Keeping it simple. No trifectas or whatever. You went to a race track and put down a bet on a not-well-thought-of single horse in a single race that managed to exceed all expectations.
How much did you get back per buck?
50-1? 100-1? Higher?
Power to Geaux at the Arksarben race track holds the record for the highest parimutual $2 payout: $2922 on December 8, 1989. That is 1460 to 1.
We did this a year ago here, and no one found longer odds than RealityChuck that time.
Woooooo.
I think I have a new retirement plan. All I need is a thou in cash and a time machine. 
Ah yes, but those odds pretty well indicate that almost nobody bet on that horse. Probably well less than $100 was wagered in total on that horse. As such, when you drop your thou at the window, the payout odds will shorten from 1460 to 1 to about 50 to 1.
Methinks you’re gonna have a skint retirement when you get back to 2011.
Not as good, but doesn’t that thousand still turn into fifty grand? In 1989 dollars. With knowledge of the next 22 years? With access to a time machine?
StarvingButStrong, are you accepting applications for financial planner?
No. It raises the purse to be distributed to the (now) two people placing bets on that horse to $3922. Subtract the $1002 that the two bettors get returned to them, and the two-dollar bettor gets an extra $5.83 (for a total of $7.83 when he cashes his ticket).
StarvingButStrong cashes his ticket for $3916.17 (of which $1K was his when he got into the time machine), which gives him a profit of $2916.17.
Roughly speaking.
A nice little profit, but, don’t turn in the time machine just yet.
… nor should I turn in my application for financial planner. 
There is sometimes a show (3rd place) price that pays better then a win.
That happens when a very heavy favorite is entered and people dump money on that horse to show as almost a sure thing, and due to the min track payout (used to be $2.20 now $2.10 on $2 bet) the track loses money on the payout of the favorite ‘shows’ (so over time this type of show betting will pay out to the favor of the better). But if that horse loses then all that show money gets redistributed to the other 3 horses, making very weird payouts.
Wondering what the highest show payout on that was.
Whenever I see that situation, I always bet on the 2nd or 3rd favorite to show, if I don’t have a good pick of my own, because statistically it can be shown that you have a positive expectation on the 2nd and 3rd favorites to show.
Not to hijack, but when we go to the track, I get the racing forms and the newspaper and do meticulous research on each race and each horse to find out which horse will do well this night on this type of track in this weather, etc.
My wife bets on the #3 horse to win every race.
I have never come out ahead of her on any night. YMMV.
Can we expand this question to discuss the highest payout EVER on a race/series of races? Presumably it would have to be an exotic bet like a Pick Six or whatever.
Remember when the Wall Street Journal used to invite 3 top stock analysts to compete. They also had a dart board. The dart board often won.
I guess you weren’t the one who bet on that nag at Arksarben on December 8, 1989, then. 
That’s not surprising. Over time, I don’t know if many passive investors (as opposed to Buffet who gets people on the board) have beat the S&P 500.
Didn’t somebody do a similar test of professional stock analysts versus throwing darts at a list of stocks, with similar results?
You should try Horsewriters… Read 'em and weep!
A few years ago someone bet £100 at 1000-1 on a horse and won. The bet was through betfair, via in-play exchange betting. I can’t remeber the full details, but the race was almost finished the horse at the back stood ‘no chance’, all the other horses fell one fence from home. That will be $100,000 please.
Nitpick: That would be Ak-Sar-Ben.
A hijack, but I hope you’ll forgive me . . .
Last week, for a one dollar bet*, I got paid off more than $5000.00. It’s not the answer to the OP’s question about “the longest odds paid off”, but definitely the longest odds that Karl’s ever been paid off at**.
And, I’ll point out that in Canada, where I am, there is no tax deducted on race track winnings! A nice catch, eh?!
*in truth, I bet $10 - ten $1 bets, and it was on one of them that I collected.
** for those interested in such things, it was a triactor bet (where you must pick the first three horses in order of finish). I bet every possible combination where the horse I liked best would need to finish first, the horse I liked second-best would have to finish second, and it didn’t matter who came third. There were twelve horses in the race, meaning I needed to purchase ten combinations (at a buck a pop).