Breeders’ Cup Saturday was simply one other day on the workplace for skilled gambler Sean Boarman … till White Abarrio and Elite Energy stepped in and helped make that individual day Boarman’s greatest day on the workplace ever. Because of their victories, Boarman grew to become one other of the day’s prime winners on the 2023 Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita. He left the observe over $642,000 richer.

Sean Boarman is a 43-year-old skilled gambler from Lexington, Ky. who has been making a residing solely by betting horse races for 20 years. He scored the greatest payday of his life by topping a subject of 571 entries to win the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Betting Problem (BCBC) event on Nov. 4. (The outcomes are unofficial till BCBC officers audit the scores and certify the standings subsequent week.)

Boarman hardly ever performs tournaments however was capable of beat a subject of seasoned handicapping event excessive rollers to earn the highest prize within the BCBC that carried a $1,427,500 purse – a handbag greater than among the Breeders’ Cup races. Boarman turned an preliminary $20,000 funding (two entries at $10,000 every) right into a last take-home payday of $642,363, of which $231,238 was his last event real-money bankroll and $411,125 was prize cash.

Some handicappers may already be conversant in Boarman, who has been a visitor on the Professional Participant Diary on Pete Fornatale’s Within the Cash Podcast. Boarman had simply appeared on Fornatale’s present the week of the BCBC to debate his Breeders’ Cup opinions.

“I used to be extremely assured going into the weekend,” Boarman instructed Fornatale in his post-tournament interview. “I believed I had technique, recreation plan, and I used to be capable of persist with it and it simply labored completely.”

The BCBC provides deep-pocketed entrants an opportunity to win huge cash by betting huge cash into the large Breeders’ Cup pari-mutuel swimming pools. It yearly attracts of subject of huge bettors and handicapping event aces from across the nation who goal these kinds of handicapping contests all year long.

The Breeders’ Cup Betting Problem is a real-money handicapping problem. Gamers are required to deposit $10,000, of which $7,500 is a gamers’ bankroll whereas the opposite $2,500 goes to the prize fund that will get returned to the highest 20 finishers within the type of prize cash. Entrants wager a minimal of $600 per race (no most) on a minimum of three Breeders’ Cup races Friday and 7 Breeders’ Cup races on Saturday. Permitted wager varieties are Win, Place, Present, Exacta, Trifecta, and Each day Doubles excluding particular doubles.

Horseplayers could be shocked to learn the way Boarman turned a beginning $7,500 event bankroll into pari-mutuel earnings of greater than $230,000 over the course of two days. It wasn’t longshots. It seems that Boarman had 4 robust opinions on the Saturday Breeders’ Cup races and all 4 had been favorites. All 4 of them gained. He wager the 4 winners – Inspiral, Goodnight Olive, White Abarrio, and Elite Energy – robust sufficient and with sufficient precision to get the job carried out.

Boarman’s BCBC technique truly started months in the past when he watched White Abarrio’s victory within the Whitney Stakes at Saratoga. “It dawned on me that (White Abarrio) was going to win the Traditional. I began fascinated with how I can get to a place the place I could make a wager on him that may win it.”

Earlier than that would occur, Boarman needed to get began on rising his unique $7,500 bankroll.

“My recreation plan was to get to round $30-35,000 and wager all of it on White Abarrio,” Boarman stated. “The goal was to get to $150,000.”

“I made a decision on Friday I used to be going to … play the minimums,” stated Boarman, who ended Day One of many contest all the way down to $6,500 on his eventual successful ticket.

His first transfer of the event got here early on Saturday when he wager Inspiral within the Maker’s Mark Filly and Mare Turf and mixed her in a day by day double with Goodnight Olive within the subsequent PNC Financial institution Filly and Mare Dash. The ensuing successful payoffs bought his whole up round $36,000, and he then added just a little extra with $600 in bets on Idiomatic within the Longines Distaff to get to a bankroll round $39,000.

Boarman was within the precise place he needed to be in with the Longines Traditional arising subsequent. His all-or-nothing $39,000 in bets on White Abarrio gained, and the payoffs had been sufficient to rocket his bankroll as much as $126,000, which at that time was third place on the BCBC leaderboard.

