From 1989..
Sal's Needle, a 3-year-old gray gelding who had been beaten by a total of 141 lengths in four previous starts, won last night's first race at Garden State Park and paid a record $693.40.
The total was the highest $2 win payoff since the old Garden State Park opened in 1942. Daily Racing Form records indicate that it was the ninth- highest $2 win payoff in American racing history.
The all-time record is the $1,885.50, which a horse named Wishing Ring paid at Latonia Race Course (now known as Turfway Park) in northern Kentucky on June 17, 1912.
Apprentice Jorge Milian was supposed to ride Sal's Needle, but his agent took him off the mount, apparently believing that the horse had no chance.
Although the infield odds-board showed Sal's Needle at 99-1, the highest number that can be posted, Sal's Needle actually was 345.70-1. The previous longest shot to win at Garden State was a mere 138-1, Happy Tank on March 23, 1977.
Appentice Robin Pratt, a 17-year-old from Saratoga Springs, N.Y., accepted the mount, but admitted later that he didn't expect any miracles.
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