Carryovers: Horse Racing & Greyhound Carryovers

Carryovers:  What are Carryovers?

A carryover occurs when there is no winner in the original day’s race or races. At the end of a designated wager type – maybe a Pick 4, Pick 5 or Pick 6. All bets in the original pool are carried over (creating a “carryover”) to the next designated race. Multiple  carryovers can and do occur, which often reach several millions.  Carryover pools are a huge growth area for racing and the introduction of Jackpot Pick 6s are bets designed to encourage multiple payouts and eventually trigger a mandatory payout at the end of a race meet where horseplayers chase pools worth tens of millions of dollars.

Carryovers: Popular Bet Types

• Pick 4/5/6: Pick the winners of 5 specific races. If no bettor selects all five or six winners then the money rolls over to the next day’s racing.  Watch out for some major carryovers happening at the major tracks in Southern California, like Santa Anita and Del Mar where a single day of carryover leads to pools in excess of $1m.
• Pick 5/6 Jackpot: The same as the Pick 5 or Pick 6 wager, but here you need to be the only winning ticket with the correct combination of five or six winners to take home the jackpot.  Also known as the Rainbow Pick-6, the most famous of these currently takes place at Gulfstream Park where the largest payout in 2015 (so far) is $317,000 for a $33.60 stake!
• Super Hi 5 Jackpot or Pentafecta: Pick the Top 5 finishers in a specific race, in order, to win the Super High Five.  This bet has become very popular with harness/standardbred racing and a huge jackpot grew to nearly $1m at Woodbine in May 2014.