Winning Colors - Snap Classic

She’s stunning grey, sleek as a race car, and stronger than all the boys. Her name is Winning Colors and for Dino and Miami she’s the long shot of a lifetime. This story contains strong language and includes descriptions of gambling, sensitive listeners please be advised. If gambling has become a problem for you or for someone you know, you can call 1-800-GAMBLER (426-2537) to seek free, confidential, 24/7 problem gambling assistance. A huge thank you to Mark “Miami” Paul https://markpaulauthor.com/for sharing his story with Snap! Wondering what happened to Winning Colors? After her 1988 Kentucky Derby crown the big grey filly retired the following year with eight career wins. In 2000, she was inducted into the U. S. National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Museum_of_Racing_and_Hall_of_Fame. In 2008, at the age of 23 Winning Colors was laid to rest https://nypost.com/2008/02/19/winning-colors-dead-at-23/in Lexington, Kentucky. To find out more about Miami and Winning Colors’ story – check out Miami’s book, “The Greatest Gambling Story Ever Told” https://www.amazon.com/Greatest-Gambling-Story-Ever-Told-ebook/dp/B083LD7T7L/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=The+Greatest+Gambling+Story+Ever+Told:+A+True+Tale+of+Three+Gamblers,+The+Kentucky+Derby,+and+the+Mexican+Cartel&amp&qid=1582844253&amp&sr=8-1 Produced by Bo Walsh, original score by Renzo Gorrio, artwork by Teo Ducot. Snap Classic – Season 16– Episode 32 Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices https://dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:08Glynn Washington?

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• 1:52Glynn Washington?

  So, I went to my buddy Simon. And Simon tells me that lottery tickets are a tax on the stupid. Right? Okay, so, why are we standing in line to buy lottery tickets? No, no, no, no. He says, "We're not buying lottery tickets." "We're not?" "No. What we're buying is a little taste of hope. A little taste of what if, a little taste of magic that we can put in our pockets to distract us from the drudgery and the agonies of everyday life. That's what we're buying at this gas station."

• 2:32Glynn Washington?

  Wow. All that for the price of a losing ticket? What a bargain. But... But... I can't help but think, what if we could tip the scales?

• 2:49Glynn Washington?

  What if we knew a guy who knew a guy? Would have just once, we could make it so that this wasn't a losing piece of paper after all? Well, today on Snap Judgment, the fix is in.

• 3:08Glynn Washington?

  Snap Probably Presents: Winning Colors.

• 3:13Glynn Washington?

  My name is John Washington, and I don't care what Simon says. Stupid bets are the best kinds of bets to make when you're listening to Snap Judgment.

• 3:30Glynn Washington?

  Now then, Mark Paul. It was his early twenties when the folks started calling him Miami. Dressed in pastel-colored shirts, living in slacks and white tennis shoes, no socks. Most days, Miami'd hop in his Mercedes convertible and head to Miami's favorite place, the racetrack. And Miami, Miami knows a special horse when he sees one. And since of listeners should note, this story does include descriptions of gambling money away on the ponies. Snap Producer Bo Walsh brings us the story. Snap Judgment.

• 4:11Speaker 02

  One day, Mark Paul, aka Miami, was at home in Los Angeles.

• 4:16Speaker 03

  August 13th, 1987, I remember.

• 4:27Speaker 02

  When he tuned in on TV to watch a horse race.

• 4:30Speaker 03

  He was at Saratoga Race Track in New York. Saratoga Race Track is the biggest racetrack, the finest racetrack, the best horses, and they debut a lot of the best young horses, the two-year-old horses that are racing for the first time. I wasn't really paying a lot of attention to it, but this gray filly, who was just huge, I see her go into the gate. She's just bigger than a two-year-old filly should be, and the fact that she's gray, she's shining like a metallic sports car, just caught my attention.

• 5:05Speaker 03

  Bam! She breaks like a bullet out of the gate, and she's immediately in front of all the other eight horses, just digging in, just cruising. I'm going, wow, that's a really interesting horse. As they turn into the turn, she starts opening up on them. And as she's coming for home, I'm watching this horse, and I'm going, who the hell was that? And I look down at the racing form, I see her name is Winning Colors.

• 5:36Speaker 03

  I thought to myself, man, if that horse ever comes to LA, I want to be there for her next race, so we could bet on her.

• 5:46Speaker 02

  Miami had been betting on horses since he was 15. Now, as a bachelor in his twenties, he kept a day job as a real estate broker to pay the bills and set his own schedule.

• 5:57Speaker 03

  By the time, you know, 12:30, 1 o'clock ran along, I could get in my car and still make the first or second race at Santa Anita with Dino.

• 6:09Speaker 02

  Dino. There was no Miami without Dino.

• 6:12Speaker 03

  I really only had one skill, and that's that I was friends with Dino Matteo.

• 6:16Speaker 02

  Dino was Miami's partner in crime. They've been best friends since 15 years old. Dino was the one who introduced Miami to horse racing.

