Who is ‘Mattress Mack’ — the furniture magnate who puts down massive Kentucky Derby bets?

If you’ve watched the Kentucky Derby in recent years, you’ve probably seen him.

“Mattress Mack” — or, going by his real name, Jim McIngvale — has made millions of dollars as the founder of Houston-based Gallery Furniture, but he’s become more famous nationally for his outlandish sports bets.

And the Kentucky Derby has become one of his most-visible wagering playgrounds, with the colorful furniture magnate popping up on the national TV broadcast of horse racing’s biggest day.

Last year, McIngvale placed a $1.5 million bet on Derby favorite Epicenter just minutes before post time. Epicenter, of course, looked like the Derby winner in the Churchill Downs stretch, only to finish second to 80-1 shot Rich Strike in the final moments of the race.

Had Epicenter come in, McIngvale would have received more than $7.5 million as a result of that one win bet. Instead, he got nothing. (And he later told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he lost a total of $2.6 million on the race as a result of other bets gone bad.)

“You win some and you lose some, and sometimes you get rained out,” McIngvale told the newspaper. “Gonna put my big boy britches on tomorrow morning and go back to work.”

McIngvale, 72, has lost plenty in recent years.

The year before Epicenter missed out on Derby glory, McIngvale bet nearly $2.5 million on Derby favorite Essential Quality, who ended up finishing fourth in the race.

Other prominent bets include a loss of $9.5 million on the Cincinnati Bengals in the 2022 Super Bowl, a loss of $6.2 million on Alabama to win the 2022 college football championship, and a loss of more than $4 million on the hometown Houston Cougars to win the NCAA men’s basketball title this past season.

McIngvale has had some winners, too, including a huge payday last fall, when he won a total of $72.6 million on a series of wagers that the Houston Astros would win the 2022 World Series, which they did.

Why does McIngvale bet so much?

His biggest wagers are often tied to sports-related promotions at his furniture store, and the bets allow him to effectively cover his bases.

For example, he has another promotion for this year’s Kentucky Derby. Any of his customers who buy more than $3,000 in furniture will receive a full money refund on their purchase — and keep the furniture — if the Derby favorite wins the race. So, expect McIngvale to make another huge wager just before post time on this year’s favorite — likely to be Tapit Trice or Angel of Empire following the scratch of Forte on Saturday morning — in order to mitigate the risk that comes with such a promotion.

“Oh, it’s definitely a win-win,” McIngvale told ESPN about the practice last fall, before the World Series began. “These promotions just bring the brand to life and give us a ton of brand equity that we wouldn’t have otherwise. The customers love it so they’re totally engaged and talk about it for years. Because it runs all season long it probably ups the number of people following the Astros, too, because now they have a real vested interest in the team.”

McIngvale was seen at Churchill Downs wearing a Tapit Trice pin Saturday afternoon, and he said earlier in the day that he planned to wager $2 million on the race. With Angel of Empire and Tapit Trice so close together in the win pool, a bet of that magnitude would likely push whoever McIngvale wagered on to favorite status. About 40 minutes before race time, NBC reported that McIngvale was about to bet $1.2 million on Angel of Empire.

While many of McIngvale’s biggest wagers have been based around the Astros in recent years, he has long ties to the sport of horse racing.

McIngvale, who launched his furniture business in 1981, has owned Thoroughbreds for more than two decades. One of his earliest top earners was Wimbledon, who won the 2004 Louisiana Derby (but didn’t make it to the Kentucky Derby later that spring).

His most famous horse, by far, has been Runhappy, who McIngvale purchased for $200,000 at the 2013 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. That son of Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver later won the 2015 Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Keeneland and retired the following year with three Grade 1 victories and nearly $1.5 million in career earnings.

McIngvale often wears Runhappy-related attire during his visits to the track and has spent heavily to keep the horse visible in recent years. Runhappy has been the primary sponsor of the Santa Anita Derby and Travers Stakes, and one of the horse’s offspring, Smile Happy, won a Grade 2 race at Churchill Downs on Friday, beating 2022 Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike.

Runhappy is currently at Claiborne Farm in Paris, with a listed stud fee of $15,000 this year.

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