Yesterday...late in the day on the Monday holiday our handicapping group was having a tough time finding anything at all worth playing in the final at Gulfstream. By then a few cocktails have been served... and after a successful day there was some free flowing gambling dollars flying around. It was a bottom level NW2L for just 6250. Not very much talent in the field and all the favorites were pretty vulnerable. Looked like a "chaos race" on paper. All four of us could not come up with a "key" horse--- so one of my buddies decided to go with the longest shot in the field. He played a $40 exacta box 8 with "all" Well...you guessed it. At the wire...two bombs finish 1st and 2nd. A 21-1 shot wins and his longshot number 8 at 30-1 finishes 2nd! My goodness. He had a monster ticket in his possession. We all started to guess that the exacta would pay around 1600 or more for just two. He had it 20 times! But alas...the inquiry light goes on.... yes- the stewards took down the winner for coming out in deep stretch on the 7 who ended up finishing 4th. He likely would have come in 3rd costing him a placing. Oh no. The huge exacta payday was ruined.
Not to be left empty handed however-- as the 30-1 winner he boxed with all was the one they moved up and he collected $450 twenty times. Very, very nice....but what could have been???? All good fun!
The horse I had to be taken down in deep stretch and placed 5th 