• 6:25Speaker 03

  Dino was brilliant, and Dino always had an angle and he'd always figured out the odds. When he would study the racing form and the past performance of the horses, he literally might stay up five, six, seven hours that night. And he would watch replays, making careful notes. He might not bet for five, six races in a row, but when he saw a bet that he thought had an edge, he would load up and he would bet with both hands. Dino was the best I'd ever met, I'd ever seen. And I learned, just bet what Dino bets, and I'm probably gonna be okay.

• 7:01Speaker 02

  So the two of them kept an eye out for when and where Winning Colors' next race would be. And then, on Christmas Day, they got an unexpected gift when they learned Winning Colors was slated to run at Santa Anita Racetrack near LA the very following day.

• 7:16Speaker 03

  Winning Colors, going against fillies her own age, just girls. We said, "Man, we've gotta be there."

• 7:28Speaker 03

  We were at the track. We went down to see her. And my God, when this horse was led to be saddled, she had grown up. She was magnificent, just ginormous, prancing and towering over the other horses. She looked like she outweighed all the other horses, all the other fillies, by maybe 200, 300 pounds. I also noticed that she would come up and try to put her head over the other fillies, trying to show her dominance, and she would try to bite the other horses.

• 7:59Speaker 02

  When it came time to place bets on the race, Dino and Miami went all in on Winning Colors.

• 8:05Speaker 03

  We could win $1,500 each on that race.

• 8:11Speaker 03

  They put her in the gate and she's only running against four other fillies.

• 8:17Speaker 03

  She breaks. I just don't think I've ever seen anything like it. I mean, my god, she just, when those gates open, within like yards, she's two, three lengths in front of the other horses. It's like they haven't even gotten out of the gate yet and she's just pulling the ground forward with her hooves and it's like a lightning bolt.

• 8:40Speaker 03

  She just opens up on them. The other horses don't even look like they're competitive, like they're even in the race with her. And she just wins off by three and a half lengths geared down. And Dino and I just look at each other like, "Oh my god." And we run down and we get on the TVs and we watch her replay again and again.

• 9:03Speaker 03

  And Dino gets very, very quiet on me. And he says, "That's filly, she's something very special. She might even be a Derby horse."

• 9:14Speaker 02

  This was a big statement for Dino to make, especially considering this was a filly he was talking about.

• 9:20Speaker 03

  In the Kentucky Derby, typically it's only males running against males. At this time, only 34 fillies had ever even entered and only two of them had ever won. And the race had been run since 1875.

• 9:38Speaker 02

  So the odds against winning colors were high, but Miami and Dino had seen enough.

• 9:43Speaker 03

  At the end of the racing day, we usually just took our programs and we'd throw them in the trash. I remember both Dino and I kept our programs and we just circled her. We knew that this might be something special and we're really, really looking forward to her coming back because we thought we were on to something here.

• 10:05Speaker 02

  A couple of days after Winning Colors victory, Miami got a call from Dino at 6:30 a.m. that Sunday morning.

• 10:12Speaker 03

  I pick up the phone and he's all agitated. He's hyper. He says, "Miami, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up." I said, "Dino, what's going on, man?" He says, "Miami, I was up all night long with charts, studying her. I looked at how fast she ran. I looked at the times that every other colt in the United States has been running in prep races. I'm telling you, Winning Colors is just faster than these colts. And the word's getting out on her. Everybody's talking about her. There's an article in the newspaper about her. If we don't take this opportunity and do it soon, the odds are going to be gone because everybody's going to be betting on her." "We're going down to Tijuana. We have to bet on Winning Colors. We have to do it today. I want to do it this morning." I go, "Dino, why in the hell are we going to Tijuana?

• 10:57Speaker 03

  Let's just go to Vegas. I love Vegas, man."

• 10:59Speaker 02

  You can bet on a horse to win the Kentucky Derby at casinos in Vegas, a sportsbook in Manila, or in Tijuana. Each place has different odds on the same race.

• 11:09Speaker 03

  He says, "She's 12 to 1 in the future book betting in Vegas, but down in Tijuana at this racetrack, they're offering her 50 to 1 at Agua Caliente in Mexico. 50 to 1. This is a chance of a lifetime, man. Pick me up." And Dino says, "Oh, one last thing. Bring all the money you have."

• 11:31Speaker 02

  Dino tells Miami that he wants each of them to bet $2,500 on Winning Colors. At 50 to 1 odds, that would earn them a winning payday of 250 grand.

• 11:42Speaker 03

  First time I heard Dino tell me I could win $250,000 with him on this filly, I couldn't even understand how that was possible. We were semi-professional gamblers. We'd had big losses and big wins in the past. A big win for me, probably my biggest win ever at that time, was maybe to win $5,000 in a day. To win $250,000 in a day is a completely different animal. It's something that I almost, I couldn't even wrap my head around. I was still very, very skeptical.

• 12:21Speaker 03

  I loved Winning Colors and I believed in Winning Colors, but it seemed like quite a stretch of the imagination. When two Phillies have won the Kentucky Derby in 114 years. I said, Dino, man, I'm not making any money. I haven't cashed a deal in nine months. That's a lot of money for me right now. He says, don't hesitate, man. You're going to regret it if you do.

