If American Pharoah becomes the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years Saturday, holding onto the winning ticket is probably the best thing to do.
The horse is such a strong betting favorite in the Belmont Stakes after taking the Kentucky Derby and Preakness that a winning $2 bet might pay only $2.40, based on Friday afternoon’s odds.
But as a piece of sports memorabilia, the ticket could be worth quite a bit more in the future.
So people are buying the tickets with the plan to hold onto them. Some have already sold on eBay for as much as $2.95, or $27.50 for a set of 10.
The prices are likely to climb sharply if American Pharoah wins.
The same thing happened last year with tickets for California Chrome, who was also trying for the Triple Crown. But California Chrome came up short and those tickets were pretty much worthless.
Stephen Costello, executive vice president of Steiner Sports, a sports memorabilia seller, said a winning $2 ticket from Affirmed, the last horse to win the Triple Crown in 1978, is worth between $200 to $300 today. But there’s a limited supply of those tickets on the market, since few people were thinking of the future memorabilia value of the tickets at that time of that race.
“I think if you had that ticket, you most likely cashed it,” said Costello.
If there is a greater supply of the winning tickets on the memorabilia market after this year’s race, it will limit the price they’ll fetch. Also tickets bought at an off-track location are probably less valuable than those bought at Belmont.
But Costello said the popularity of the horse and the greater interest in owning souvenirs will likely mean the tickets sold at Belmont could be worth as much as $100 almost immediately. And the value will likely increase as time passes and the tickets that were purchased are lost.
“If he wins, it’s an historic event,” he said. “And there just seems to be a love affair between fans and this horse and the jockey and the trainer. Even more than last year with California Chrome, Triple Crown interest is at a fever pitch.”