The second biggest long shot in the 148-year history of the Kentucky Derby emerged victorious over the weekend. Rich Strike was an alternate just days prior to the race before being added to the field on Friday. On race day, he was able to surge past the betting favorites in the final stretch to take the win. The 148th running of the Kentucky Derby also made history by setting a record for betting. The horse that people bet on the least to win ended up winning the first leg of the Triple Crown. Jeremy Pond, General Editor for The Action Network, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.

Closing Bell

2022 Kentucky Derby Sets Betting Record With a Reported $179 Million Wagered

Okay, well, the second biggest long shot in the 148 year history of the Kentucky Derby made racing history over the weekend. Rich Strike began the week as an alternate and was only added to the field on friday. Well, on race day, he was able to surge past the betting favorites in the final stretch to take the win. The 148th running of the Kentucky Derby. Also made history by setting a record for sports betting. Of course that people bet on the least to win, ended up emerging victorious. That's what was so amazing here. So joining me now to discuss is jeremy pon, general editor for the Action Network, a sports media company focused on sports betting. Jeremy. It's great to have you a record $179 million. This is mind blowing bet on the Kentucky Derby this year. That is a ton of money. Break down some of the numbers that came out of these sports books. Yeah, it's great to be on to talk about this race, which is obviously just a shocker in general for Horse racing in the whole perspective of it in any major race in the world. Um, yeah, million downs. I think that was uh, an increase of about 17% of the graphics there, 17% from last year and 8% from the previous year, which was back in 2019. Um, I think the numbers were up because this is the first year in the past since 2019 when Covid and the global pandemic was around. So the doors were not open. Derbies were run behind the scenes, fewer people were there last year. This year we had a massive crowd, 147,000 in attendance. So I think you've got more people out there and more people more interested in getting involved. Uh and it just happened that this year You had a horse just come through that no one really forecast. I mean, there was only, I think just in north of $500,000 bet on the horse in the race. So, so Rich Strike striking it, big, striking it rich. If you want to say that I would just like here the play on words, what does this do for sports betting, jeremy? I mean, I know you said it's, it's gathering more interest, but a lot of people lost money here too. And so on. That. You think that this is a positive or a negative for sports books? Well, it's a positive for books. I have very few of them took a loss. I know, I know a couple of in Vegas did take a minor loss because the odds on this horse for derby futures wagering were anywhere from 200 to 301. And the fact that the horse came in late on an also eligible entry, a horse ethereal road was scratched the morning of the Derby. Another horse had more points. He also scratched, which allowed Rich Strike to get in the field. So it was, it was a situation where this horse really was never going to be in contention. He probably was gonna make a lot of things had to happen. Um And I think what's the situation was, is that people really weren't deeply looking into this horse and it created created just a, such a unique situation around epic in terms of the money is just mind boggling to me how much people wagered on this conducting derby, but we got to leave it there. That's jeremy Pond, general editor for the Action Network.