By ITM Staff
Every Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge comes down to a handful of tickets. We went through the wager logs for all 668 entries in the 2026 BCBC, grouped each entry’s winning tickets by race and bet, and ranked every winning play by how much it returned. Here are the 10 biggest, and what they tell you about how this tournament gets won.
A note on the numbers: players could buy a second entry, and 154 did. The “Entries” column shows whether a play came from a player’s only entry or one of two, and how the other entry finished. Stakes are full ticket costs. Returns come from the BCBC wager logs and were checked against the official Equibase charts.
The top 10
| # | Player (finish) | Entries | Race | Play | Stake | Return |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Robert Dolan (1st) | Two (other busted) | Classic | Exacta: Sovereignty over The Puma | $4,495 | $140,694 |
| 2 | Matt Miller (3rd) | Two (other 365th) | Classic | Exacta: Sovereignty over T O Password, The Puma, Forever Young and Knightsbridge | $16,000 | $125,200 |
| 3 | Allen Harberg (4th) | Two (other 333rd) | Turf | Win: Benvenuto Cellini, four tickets | $25,400 | $108,204 |
| 4 | Clay Sanders (2nd) | Two (other busted) | Turf–Classic double | Benvenuto Cellini to Sovereignty or Forever Young | $12,000 | $88,260 |
| 5 | Steven Wells (7th) | One | Sprint | Exacta: T O Elvis over Englishman | $10,000 | $79,000 |
| 6 | Vic Stauffer (5th) | Two (other busted) | Sprint | Win: T O Elvis | $20,000 | $75,800 |
| 7= | Ken Jordan (9th) | Two (other 153rd) | Turf–Classic double | Benvenuto Cellini to Sovereignty | $5,000 | $73,550 |
| 7= | Michael Mulvihill (10th) | Two (other busted) | Turf–Classic double | Benvenuto Cellini to Sovereignty | $5,000 | $73,550 |
| 9= | Matt Mahmoodi (6th) | One | Classic | Trifecta: Sovereignty over The Puma, Forever Young and Knightsbridge, with T O Password, Forever Young and Knightsbridge third | $4,500 | $72,650 |
| 9= | Ben Beychok (8th) | Two (other 308th) | Classic | Straight trifecta: Sovereignty–The Puma–Knightsbridge | $500 | $72,650 |
The Classic paid the most
Four of the 10 biggest plays came in the last race, and every one of them had Sovereignty on top. The difference was what they did underneath. Robert Dolan went all in on one exacta, Sovereignty over 17/1 The Puma, and the $31.30 payout took him from 267th to the title. His second entry had already busted. Matt Miller spread $16,000 across four exactas, $4,000 apiece with Sovereignty on top, and the Puma ticket returned $125,200. That was his second entry, and it finished third; his first ended the weekend 365th.
The trifecta players got paid, too. The 2-4-7 trifecta returned $72.65 for 50 cents, $145.30 per dollar. Matt Mahmoodi, playing a single entry, built a $4,500 part-wheel around Sovereignty and collected $72,650. Ben Beychok collected the same $72,650 on his second entry by playing the winning combination straight for $500.
One race before, the same idea
The Turf set up the Classic. Allen Harberg‘s second entry put $25,400 to win on Benvenuto Cellini, the 3/1 favorite, across four tickets and got back $108,204. Clay Sanders used the Turf winner in $12,000 of Turf–Classic doubles, Benvenuto Cellini to Sovereignty or Forever Young, and the $14.71 double was worth $88,260. Sanders finished second.
Then there are Ken Jordan and Michael Mulvihill. Both were playing two entries, and both second entries played the exact same thing: $5,000 on the Benvenuto Cellini–Sovereignty double. Each got back $73,550. After two days and 22 races, they finished ninth and 10th, $1 apart.
T O Elvis made two big days
The Sprint produced two of the top six plays. Steven Wells, on his only entry, had $10,000 on the T O Elvis–Englishman exacta and collected $79,000. Vic Stauffer went all in on T O Elvis, $20,000 to win (worth $75,800, sixth on this list) and $19,822 to place. The whole play returned $109,695.62 and put him in the lead with two races left.
Best value, and the hard-luck stories
By return on stake, nothing beat Ben Beychok‘s $500 straight Classic trifecta: 145-to-1 on his money. John Kwan hit the same trifecta with a $200 ticket and collected $29,060. Ben’s brother Michael Beychok found his own score one race earlier: a $400 Turf exacta ticket, Benvenuto Cellini over Map of Stars or Deep Monster, that paid $26,928.
The third-best play by multiple belonged to Ted Apple. He hit the Filly & Mare Sprint trifecta with a $400 ticket, Ways and Means on top with Foie Gras and Explora in either order underneath, and got back $32,544. Apple finished 18th, $185 short of the last NHC seat.
Some big scores didn’t last. Howard Kravets put $17,563 on the Nitrogen–Fully Subscribed exacta in the Distaff with his second entry and collected $54,270, then finished 398th with 57 cents left. ITM’s own Mikee P, on a single entry, put $16,042 on the same exacta, collected $49,570 and finished 365th with 80 cents.
More from the BCBC: how Robert Dolan won it, the race with two left, the Day One recap and everything else on the ITM Breeders’ Cup hub.
Source: BCBC wager logs for all 668 entries; payouts checked against Equibase charts for Keeneland, Oct. 30–31, 2026.