• 12:43Speaker 02

  Miami already made this mistake once.

• 12:46Speaker 03

  My biggest fear was that Dino would cash some huge bet and I wouldn't be with him because it had happened before. I had been in Vegas one time with him. We'd gotten our ass kicked for two days and I left him. I went and I played blackjack for about three minutes and I come back and he hit some horse at 28 to one and he's standing in line with $13,000 in cash on him. I go, well, why didn't you tell me? He said, well, why did you leave? If Dino was betting, I was going with him. And I know that Dino absolutely believed that she was going to win this race. And then if Dino believes it, then I believed it too.

• 13:25Speaker 02

  That same day, Dino in Miami drove the four hours down to Tijuana to the Aguacaliente racetrack to place their bet.

• 13:33Speaker 03

  Dino walks up to the window and he goes up and he tells the teller. He says, I'd like to bet the future book. 1988 Kentucky Derby. Winning Colors to win the Kentucky Derby. 50 to one. Please confirm the odds.

• 13:54Speaker 03

  And I remember the teller, his eyes go up and he looks at Dino and he says,

• 13:59Speaker 03

  you want to bet on a Philly to win the Kentucky Derby? And Dino says, yeah, I know, I'm probably crazy, but I'd still like to do it. I remember watching Dino count out 50 $100 bills. And I thought that money was gone.

• 14:19Speaker 02

  Now they had to wait five months and hoped that Winning Colors would win the next couple of races to earn her a spot at the Kentucky Derby.

• 14:26Speaker 03

  I was going to work every day and I was doing my usual stuff, cold calling and talking to investors. On the way home, I'd go, "All right, well, you got your ass kicked again today and you didn't make any money today, but you got Winning Colors, baby. Just keep the faith, keep the faith." And I would think about her all the time.

• 14:46Speaker 02

  One day Miami ran into a friend and told him about his and Dino's recent bet.

• 14:51Speaker 03

  And he starts laughing. He says, "Do you know who owns Agua Calleany Racetrack? It's owned by a member of the Felix Ariano Drug Cartel, Jorge Ron. Apparently, they use that place to launder money and that racetrack probably won't even be around after a few more months. It's going out of business fast. You think you're going to go down there and pick up $250,000 and they're going to let you leave the racetrack alive? You're not getting out of Tijuana with a quarter of a million dollars. You guys are out of your minds." I didn't sleep well that night because this was not something I ever expected to have

• 15:34Speaker 03

  to worry about dealing with. But after I slept down, I says, "Ah, don't worry about what's the chances that Winning Colors even makes it into the Kentucky Derby?" And I let it go. I think I blocked it out mostly because I was like, "I'll deal with that when she gets into the damn Derby. Until she's in the Derby, why should I stress about something that may not even happen?"

• 16:00Speaker 02

  In order to qualify for the Kentucky Derby field, Winning Colors would need to run in a series of stakes races. And in February, it was announced that her next race would also feature Goodbye Halo, the top filly from the East Coast.

• 16:16Speaker 03

  Dino and I were really afraid of Goodbye Halo. This is the first time that Winning Colors had to face a horse who was actually more experienced, had accomplished more, had won more money than she had.

• 16:30Speaker 02

  On race day, Dino and Miami were there to catch the action. There was a lot riding on this race. A victory would establish Winning Colors as the top filly and bring her one step closer to the Kentucky Derby. But as Miami and Dino watched her being saddled in warmups, they could see she looked a bit off.

• 16:49Speaker 03

  She's rearing and wheeling and she's just acting really, really nervous. She even has sweat between her legs, which she'd never seen before. And Goodbye Halo just looks calm as a cucumber. And I noticed something too, that the other jockeys are snapping their whips on their boots, just bam, bam, making noise, doing that intentionally to scare Winning Colors. And they're trying to do everything in their power to get her out of her comfort zone. So they load her into the gate and the crowd is wild. The crowd is really pumped up for this race. And we're watching Winning Colors and she's agitated, she's jumping around, she's banging her head on both sides of the gate.

• 17:34Speaker 03

  And we've never seen her like this. And I'm thinking to myself, this doesn't look good. I just bet $3,000, I don't have it, I can't afford to lose. Oh, man, I don't know about this.

• 17:46Speaker 04

  And away they go, the five fillies coming away in a perfect line. Lot of speed on as they go for the lead, Winning Colors on the outside.

• 17:55Speaker 03

  Within strides out of the gate, she's just out there winging and she's going too fast, too early. And Dino yells to me, she's going too damn fast. She can't do that. She cannot go that fast and hang on. Goodbye Halo is gonna come for her.

• 18:11Speaker 04

  They head now to the 3/8s pole, Winning Colors, Gary Stevens trying to slow them down, but here comes Goodbye Halo, not gonna allow that.

• 18:20Speaker 03

  Winning Colors is just screaming on the front end. She is flying out there. And she turns into the backstretch and for the first time, another horse comes up on her and doesn't catch her, but is within just ahead of her.

• 18:34Speaker 04

  Goodbye Halo on the outside, puts the pressure on Winning Colors and the two favorites now start to pull off up front.

