunter
Hold on a second. Luxor Cafe is the child of American Pharaoh. How many children of American Pharaoh have run in the Triple Crown Since a 3 year old? Since, since, since American Pharaoh could have sired a three year old which would would have been 18 or 19. So the past six years have any children of American Pharaoh run in the Triple Crown?
- [25:02]
Mike Conte
I do not believe so how is.
- [25:04]
Simon Hunter
This not a bigger story?
- [25:07]
Mike Conte
I agree. And you know, it was funny because when American Pharaoh first went to be a sire and in the breeding shed he had one of the highest prices in order to breed to him. That price has come down because none of his offspring have won one of these three Triple Crown races. So it's only a matter of time before we get an American Pharaoh sired horse to win the Triple Crown. I loved American Pharaoh when he won in 2015. So again, definitely not going to miss out when you have a horse at 15 to 1 like Luxor Cafe.
- [25:40]
Simon Hunter
Do we have any idea how much Luxor Cafe cost to be made?
- [25:46]
Mike Conte
Let's see. I. Let's see if they have it listed. He no because it was a private purchase. So don't know how much, you know, it cost to to acquire.
- [25:59]
Simon Hunter
How much was American Pharaoh getting per pop? You know, so when he, when he.
- [26:04]
Mike Conte
Was first in the breeding shed it was like $150,000 per live offspring. For American Pharaoh it's now down under a hundred thousand. But it's still crazy to think just to breed to American Pharaoh that you're spending that kind of money.
- [26:21]
Simon Hunter
I feel like for me to get my kids off my hands, I might have to pay someone $150,000. In fact, if we're talking about college, that it's more than that, like usually double. So that's quite, that's Quite the package for American Pharaoh Simon. It's pretty good.
- [26:44]
Chad Millman
Yeah. Not a bad stud fee. But it's also pretty interesting, the fact that what you just brought up, it's like genetics. No one's cracked the code. They're. They're just. It's still doing the same thing they did, you know, back when they first established breeding horses. And was it Saudi Arabia who takes crown? Like, is that who. Yeah, they take. So it's just funny that it's been thousands of years, Chad, and it's still the same old. Nothing's changed.
- [27:10]
Simon Hunter
Dude, you're not joking. Literally, I did this story for Sports Illustrated in 1998. Okay, like, Mike. Mike played football at Ithaca. And this is like when Mike was still playing peewee in, you know, in New Haven, but. Which is probably a rough peewee league, if I got to say. But like, I went out to Simon, a horse farm in outside Philadelphia, because, like, there's a ton of farms with horses outside Philly. And the story was all about humans as runners, especially in speed. Races have been able to evolve over the hundred. So years that people have been running the hundred meter dash or whatever it is, like, they have gotten faster, right? They have improved their training, they improved their form. You know, bodies have evolved over time to allow humans to run faster. Horses basically run the same. And nothing has changed in the evolution of horses. Mike, do you have any idea why that is? Like, not to put you on the spot as sort of an equine specialist, but isn't that strange that to Simon's point, nothing in this sport has changed? They cannot figure out how to draft a quarterback. They cannot figure out how to make a Triple Crown winner, and they cannot figure out how to get these horses to run faster.
- [28:43]
Mike Conte
Chad, it's so. It really is. It's wild. You know, one of my favorite horse racing movies, Secretariat. So Ogden Phipps, who is, you know, a predominant horse breeder and owner in the movie he talks about, and obviously based on, you know, real life, he talks about when Penny Chenery acquired Secretariat, he had. There was a coin flip that they did to choose. There were two horses that they could choose from between Ogden Phipps and, you know, Mr. Chenery's farm. And Ogden Phipps chose the horse that was bred to get the distance, that was bred to be this great horse. Yet Penny wanted Secretariat. She got him by luck of a coin flip. And Ogden Phipps, you know, sat there and he said in the movie, it was something. I forget the exact line, but it was something like, you know, the Best looking horse, the prettiest horse in his barn, but, you know, couldn't outrun his accountants. And so there's just so much that goes to chance when you're talking about, you know, breeding these animals. And at the end of the day, you have to remember they are animals. We don't always know what's going on. You know, we can't. They can't speak to us, obviously. So it is just such an interesting phenomenon to think about.
- [29:54]
Simon Hunter
My favorite horse racing movie is Seabiscuit. And I happened to see Seabiscuit, like, right after, I think, our first son was born. And there's like some child related tragedy in the movie. I don't want to ruin it for people who, over the past 20 years haven't seen it. And my wife and I, it was the first night out after we had had our kid. And I remember my wife and I are in the theater, full balling, like in the movie, because of what happens to the kid in the movie. And we are just in agony. We're like, I can't believe this is our first night out. But Seabiscuit, brilliant book, great movie. Simon, do you have a favorite horse racing movie?
- [30:44]
Chad Millman
Well, I was going to say is Seabiscuit. Is that the anomaly of, like, a horse that genetically had a huge heart? Isn't that.
- [30:53]
Mike Conte
That was Secretariat.
- [30:54]
Chad Millman
Oh, Secretariat. So isn't that what you're speaking about, Chad, where it's like, we've had one like that.
- [31:00]
Simon Hunter
We know about one genetic freak.
- [31:03]
Chad Millman
Freak, yeah.
- [31:04]
Simon Hunter
Simon, you and I are the Secretariats of sports betting podcasting. All right, so you've given us long shots, we've gone through the current, shortest odds. You know, reminder to everybody, this is all paramutual. It can all change. These odds are constantly changing. Mike, one of my favorite sayings in all of sports betting, it's becoming less and less relevant is Whisper Wednesday. For those who don't know, it's sort of after horses have had a couple days of running and training and practice at the Derby, sort of around the stables. All the handicappers start talking on Wednesday. That's a really important day for practice runs. And so odds start to change more aggressively. Have you heard anything about horses that are getting whispered about that hadn't otherwise been.
