Patrick and Frank McGoey are big believers in karma.“I believe in the racing gods,” said Patrick after winning the 2018 Kentucky Derby Betting Challenge. “If you do the right thing, it pays off.”Patrick knows a little something about good payoffs. The two-time winner of the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge built his bankroll to $99,640 this weekend, netting an additional $100,000 in prize money plus an entry to bid to become a three-time winner at the BCBC (nobody else even has two).You can’t tell Patrick’s story without talking about his older brother Frank, who was third in this year’s contest netting over $100,000 in his own right. Frank McGoey is the reason Patrick started going to the track.“We didn’t have other relatives who were horseplayers,” said Frank. “I corrupted him.”Frank works as a salesman for Dean Foods but plays the horses very seriously, Patrick is an attorney in New Orleans, and joins Frank for big events like the Derby and Breeders’ Cup. They share their handicapping insights but play completely independently in the contests themselves.“I play in contests to spend time with Frank and I enjoy them,” said Patrick. “I play a little online but I’m not a big contest player.”Ironically, despite his laissez-faire attitude, it’s Patrick who has had the most contest success. Though Frank did also finish second in the KDBC last year. Frank’s success in this contest is no accident. In addition to taking detailed trip notes throughout the year, Frank gets to Churchill early on Derby week, so he has a chance to see all the Derby horses in the flesh. This year his biggest standout was Justify, with Good Magic earning positive marks as well.On Thursday, kismet came into play. This winter, Frank claimed a Louisiana-bred horse called Quiet Concert with some friends and did well with him. Frank would visit in the mornings and felt a connection to the gelding. They eventually lost him by the claim box and he ended up entered on Thursday’s card. Frank and Patrick and their group decided to go down to check in and see how he looked.When they got to the paddock, Frank’s eyes went right to a filly who was in there schooling for the Humana Distaff: American Gal. “She looked as good as a horse can look,” said Frank. “She was about to explode.”He looked into her more, watching her previous work which blew him away. “I said to Patrick, ‘Quiet Concert and the racing gods just gave us a gift.’ ”That gift came in handy on Saturday. Neither McGoey was doing all that well until Frank cashed win money and an exacta in the Humana Distaff while Patrick got paid via a double that paid off with American Gal. Frank didn’t have many strong opinions the rest of the day. Patrick thought he needed a little more on his bankroll to make the move he’s become known for, the one he used to win the BCBC twice: an all-in play in the last contest race.In the Turf Classic, Patrick hit a $100 trifecta but his plan for the Classic changed slightly when he saw that Allen Harberg had crushed the race and gotten his bankroll to $90,000.Patrick had researched previous Derby payouts and noticed that place pays were inordinately large compared to win mutuels. He decided to bet $15,000 to win and $10,000 to place on Justify. “The place bet was a hedge to get my money back if Justify was second,” he explained.But as he was punching tickets he realized that those bets wouldn’t get him past Harberg. He allocated $1,800 to trifectas keying Justify over five horses, including Good Magic and Audible. But that bet cost $2,000 and he only had $1,800 and post time was near. He needed a toss from the second spot so he used Audible only for third.Frank had a similar play in the exacta pool with Justify over five horses, including Good Magic but with no Audible on his tickets.“It was about as stress-free as a race can be until the photo,” Frank said. “Even though the fractions were fast, the track was sealed for two hours so I figured they were running on concrete, Justify hadn’t been asked and looked well within himself.”Then came the moment at the wire, when Frank let out an expletive and Patrick remembered that he wouldn’t have the tri if Audible got the nod.But they needn’t have worried. It came Justify-Good Magic-Audible and the McGoeys were both going to cash big.“That was a $100,000 photo, so I won’t be complaining about bad beats for a while,” said Frank.“I guess you could say the McGoey boys are mudders,” quipped Patrick.And here’s where karma really comes into play. After Patrick won the BCBC with Fort Larned, he tipped his regular beer vendor $1,000, and her comrades carried her around like she was Bill Parcells after Scott Norwood had just missed wide right.On Saturday, Frank and Patrick were in Churchill’s Gold Room, and their waitresses were a mother-daughter team they’ve known for years. After they cashed, they received a generous trip. They were extremely appreciative and emotional about the gesture. They were touched that good guys like the McGoeys had made a score and wanted them to share in it.“I told my wife that was the highlight of the day,” said Patrick.Now how about that for good karma?Full KDBC standings are available at https://members.breederscup.com/bcbc/leaderboard.aspx