• 18:41Speaker 03

  As they hit the wire, she just cannot shake Goodbye Halo. Goodbye Halo draws even with her. They're running for another 100 yards.

• 18:51Speaker 04

  Going the winner of the two at the 16 foul. Winning colors not beat yet. Goodbye Halo by a hit to winning colors. Goodbye Halo.

• 19:01Speaker 03

  And right at the end, Goodbye Halo just pulls ahead and beats her by a half length. I knew we were in trouble. I knew we were in trouble, not just because she'd lost, but because the way Dino was responding. His head drops into his hands. Dino was devastated. And I don't think he was as devastated about losing $3,000 as he was that his belief in her had somehow been let down. If Dino was this depressed and this sad about what he'd just seen, that the chances of us cashing this bet had probably just gone down the drain.

• 19:45Speaker 03

  I mean, she probably wouldn't even make the Kentucky Derby field, yet alone be able to beat the Kentucky Derby Colts. I thought it was probably over. I thought it was very, very little chance we could win this bet. I was crushed.

• 20:09Glynn Washington?

  When we return, it's the agony of defeat snappers. Is Winning Colors really the horse Miami and Dino thought she was? Stay tuned.

• 20:25Speaker 05

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• 21:01Glynn Washington?

  Welcome back to Snap Judgment, the Winning Colors episode. When last we left, Miami and his pal Dino, they placed a big bet on a long shot horse named Winning Colors to win the Kentucky Derby. But after losing her last race, her window of opportunity is closing fast. Snap Judgment.

• 21:24Speaker 02

  Winning Colors had one final shot at making it to Kentucky when it was announced that she would run in the Santa Anita Derby that April.

• 21:32Speaker 03

  If she doesn't win the Santa Anita Derby, she's not going to the Kentucky Derby. No way. I'm a particularly religious guy, but I'm pretty damn sure I prayed to please God, let her get in the gate. Let us have a shot at immortality. Let her have a shot to prove to the world that she's maybe the greatest Philly that ever lived. So that's what I prayed for and hoped for the most was just get her in the gate. It was now or never.

• 22:03Speaker 02

  This would be the first time that Winning Colors would be asked to run against some of the best Colts on the West Coast.

• 22:09Speaker 03

  And nobody knew whether or not she could do that against these bigger, tougher, faster Colts. We could not wait for this race.

• 22:20Speaker 06

  A lot has been made, of course, Dave, about the fact that it's the Philly against the boys, Winning Colors.

• 22:27Speaker 02

  By race day, Winning Colors had built a fan following of women and young girls who came out in droves to Santa Anita to watch her take on the boys.

• 22:36Speaker 03

  That Saturday, when we got to the racetrack, we couldn't believe it. There was 70,000 people there. And probably 70% of them were women and girls. They were coming out early and they were carrying signs, "Go Girl," "Girl Power," "Beat the Boys." They had an energy that I don't think I'd ever seen at the racetrack. It was electric. It was exciting.

• 23:04Speaker 02

  Dino in Miami could only hope that their gray filly would remain calm after her nerves had gotten the best of her last time.

• 23:12Speaker 03

  We didn't doubt her physical ability. We always worried about whether she could keep her head in the race. And as they lead her in the tunnel and they lead her out onto the grandstand to walk in front of the fans before she warms up, she just looked fantastic. She just looked calm. She just looked within herself. She warmed up just beautifully.

• 23:31Speaker 04

  Santa Anita Derby, an outstanding field of nine three-year-olds. They include the filly Winning Colors. Winning Colors is actually the fan's choice in here at five to two. She's taking on eight colts in here.

• 23:44Speaker 03

  They load them in the gate. The people are yelling. The girls are yelling. They're screaming for this filly to beat the colts. And she breaks. And she breaks perfect. Just comes charging out of the gate like a waterfall out of a dam.

• 24:01Speaker 04

  Winning Colors came away beautifully and goes straight to the lead, joined by me, Fred Farina.

• 24:06Speaker 03

  And on the turn, she opens up by more. She's running away from the colts.

• 24:12Speaker 04

  They pass the three-eighths pole and Winning Colors still doing it effortlessly out on the lead. Winning Colors opens up to lead by four now.

• 24:22Speaker 03

  She digs in and she just keeps pulling away. They can't touch her.

• 24:27Speaker 04

  And it's the filly Winning Colors turning in an absolutely outstanding performance.

• 24:34Speaker 03

  She wins by eight lengths, eased up at the wire. And Dino and I are screaming. We're standing up. We're yelling. We're going to Kentucky. We're going to Kentucky. The whole world is now aware of who this filly is and that she's coming for them. She's coming for the boys and they better be ready.

• 24:55Speaker 04

  We're looking at one exceptional filly who'll be carrying the hopes of California all the way to the Kentucky Derby. What a winner that one was. Winning Colors magnificent in victory.

• 25:09Speaker 02

  Dino in Miami continued to ride the wave of happiness following Winning Colors qualifying victory. But the celebration didn't last long. When days later, Miami got a call from a frantic Dino.