The 2022 BCBC winner Drew Coatney had employed an analogous technique to win final yr’s occasion: construct a giant bankroll and wager all of it on his decide within the Traditional, which final yr occurred to be Flightline. The issue for Boarman, nevertheless, was that the Traditional was now not the ultimate Breeders’ Cup race in 2023. There have been nonetheless two races to go. This turned out ultimately to assist Boarman as an alternative of injuring him, as a result of after the Traditional he nonetheless wanted to leapfrog two extra gamers on the leaderboard with a purpose to win the BCBC.

Boarman says a lot of his handicapping relies on tempo, and specifically late tempo figures to have the ability to choose which horses will end quickest. Boarman judged the tempo of the ultimate race of the competition, the Qatar Racing Dash, to be quick, and preferred Elite Energy within the race primarily based on tempo. He additionally judged Gunite to be the perfect of the pace horses.

“I believe I’m capable of suss out the tempo of those huge races higher than most,” Boarman stated. “I believe that’s the largest factor.”

Boarman locked away over $100,000 of his bankroll at that time and opted towards an “all-in” kind of wager, with the rationale that these earnings plus the prize cash was already sufficient to make this the “weekend of a lifetime.”

The $20,000 he did wager on the Dash, nevertheless, turned out to be sufficient to make the distinction as a result of his key horses, Elite Energy and Gunite, completed 1-2 within the race. He used $4,000 on saver trifectas in case Elite Energy and Gunite bought cut up and made his important $16,000 wager on a straight exacta Elite Energy over Gunite. The exacta paid $16.00 for a $2 wager, and Boarman’s $16,000 exacta returned $128,000 to vault him into first for the BCBC championship.

“Lots of people most likely didn’t need to wager (Elite Energy) at 8-5 as a closing sprinter on a California pace observe,” Boarman stated. “He was finisher and horses like which might be extraordinarily lethal.”

Boarman’s last whole mutuel bankroll of $231,238 gave him a snug margin of victory over runner up Kevin Strom, who himself bankrolled a formidable $215,452 and added to that second-place prize cash of $274,075. Mike Mulvihill, who had led the event late, settled for third with a bankroll of $173,160, which was good for $148,450 in prize cash. The highest 5 was rounded out by Christy Moore in fourth with $93,990 ($102,775 in prize cash), and Tyler Sprague who completed fifth with a $90,350 bankroll plus $79,950 in prize cash. The event paid all the way down to the highest 20 finishers.

The BCBC additionally served as a qualifier for the following Nationwide Horseplayers Championship to be held in Las Vegas on March 15-17, 2024. The highest 15 BCBC finishers all certified. The NHC is the one present event with a richer purse than the BCBC, yearly in extra of $2 million.

The 2023 BCBC attracted a subject of 571, which was 22 greater than performed in 2022. The vast majority of gamers participated from the Breeders’ Cup host web site at Santa Anita or performed on-line at Xpressbet. Some others performed at official satellite tv for pc areas at Gulfstream Park or Monmouth Park. Boarman was on-track at Santa Anita for the Breeders’ Cup however opted to make his contest wagers by the Xpressbet platform.

Scores this yr had been a lot greater than in years previous, indicating that gamers may want to start out readjusting their goal successful bankrolls sooner or later. Final yr’s BCBC winner, Drew Coatney, totaled a $139,000 successful bankroll which this yr would have netted him fourth place. Boarman remarked he may increase his goal rating upwards to $180-200,000 subsequent yr.

Boarman stated he was overcome with emotion after studying he’d gained. “I sat down on the soiled stairs at Santa Anita and simply cried for 5 minutes,” he stated. “I bought it collectively lengthy sufficient to name my spouse and inform her I had gained. I instantly booked the red-eye house.”

As for what’s subsequent, Boarman says he doesn’t count on a lot of a life-style change resulting from his BCBC victory, and he’ll nonetheless stay knowledgeable pari-mutuel participant and never a event participant. His important focus at present is betting Hong Kong racing as a result of there he can make the most of large swimming pools on an virtually day by day foundation.

“I don’t anticipate a lot of a change. I really feel like I’ve fallen into a reasonably good rhythm, and I used to be having the perfect yr I used to be ever going to have earlier than this large rating,” Boarman stated. “I’ll play the BCBC subsequent yr clearly. I’d play one or two others. This has all the time been a profession to me. It’s my job.”