Super day for superfecta Derby winners
BY TIM MORRIS
Staff Writer

JEFFGRANIT staff Mark Madden (l-r), Alex Corrado and Lisa Madden certainly enjoyed this year’s Kentucky Derby, splitting a record payout after purchasing a winning superfecta ticket at Freehold Raceway.

Mark Madden is no stranger to Freehold Raceway. He has been going there and placing bets for 35 years.

“I’ve torn up many tickets on this ground,” he said.

There was one ticket, one very famous ticket, however, that he didn’t tear up — the Kentucky Derby superfecta.

On May 7, Madden and his daughter, Lisa Madden, who both live in Morganville, and her boyfriend, Alex Corrado, of Hoboken, cashed in on the highest superfecta in horse-racing history, sharing $864,253 before taxes, or $288,084 each. They each put up $120 of the $360 it cost for the six-horse box superfecta.

The superfecta is a box of $1 tickets on six horses. If any four of the six finish first through fourth in the race, the bettor has a winner, and boy, did Mark Madden, Lisa Madden and Alex Corrado have a winner.

The payoff at the Kentucky Derby was so enormous, not just because a 50-1 shot — Giacomo — won, but because the place horse, Closing Argument, was a 71-1 shot.

“You’ll never see that payoff again,” said Corrado, who said that after his day at the races, he’s the unofficial mayor of Hoboken. “A 50-1 shot followed by a 71-1 and 29-1.”

Behind Giacomo and Closing Argument, Afleet Alex and Don’t Get Mad rounded out the top four places. The magic combination was 10-18-12-17.

Madden knows from his years of betting on races that it was “99.99 percent luck” that he and his partners won.

The lucky trio was at Freehold Raceway on May 10 for a press conference, where they explained what led up to their superfecta bet.

“It was Alex’s idea that we go for the dollar box for the [Kentucky Derby] superfecta,” said Mark Madden. “We decided to go for it.”

Handicappers won’t discover any secret formula to betting on horse races from them. It’s more heart than head.

Once they decided to go for it, the partners put their heads together and determined that they would agree on three of the horses for the box, and that they would each choose one horse themselves to round out the six-horse pick. They agreed on Bellamy Road (the pre-race favorite), Afleet Alex and Bandini. Next up were the individual picks. Corrado went for Giacomo, the long-shot winner.

“I chose Giacomo because I like all things Italian and I like the jockey, Mike Smith,” he said. “I’m a Mike Smith fan.”

All week long, Mark Madden liked Don’t Get Mad, and that was his contribution.

Lisa Madden’s choice wasn’t popular with her partners, the 71-1 shot, Closing Argument. She picked the colt not because of the odds, but the name.

“I looked over the program, and Closing Argument was the name that stuck out,” she said. “I kept hearing in my head, the race call ‘Hear comes Closing Argument.’ They [Dad and Alex] didn’t like it, but I stuck with it.”

Lucky for them that she stuck with her 71-1 choice.

Mark Madden, the vice president of a truck company, and Alex Corrado, an actor, purchased their ticket at Freehold Raceway at window 314 in the grandstand the day of the Kentucky Derby, and everyone returned later in the day to Mark’s house to watch the race.

“Mark is the one who knows horse racing, and he knew right away that we won,” said Corrado. “He was saying it’s going to be a big payoff, $30,000 or maybe $50,000.”

Mark said he was dividing up the numbers for the $30,000 and $50,000 payoff three ways when the actual number came across the television screen.

“Then we saw the readout, and we went crazy,” said Corrado. “We spent two hours laughing and crying and jumping up and down.”

Mark Madden fully appreciated what he, his daughter and Corrado had done.

“When you love something like this and you won the biggest payoff in racing history, there’s nothing like it,” he said. “Unless you are into it, you can’t appreciate making the ultimate horse bet of all time.”

Their ticket was one of just seven that were sold throughout the country. The instant celebrity the trio gained hasn’t been easy, said Lisa Madden, a freelance assistant accountant for film production.

“I’m still not comfortable” she said. “It’s overwhelming.”

All three said the big ticket won’t change their lives. They will continue to work and be who they are. But they will also be a part of history until someone comes up with a bigger payoff.

Mark Madden said that they will be looking ahead to the Preakness (May 21). Although they have no pre-race routines, they will try to follow everything they did the day of the Kentucky Derby, including Lisa having Lucky Charms for breakfast.