• 25:24Speaker 03

  And Dino says to me, "Miami, I got terrible news." "It's about the owner of the racetrack." "There's this famous journalist down there." "He goes by the pen name El Gato." "So this journalist has been writing negative stories about Jorge Rohn." "And today, the journalist was assassinated in his car." "They blew him apart with a shotgun." "The head of security for Aguascaliente Racetrack" "has been arrested for the murder of the journalist" "along with Jorge Rohn's personal bodyguard." "Oh, my God." "They're killing journalists just for writing bad stories."

• 26:08Speaker 03

  "This is not something that I expected." "I want to cash a bet on a horse race." "I don't want to have crap like this." "That was pretty much it for me." "I was like, 'Dino, I'm out.'" "I just didn't sleep that night." "I was a lot more scared for my life and Dino's life than I was about cashing in any bet."

• 26:29Speaker 02

  "But with the chances of winning colors, taking the Kentucky Derby, becoming more and more of a reality," "Dino was not about to walk away." "Not only was he convinced she would win," "he was intent on going to Tijuana to watch the Kentucky Derby" "from the Aguascaliente Racetrack and cashing in his wins then and there."

• 26:49Speaker 03

  "He convinced me that being there that day was important" "because that was the day that there were going to be thousands and thousands and thousands" "of people at that racetrack." "And it would be a lot safer for us to be surrounded by thousands of people" "if she wins the Derby than us having to go back a week later" "all alone and collect a quarter million dollars" "from a racetrack owned by the cartel." "And I kind of had to say, 'Dino, you're right.'"

• 27:18Speaker 02

  So when the first Saturday in May arrived, the day of the Kentucky Derby, Miami showed up at Dino's house for their trip to Tijuana. But before they could get on the road, Miami noticed his friend's carry-on luggage.

• 27:30Speaker 03

  He brought a large suitcase with him. A large, pink suitcase. I said, "Dino, what the hell is that?" He says, "It's my mother's. She gave it to me. I think we can put a lot of the money in there. It's full of the trash bags." I said, "Trash bags? Yeah." He said, "Dino, the garden trash bags. I got a bunch of them." I said, "You're telling me we're gonna drive down to Mexico with plastic trash bags? And fill them up with cash? And cross the border? That's the plan?" Driving down that morning, Dino was very, very quiet. I didn't usually see him like that.

• 28:12Speaker 03

  You know, my nature was always more gregarious and talkative, but even I was kind of aware of the heaviness of the moment. And so it was a fairly quiet, quiet drive on the way down for us.

• 28:28Speaker 02

  Aqua Caliente had once been like Las Vegas before Las Vegas, with hotels, spas, and restaurants in grand ballrooms with soaring staircases.

• 28:38Speaker 03

  And it was kind of sad, but kind of eerie. So at the racetrack, there's TVs hanging everywhere. But they're not big, great TVs. They're little TVs. They're not supposed to be black and white, but I think half of them look like they're black and white. But it didn't matter. The place was alive, man. There's three mariachi bands playing. There are cocktails flowing. There are street vendors, and there's cocktail waitresses in short skirts running around. And there's a lot of American gamblers. It was just a wild, energetic scene, but I'd never seen Dino so focused.

• 29:25Speaker 02

  Dino's eyes were fixed on the nearest screen, where the grainy footage showed the horses beginning to warm up.

• 29:31Speaker 07

  The crowd begins to swell and also the anticipation around the paddock as we await the Kentucky Derby.

• 29:36Speaker 02

  The only places alive is Tijuana that day was Churchill Downs Racetrack in Louisville, Kentucky itself, where the actual race was being held.

• 29:45Speaker 07

  This crowd now officially estimated at 135,000, one of the largest one-day sports crowds in all the world.

• 29:53Speaker 03

  The place is so overrun with people that that amount of noise can actually spook and frighten the horses. Especially a horse as headstrong as Winning Colors. And that was one of our biggest fears.

• 30:08Speaker 02

  16 of the top colts in the country were running in the 1988 Kentucky Derby.

• 30:13Speaker 03

  This is the toughest Derby field in the last 30 years. There's an undefeated champion. There's other Derby winners from around the country. This is a field full of champions.

• 30:28Speaker 02

  Winning Colors was the sole female entrant.

• 30:31Speaker 07

  It's a very deep field and as usual, a big field, so you can make a decent case for just about every horse.

• 30:39Speaker 02

  Back in Tijuana, watching on small fuzzy televisions, Miami and Dino spotted their gray filly on the screen.

• 30:46Speaker 03

  She seemed calm. She seemed very within herself. We watched her be led in front of the grandstand. We watched as they sung "My Old Kentucky Home," the famous song.

• 31:00Speaker 03

  And she just looked absolutely resolute and calm.

• 31:05Speaker 03

  And we were really hopeful that she would stay that way.

• 31:10Speaker 07

  The sun has never shone brighter on the Kentucky Derby and the Old Kentucky Home than it does today.

• 31:17Speaker 02

  And as they entered into the gate...