- [31:59]
Mike Conte
I mean, obviously journalism, right? Everybody has said that they love this horse. He's looked really good. The other interesting horse is Burnham Square, the number nine. He's a horse who is gelded, which means that he can no longer have offspring. You can surmise what that really means, but he can no longer have offspring, he's been gelded, yet he has still been, as they've been saying, kicking the barn doors down. He is a somewhat of a quirky horse, but one who just loves being out on the track. So there has been some talk about how he's been training. He's a very aggressive horse, but a lot of the reports are coming back that journalism looks fantastic, has been training great, and there are a lot of people that are very high on this horse.
- [32:47]
Simon Hunter
All right, so, you know, we can bet journalism. By Saturday, he'll probably be down to 2 to 1. So let's have a little bit of fun. You don't have to bet just, you know, win, play, show. You don't have to bet on one horse to just win. There are a lot of exotics you can bet in any horse race, but obviously more people paying attention to the Derby. Give us some ideas on what you would bet for exact as trifectas. You just talked about how you'll keep journalism in most of your bets so you can't get beat by it, but explain a little bit of what that means. Someone's just listening in and then what, what kind of boxes you would put together.
- [33:29]
Mike Conte
Yeah. So in exacta is betting on the first, the top two finishers, so first and second place. So, you know, in terms of normal sports betting, it's almost like a parlay within one game, if you will. It's the same game parlay, if you will. And so an exacta, the first two finishers. And again, as you mentioned, Chad, you can choose multiple horses in each spot in first and second. So the way that I'm going to build my exacta this year is I'm going to have the number 7 Luxor Cafe and the number 8 Journalism in the first place spot. And then in the second place spot, I'm going to have the number 3, who is Final Gambit, the number 4, who is Rodriguez, the 7 Luxor Cafe, the 8 Journalism, the 10 Grande and the 17 Sandman. If you make that as a $1 bet, it's only going to cost you 10 bucks. The average Derby exacta payout is in the multiple, hundreds of dollars. So you're investing 10 bucks to ideally get 10, 20, 30 to 1 odds on that bet.
- [34:34]
Simon Hunter
What about trifectas?
- [34:36]
Mike Conte
Yeah, so trifecta similar to an exacta, top three finishers. This you can do for a 50 cent base bet. So my trifecta ticket is going to look like this. It's going to look like seven, eight in first, in the second position, it will be three, four, seven, eight, nine, ten, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen. And then in the third position, just going to repeat that second position. Three, four, seven, eight, 9, 10, 17, 18, 19. Sounds like a lot, but for 50 cents, it's a $56 bet. The average Derby trifecta pays over $2,200. So you're talking about a $56 bet where you're going to get about 20 to 1 on your bet.
- [35:28]
Simon Hunter
Oh, my God. We are so in. Simon is punching that in as we speak, because who doesn't like a big pout? We are in a big payout fever here in the United States. We love betting a little and getting a lot. We like winning the lottery. We're going to do it. Am I right, Simon?
- [35:47]
Chad Millman
Have you ever had one of them in the track, Chad? I've honestly only ever had it at a dog park. I've never had it. I've hit it at dog track. I've never had it hit it at a horse track.
- [35:56]
Simon Hunter
I've never hit it anywhere.
- [35:58]
Chad Millman
No. Oh, man, it's. It's the high of highs. It's. It's the best.
- [36:02]
Simon Hunter
Hey, Simon, did you know that Mike Conte I just mentioned, he played football at Ithaca? We here at the Favorites want to shout you out because you are a sports legend. Back in 2011, you had an 88 yard pick six to become the first player in Ithaca Bombers football history to score three defensive touchdowns in your career. I know Matt Mitchell wants me to say that on behalf of all upstate New York scumbags like himself, congrats on your status as a regional legend. For that alone, anything you sire is worth $150,000.
- [36:47]
Mike Conte
Well, thank you, guys. It was a fun, fun four years at Ithaca and was to to have some opportunities to. To see the end zone from the defensive side of the ball.
- [36:59]
Simon Hunter
Fantastic.
- [36:59]
Mike Conte
When you get.
- [37:00]
Chad Millman
When you go to Ithaca, do they make you watch Road Trip, the movie to get into Ithaca? Is that part of the. Is that part of it?
- [37:05]
Mike Conte
You know it. You know it. You've got to become accustomed to Road Trip and what's going on.
- [37:10]
Chad Millman
Gotta wait.
- [37:11]
Simon Hunter
Was Road Trip Amy Smart?
- [37:12]
Chad Millman
Yeah. I had a huge crush on her back then. Yeah. Famous videotape scene with her. Great call, Chad.
- [37:18]
Simon Hunter
It's impossible not to have a crush on Amy Smart, no matter how old you are, once you've seen Road Trip. Listen, if you're looking for even more derby coverage, check out the betting preview of the Action Network podcast with Mike and our longtime horse racing handicapper, Sean Zurillo. That's available now. Also, don't forget, Go subscribe ealchad millman on YouTube Simon and I will return with our next episode of the Favorites Tuesday on the Action Network YouTube page. Download some Spotify Apple Pods wherever you get your pods Rate. Review Subscribe Leave us 5 stars. Say whatever you want. Feedback is a gift. Until next time. Love you.
- [38:03]
Mike Conte
Action Network reminds you Please gamble responsibly.
- [38:07]
Simon Hunter
If you or someone you care about.
- [38:09]
Mike Conte
Has a gambling problem, help is available.
- [38:11]
Simon Hunter
247 at 1-800-GAMBLER okay.
- [38:14]
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