Two more Fonner Park mandatory Pick 5 payouts set for May

Fonner Park’s jackpot wager, which has grown in popularity given a dearth of midweek pari-mutuel competition, will feature two more mandatory payouts this month.

The Grand Island, Neb., track has announced that a pair of Wednesday cards, May 13 and closing day on May 27, are ones in which the Dinsdale Late Pick 5 Jackpot will go.

Because of the newfound interest in wagering at Fonner Park, the jackpot Pick 5 pools have swelled in recent weeks. The mandatory payout days have seen even higher pikes in daily handle.

“Operating under the cloud of a COVID-19 pandemic caused uncertainty on our day-to-day operations, but we feel we have managed sufficiently enough to be confident in setting these two dates,” said Fonner Park CEO Chris Kotulak. “There will be ample time to generate significantly large carryovers on the way to a giant jackpot win or hefty daily Pick 5 payouts.” 

The late Pick 5 is offered on the final five races of each card and features a 50-cent minimum wager.

Fonner Park saw a total handle of $7.2 million on April 7 when there was a $4.1 million final pool on a mandatory payout day of the late Pick 5 wager. A second mandatory payout occurred on April 21 resulting in a total pool of $2,354,674. April 29, the last mandatory payout day of the original meet, featured a Pick 5 pool of $1,983,242.