• 31:20Speaker 03

  I looked at Dino. He looked at me and we smiled. We said, "Man, this is it. This is the moment. This is what we've been waiting for." And we just felt happy because we'd gotten to this moment. We got our chance and that's all we could ask for.

• 31:37Speaker 06

  And as these three-year-olds load into the starting gate as they move into line for this 114th running of the Kentucky Derby. And they're on.

• 31:47Speaker 03

  The bell rings. The gate crashes open. And she breaks perfectly, flawlessly. Never better in her life.

• 31:57Speaker 06

  There goes their own filly, Winning Colors, grabbing the lead right from the start. Taking command by Alink on the far outside.

• 32:04Speaker 03

  We can see her because she's gray and she's in front. Within a quarter mile, she's running away from all of these colts. And she has to go into the first turn.

• 32:16Speaker 06

  They go to the far turn and it's still Winning Colors showing the way. And no one has challenged her yet.

• 32:22Speaker 03

  She entered the far turn, leading into home by three lengths. And she accelerated. She continued to just put away the colts. And she went up by three, three and a half, four lengths. She came out of the turn just flying, just digging in. And even on that little television, I could see this gray filly just running away and embarrassing the colts.

• 32:51Speaker 06

  She's led from the start, every pole a winning one. And it's Winning Colors showing the way as they streaked away in the lane. Taking command and drawing off. Now she's in front right there.

• 33:01Speaker 03

  Turning for home, I could see her shorten her stride. She had gotten tired. And you could just see there's no way she was gonna make it to the wire. She was all out and we could see she was gonna get caught. But she just kept going. She just gave everything she had in an all-out run for the wire.

• 33:20Speaker 06

  And down the stretch they come. Winning Colors in front. Here comes 49er on the outside. Winning Colors.

• 33:28Speaker 03

  And she hung on by a photo, by a short neck. I could tell she'd won, and they cleared a photo finish.

• 33:38Speaker 07

  Well, there she is, only the third Philly in 114 years to win the Kentucky Derby, winning colors. You know, it just could be, Charlesy. She is a good one.

• 33:48Speaker 03

  We were screaming and high-fiving and dancing, but shortly thereafter, a calm came over me that I didn't expect. It was like my brain couldn't really process that our dream and our belief had been done and that she had actually been able to get in the Derby and beat the best Colts and win a photo finish, and it had happened. And I needed to just sit, and I needed to just think for five or 10 minutes.

• 34:28Speaker 03

  Dino had this stupid pink suitcase, and he was dancing around the suitcase. And Dino sat down, and he was calm and quiet himself. And it went from super joy to, all right, we have, we have work to do here. Dino said to me, we gotta let this place calm down. Let it clear out just a little bit. It's too crazy right now.

• 34:55Speaker 02

  A cocktail waitress who Miami knew from his previous visit suddenly appeared.

• 34:59Speaker 03

  She whispers in my ear. She says, be careful.

• 35:05Speaker 03

  They know who you are.

• 35:09Speaker 03

  And my mouth dropped, and she left.

• 35:14Speaker 03

  They know who we are. What does that mean? We get up, we go to the window. We present a $250,000 ticket to the teller.

• 35:27Speaker 03

  And his eyes light up. He says, oh, a big one. And he calls for his supervisor.

• 35:35Speaker 03

  Couple minutes later, seemed like a year, the supervisor comes up and says, "That's a big ticket." And says, "No, not today. You'll have to come back." Dino looks at him, leans forward, says, "What do you mean, 'not today'?" "Look at the ticket. It says, 'Winning Colors to Win the Kentucky Derby.' $250,000. She just won the Kentucky Derby. Pay us." He says, "No, we're not prepared. Not today. You need to come back." And I look at the guy and I say, "You mean like, come back on a Tuesday when nobody's here? You're on your mind. Pay us now."

• 36:19Speaker 03

  We look over our shoulder and guards are now standing behind us, five feet away from us, with rifles slung over their shoulders. And I'm thinking, "This is really not good. This is really dangerous." And I whisper to Dino, "Dino, we gotta get out of here. We gotta get out of here now." And I grab my heart. He's resisting. He's yelling, but he comes with me. We started heading out, heading for the staircase. And I notice the guards are following right behind us. I said, "Dino, run." We start running down the stairs.

• 37:00Speaker 03

  And I can hear the footsteps of the guards, five of them, clacking behind us. Start running down the stairs, into the parking lot, and sprinting towards my car. I fire up my car. I hit the gas. We're doing 60, 70, 75 miles an hour in the damn parking lot by the time we hit the main street. I go over the curb, because I don't want to wait. We're screaming up the boulevard and I yell to Dino, "Man, just look behind us. Look behind us. Tell me if anybody's coming. I need to know. See if you see any cars, anybody following us." And I head for the border.

• 37:43Speaker 03

  We were angry, furious. Dino's face was red. He just felt so cheated. He was yelling to me, "They broke the code, man. They broke the code. You always pay your gambling debts first." I was exhausted. I just had to drive.

• 38:12Glynn Washington?

  After the break, is 250 grand worth it? Find out as we hit the home stretch. Snap Judgment.

