Bill Rendino, a 62-year-old retired New York City fire chief, turned his starting bankroll of $1,000 into a final total of $10,375 to finish first among 205 entries in the June 2 Monmouth Park Pick Your Prize Tournament.
In addition to his final bankroll total, Rendino won a first-place cash bonus of $14,100, and he then selected two cash prizes — worth $18,800 and $10,340, respectively — from the available array of BCBC entries (6), NHC seats (20) and cash prizes of varying amounts totaling $78,340. The total winnings on the day for Rendino amounted to $53,615.
According to Monmouth Park tournament director Brian Skirka, Scott Carson opened up a huge lead early on by hitting Belmont’s 2nd race. Carson had a $50 win bet that returned $1,890, and a $50 exacta that rewarded Carson with an additional $5,025, giving him a total of $7,430 at that point.
Rendino’s big play to catch Carson came in Belmont’s Race 8. Going into the race with a bankroll of $1,962.50, Rendino went “all-in” by betting $600 across the board on #3, Stretch’s Stone and an $81 exacta box on 2-3. The exacta lost, but the $600 across the board wager resulted in $10,350 after Stretch’s Stone won and paid $17.80 to win, $9.30 to place and $7.40 to show.
Guaranteed cash bonuses were paid to the top five finishers. The top seven received two picks from the draft of prizes, and finishers 8-26 received one pick each. According to Michele Ravencraft of the NTRA, last Saturday’s event at Monmouth was the first ever to offer 20 NHC seats.
Here are the top 26 finishers and the prizes/cash that they won:
1) Bill Rendino – $10,375 bankroll – Automatically received $14,100 cash bonus – Picked cash prizes of $18,800 and $10,340
2) Scott Carson – $6,655 – Automatically received $7,835 – Picked BCBC and $5,640
3) Adam Aiken – $5,583.20 – Automatically received $4,390 – Picked BCBC and NHC
4) Stephen Thompson – $4,680.50 – Automatically received $2,820 – Picked BCBC and NHC
5) Kevin Willett – $3,890 – Automatically received $2,195 – Picked BCBC and $4,700
6) Lou Filoso – $3,506.10 – Picked BCBC and NHC
7) Ken Seeman – $3,435 – Picked BCBC and NHC
8) Bob Farah – $2,709.30 – Picked NHC
9) Frank Gryboski – $2,580.50 – Picked NHC
10) Anthony Robb – $2,501 – Picked NHC
11) Chad Scianna – $2,500 – Picked NHC
12) Ken Jordan – $2,438 – Picked NHC
13) Paul Stath – $2,411 – Picked NHC
14) Pete Rogers – $2,338 – Picked NHC
15) Darryl Mays – $2,304 – Picked NHC
16) Mitchell Schumann – $2,291.40 – Picked NHC
17) Dave Kaplan – $2,246.20 – Picked NHC
18) Joe Perry – $2,225 – Picked NHC
19) Jeff Bussan – $2,220.50 – Picked NHC
20) Joe Koury – $2,205 – Picked NHC
21) Frank D’Angelo – 2,190 – Picked NHC
22) Scott Carson – $2,175 – Picked NHC
23) David Nelson – $2,142 – Picked NHC
24) Tim Hughes – $2,055 – Picked $3,760
25) George Bosch – $2,021 – Picked $2,350
26) Larry Bergen – $2,008 – Picked $1,410