Tibor Photography.

That shouting you heard from the vicinity of Saratoga Race Course just before 7 p.m. on Sunday night?

That was Joe Appelbaum, long-time backyard denizen, screaming at one of the TVs as he rooted home the eight horse, Cookie Crisp, on the lead heading to the wire under jockey Kendrick Carmouche.

Appelbaum was live to five horses in the last leg of the Pick 6, which included a double-carryover of $209,000 because the wager hadn’t been hit in the first two days of this year’s race meeting. With three of those horses, he and his partner held the only winning ticket.

And he thought they might have been home free…until No. 12 Major Force and Irad Ortiz Jr. dashed up the outside. Cookie Crisp was second by an agonizing nose, “nailed in the very last stride,” according to the official chart of the race.

Also nailed in the very last stride was Appelbaum’s winning ticket, which would have paid a little more than $577,000, the proverbial life-changing score.

Continue reading at The Saratogian…