• 38:31Glynn Washington?

  Welcome back to Snap Judgment, the Winning Colors episode. My name is Glynn Washington, and before the break, our gamblers were denied their huge payday after picking Winning Colors five months earlier to win the biggest race of them all, the Kentucky Derby. So what will Miami and Dino do now? Will they walk away, or they risk it all? Snap Judgment.

• 39:02Speaker 02

  It was nighttime when Miami dropped Dino off at his home. They agreed to meet the next morning for breakfast. Miami couldn't sleep. He knew there was nothing that could keep Dino from going back to collect the biggest score of his life.

• 39:15Speaker 03

  It was the gambler's code. The money was due him, and he was gonna go get it. I was positive of that. I can't say that I was willing to die for this money. It was just money to me. But I also knew there was no way that I could not accompany and back up Dino going. I felt a responsibility as kind of like Dino had done his part. He'd given me the winner of the Kentucky Derby of Philly six months before the damn race. And it was my job to collect the money, and it was my job to get Dino home safe, and it was my job to get me home alive. And that weighed on me really heavily, and it became, "You're the leader of this group now."

• 40:00Speaker 03

  Dino was your leader. He did his job. Now it's your job to get him home.

• 40:04Speaker 02

  Dino in Miami thought long and hard at breakfast the following day about what their next move would be. When Dino mentioned he might know where to hire some muscle.

• 40:12Speaker 03

  Dino told me that he had a buddy of his that knew these three guys that were professional fighters. They do jujitsu and karate and they would go all the way down to Tijuana and back with us. They would drive their own car, but when we needed them, they would be with us. They would surround us.

• 40:31Speaker 02

  Miami and Dino didn't have time to waste. So two days later, that Tuesday, they prepared to drive right back down to Aguacaliente. But first, they had to meet their newly hired protection.

• 40:43Speaker 03

  The fighters pull up in this green little Azuzu with a antenna that was hanging off the side. And they get out of their car. And I can't believe it. The biggest one of them is five foot five, maybe. The other two are five, three and five, two. I said to Dino, this is supposed to be the fighters. This is the muscle. How the hell are these guys gonna scare anybody? This is not bodyguards. Apparently I pissed one of them off because he came up to me, the leader of the bunch and looked at me and said, "You think I can't fight? I'll kick your ass right now." I said, "Okay, I believe you." And we high-tailed it for the border.

• 41:26Speaker 02

  When they arrived, the Aguacaliente racetrack was as quiet as they feared.

• 41:31Speaker 03

  We backed our cars in so that we could get out of there as fast as humanly possible. We'd been able to purchase six backpacks. Dino had three of them. I had three of them over my shoulder. The fighters fanned out around us and behind us. And we headed right into the main office.

• 41:50Speaker 02

  As Miami, Dino and the fighters approached the front steps to go inside, they walked past a series of several more armed guards on their way to the bedding window.

• 41:59Speaker 03

  When we first presented the ticket,

• 42:02Speaker 03

  the teller's eyes lit up. Because she immediately saw the amount, $250,000.

• 42:11Speaker 03

  And when she called for the supervisor to come over,

• 42:16Speaker 03

  almost immediately, another guard appeared.

• 42:20Speaker 03

  I can remember sweat running down the back of my neck.

• 42:22Speaker 02

  Dino, Miami, and the fighters waited for the supervisor, surrounded by the armed guards, until a man in a suit appeared.

• 42:30Speaker 03

  He looked at us really, really sternly and said, "I need to talk to El Jefe. Stay here." And about 10 minutes later, the well-dressed man in the suit came back. He said, "Follow me." So I motioned for the fighters to follow us. And he put up his hand. He said, "No.

• 42:54Speaker 03

  Only you two."

• 42:56Speaker 03

  Dino looked at me and said, "I don't like this." I looked at him and said, "What can we do?"

• 43:02Speaker 03

  So we followed him. We go down one flight of stairs. We go through two big, giant oak doors and another door that was set up with bars. My first thought was, "Where are we going? Are we going down to like a jail, a prison? What the hell's down here?"

• 43:25Speaker 03

  He opens a door and it's very dark. There's one light bulb hanging in the back of the ceiling and the place is full of cigar smoke, heavy, heavy smoke. It took a minute for our eyes to adjust and then we could see there was a big, heavyset man, kind of a grimy suit stained,

• 43:53Speaker 03

  in the back, smoking a big, big cigar.

• 43:58Speaker 03

  And the first thing he said to me, really frightened me, because he said, "We know who you are." I said, "Yeah, we're good customers. We're here to cash a small ticket." He looked at me, he says, "You think $250,000 is a small ticket?" He said, "We just want to be fair." That set Dino off. Dino said, "You want to be fair? You want to be fair, pay us." We made our bet. She won the Kentucky Derby, 50 to 1. Quit screwing around and pay us, damn it.

• 44:37Speaker 03

  The big man, El Jefe, sitting behind the desk, looked at me and told me, "Calm your little friend down."

