There were 14 Breeders’ Cup races run on Nov. 1-2, 2024, with purses of $1 million or more apiece, but those were not the only events held at Del Mar that offered seven-figure purses. While the horses were battling it out on the track in 14 World Championship races, handicappers were simultaneously competing off the track in what was the Breeders’ Cup weekend’s 15^th million-dollar-plus event – the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge (BCBC).

The 2024 Breeders’ Cup’s unofficial 15th champion was BCBC winner Steven Wells, a 51-year-old accomplished tournament player from Arizona who now resides in Fordville, N.D., where he owns and operates a bar in a small town of 200 people. Wells scored a giant payday by accumulating a final winning bankroll of $152,000 to top a field of 585 entries. He won the BCBC’s first prize of $421,250, which in addition to his bankroll netted him a total tournament payoff of $573,250.

Steven Wells (NTRA photo)

Wells is no stranger to handicapping tournament success. He has played the BCBC for the last 10 straight years and has finished as high as eighth in 2020. Wells is also a multi-year National Horseplayers Championship (NHC) qualifier who made waves at the 2023 NHC finals when he advanced two entries to the Final Table and finished seventh and ninth for total earnings of $150,000.

The BCBC offers deep-pocketed entrants a chance to win big money by betting large sums into the huge Breeders’ Cup Day pari-mutuel wagering pools. The tournament annually draws fields of big bettors and handicapping tournament aces from around the country who target these types of handicapping contests throughout the year. Players pay $10,000 to enter, of which $7,500 is the live tournament betting bankroll. The other $2,500 goes to the purse fund that gets returned to the top 20 finishers in the form of prize money.

The format is straightforward. Entrants must bet a minimum of $600 per race (no maximum) on at least three races on the Friday Breeders’ Cup card, and at least $600 per race on seven races on the Saturday Breeders’ Cup card. Permitted wager types are Win, Place, Show, Exacta, Trifecta, and Daily Doubles.

Wells beat a field of handicapping tournament high rollers to earn his BCBC crown. He did it by sticking to the same gameplan that has been employed by other recent winners of the BCBC. He made mostly minimum bets all weekend in order to save the majority of his bankroll for a few big wagers on his best bets.

“If you have a real strong opinion, you try to keep some bankroll together so you’re putting your money in on what you feel best about,” Wells explained in an interview on “At the Races with Steve Byk.”

Horseplayers might be surprised to find out that Wells’ winning plays weren’t giant longshots or massive bombs in the exotics. His strategy revolved around getting the biggest bet down that he could on his top selection of the weekend, More Than Looks in the FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Mile presented by PDJF.

“I was on More Than Looks all the way back in August,” Wells said. “I watched him run in the Breeders’ Cup last year and whenever he resurfaced, I was like ‘They’re going to put two runs into him and they’re gonna point to the Mile.’”

In order to get a big enough bet down on More Than Looks to win the contest, Wells had to get to work growing his original $7,500 bankroll.

“I thought $200,000 would be the winning score, so I was always trying to focus to where I could make a bet in that race to get to $200,000.”

Wells lost his three minimum bets on Friday and entered Saturday with a $5,700 bankroll. He then lost $700 on his first bet Saturday to drop down to $5,000. His first big move of the tournament came in the Bayakoa Stakes on the Breeders’ Cup undercard at Del Mar when he bet a straight $5,000 exacta on Hope Road and Alpha Bella. The exacta came in, and even though it only paid $2.80 for a $1 bet, Wells’ $5,000 exacta was enough to return him $14,000.

“You have to be willing to let your money ride if you are going to get there,” Wells said.

Thorpedo Anna (Eclipse Sportswire)

Wells’ next attempt to increase his bankroll also was successful when he cashed a $12,800 win bet on Thorpedo Anna in the Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff. The resulting payoff gave Wells $17,920 and put him in position to make his next bets in the Longines Breeders’ Cup Turf.

In the Turf, Wells bet a pair of $500 exacta boxes with Rebel’s Romance and the two Japanese invaders in the race, Rousham Park and Shahryar. One exacta came in as Rebel’s Romance finished first and Rousham Park second. It paid $53.90 on a $2 bet for another $13,475 addition to Wells’ total.

Wells made a couple bets after the Turf to meet the minimums which brought him to the Breeders’ Cup Mile that he had been waiting for. The leaders at that point in the tournament had more than $140,000 in their bankroll and Wells knew he had to bet enough to pass that amount with his bet on More Than Looks, whose post time odds were 6.90-1.

Wells’ bet was $20,000 to win on More Than Looks in the Breeders’ Cup Mile, and More Than Looks delivered with a last-to-first rally to win the race by three-quarters of a length. More Than Looks paid $15.80 to win, and the earnings raised Wells’ total into first place with $158,000. He didn’t cash his final bets in the last race of the contest and his bankroll fell short of his $200,000 goal, but Wells’ final total of $152,000 still proved to be enough to hold on for the victory.

Wells’ total ended up $21,400 ahead of the second-place player, Tyler Sprague, who still had a chance to win in the last race of the tournament but lost his $4,700 bet in the Big Ass Fans Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile. Sprague settled for second with a bankroll of $130,600 and took home purse money in excess of $250,000 in addition to his bankroll. Sprague has been on an amazing roll at the BCBC after finishing fifth last year with a $90,350 bankroll that earned him $79,950 more in prize money.

Ty Hoffman, 31, from San Gabriel, Calif., ended the tournament in third place with a final total of $115,500, thanks to a big score in the last race, the Dirt Mile, when he hit a $2,000 exacta on Full Serrano and Post Time that returned $103,000. He added those cash earnings to his roughly $140,000 in third-place purse money to complete a big payday. Kevan Strom ($109,384 final total) and Ken McMahan ($78,620) rounded out the top five. Prize money was paid down to 20^th place.

Others in the field included 2023 BCBC winner Sean Boarman from Lexington, Ky., 2022 champion Drew Coatney, 2021 champion Matt Miller, 2020 champion Marshall Gramm, 2019 champion Brad Anderson, 2018 champion Chuck Grubbs, 2017 champion Nisan Gabbay, 2014 champion Robert Traynor, and the only 2-time champion from 2011 and 2012, Patrick McGoey.

The 2024 BCBC attracted a record-breaking field of 585 entries resulting in a record-high purse of $1,462,500. BCBC annual growth continues. The tournament had 571 entries in 2023 and 549 entries in 2022. A good percentage of the BCBC players participated from the Breeders’ Cup host site at Del Mar. Others played at Santa Anita Park or participated online at TVG, Xpressbet, NYRA Bets, or TwinSpires. Wells played the contest remotely on TVG.

Wells attributes his success to handicapping with Daily Racing Form, watching replays, trip handicapping, and playing mostly win bets. He has been watching horse racing for more than 40 years since going to the track with his dad and grandfather when he was little.

“The good thing about (handicapping) is it’s something you can do until you don’t live anymore,” Wells quipped.

The top 15 BCBC finishers also all earned qualifying berths into the next finals of the National Horseplayers Championship, which is scheduled for March 14-16, 2025, at Horseshoe Las Vegas. This additional perk was not lost on Steven Wells.

“When you’re at the NHC, I can’t emphasize enough how fun that tournament is because that room is filled with people that love horse racing and are good at it,” Wells said. “It’s a good way of being around people that have the same interest as you.”