• 44:45Speaker 03

  This was rapidly spinning out of control. I was getting more and more and more uncomfortable. I told Dino, "Just calm down, man. Just calm down." And then Dino looked at El Jefe and he said to him,

• 45:00Speaker 03

  "Listen, we know who you are too. We know all about Jorge Rone.

• 45:07Speaker 03

  We know all about your cartel connections.

• 45:11Speaker 03

  And before we came down today, we went to the LA Times. We talked to a friend of mine who's a reporter. We gave him a copy of our tickets. We told him where we're going. We told him about Rone. We told him about Winning Colors. We told him about Winning the Bet. We gave him a photocopy of our tickets.

• 45:29Speaker 03

  And if you guys don't pay us, you and your boss, Rone is gonna be on the front of every newspaper in LA tomorrow. They're gonna know who he is, what you did to us, how you stole from us.

• 45:45Speaker 03

  And it's not gonna go away."

• 45:51Speaker 03

  El Jefe

• 45:53Speaker 03

  seemed a bit taken aback. And he said, "Give me a minute. I'll be back."

• 45:59Speaker 03

  And he left the room. When El Jefe left the room, I looked at Dino in like total disbelief. I'm like, "Man, what did you think of that? That was brilliant, man." And Dino said, "I don't know, it just came to me." I thought, you know, "What do I have? I can't threaten him, but publicity? That was great. We're still gonna die, but it was a really good idea."

• 46:22Speaker 02

  Miami and Dino sat there, waiting for five, then 10 minutes.

• 46:26Speaker 03

  We're like,

• 46:29Speaker 03

  "This is not good. We're pacing."

• 46:32Speaker 03

  He comes back. And he says, "Come with me." And we marched back upstairs where we were. And

• 46:42Speaker 03

  they proceed to count out $250,000.

• 46:48Speaker 03

  He looked right at us. And he said,

• 46:53Speaker 03

  We don't ever, ever want to see you guys back here. Never. I looked at him, I nodded. I said, "Agreed." We filled up the last remaining backpack.

• 47:08Speaker 03

  Dino reached down, and he grabbed three $100 bills, and he handed them to the guards. We headed for the door. The fighters fanned out behind us. And we calmly walked down the hallway, down the front steps, out the front door, cars.

• 47:32Speaker 02

  Dino and Miami hopped into the car with the fighters right behind them and booked it for the border.

• 47:38Speaker 03

  As we're driving, Dino and I had a rule. You look right, I look left. I'm looking in the rearview mirror. I'm looking for anything. And they waved us through the Mexican side. And we got to the US side, and they waved us on through with $250,000.

• 47:59Speaker 03

  I told Dino I felt like we ran in the Kentucky Derby ourselves.

• 48:04Speaker 03

  When we got to LA, we didn't feel like celebrating. We were just too spent. I dropped him in his car. I gave him a big hug. He gave me a big smile. And I headed home. I went into the bedroom. I took two backpacks, and I emptied $125,000 on the bed. And I called it a night.

• 48:34Speaker 02

  Four months later, Miami and Dino were still savoring their victory when they did something that they hadn't done for any other horse. They went to visit Winning Colors at her stable in Southern California.

• 48:46Speaker 03

  She had just gotten, if possible, bigger and filled out, even more muscular. She was just beautiful. She was just dynamic. And she was unique. It's like, I wouldn't say paying their respects because she was very much alive, but we wanted to honor her and just be in her presence. She was greatness.

• 49:26Glynn Washington?

  A huge, huge thank you to Mark "Miami" Paul for sharing his story with The Snap. If gambling has become a problem for you or someone you know, you can call 1-800-GAMBLER, 426-2537 to seek free confidential 24/7 problem gambling assistance. I know that you must be wondering what happened to Winning Colors. After her 1988 Kentucky Derby crown, the big gray filly retired the following year with eight career wins, and in 2000, she was inducted into the U.S. National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.

• 50:05Glynn Washington?

  In 2008, at the age of 23, Winning Colors was laid to rest in Lexington, Kentucky. To find out more about Miami and Winning Colors' story, check out Miami's book, "The Greatest Gambling Story Ever Told." The original score for that piece was done by Renzo Goryeo. It was produced by Bo Walsh.

• 50:34Glynn Washington?

  Oh, I know. I understand. But Glenn, you say, "I need more stories, more movies of the mind, more cinema of sound." Well, that's why there is so much more Snap Worth Thieves came from, available at your fingertips wherever you get your podcasts. Snap was brought to you by the team that knows to hedge their bets. Except for the O producer, Mr. Mark Ristich. He always puts the rent money on whatever that shouty man says on TV. There's Nancy Lopez, Pat Massey Miller, Anna Sussman, Renzo Goryeo, John Facio, Shayna Shealy, Taylor Decot, Marissa Dodge, Bo Walsh, Flo Wiley, David X. May, Regina Barriaco, Amy Nguyen, Zara Norbosh.

• 51:22Glynn Washington?

  And this is not the news. No way it's just the news. In fact, you could decide that you're not gonna fool with the mafia anymore. Never, ever, ever again. Right after one last bet. And you would still, still not be as far away from the news as this is. But this is PRX.