The Maryland Lottery is quite familiar with this winner

By Kate Northrop

HAGERSTOWN, Md. — The Maryland Lottery recognized a familiar face visiting their offices this week when he returned to claim his third Racetrax prize in the last five years.

An anonymous lottery player, who recently made a return trip the Maryland Lottery to collect a $19,740 prize, is now a three-time Racetrax winner.

"Lucky Sgt." originally chose his nickname back in 2017 when he won his first two Racetrax prizes, each for $15,252.

Racetrax is a computer animated lottery game that features digital horse races every 4 1/2 minutes. Players select a wager and bet on which horse(s) they think will win.

Lucky Sgt. will usually play his own numbers — 4, 8, 5, and 6 — because the set won him two prizes one week apart in 2017 on two $20 "Superfecta" tickets. A "Superfecta" wager is when a player selects four horses that will place first, second, third, and fourth in exact order.

However, it wasn't his usual numbers that came through for the winner, rather it was a Quick Pick that helped him seize victory. On June 6, the three-time winner saw his ticket match the horses 5, 8, 10, and 2 in exact order.

The player said that he had a feeling that pushed him to buy a Racetrax ticket that day.

"I was home watching a replay of the Olympics when something said, 'Go play,'" he told the Lottery.

The 62-year-old listened to his conscience and went out to the Sharpsburg Pike Liberty gas station on Sharpsburg Pike in Hagerstown. He bought a ticket with his usual numbers and then one Quick Pick ticket for 20 draws. After that, he went back home and checked his tickets sometime later.

"I thought, 'Wait a minute, those numbers are familiar,'" the Washington County man said in a press release. "I wasn't sure how much I won, but the cashier told me when I went back there to have it confirmed. I think she was more excited than me."

The retired U.S. Army sergeant didn't think twice. He got back to his car and scheduled an appointment to claim his winnings at Lottery headquarters in Baltimore for the next day.

The first person he shared the good news with was his wife.

"I was talking to a friend on the phone about someone we knew winning the Lottery," Lucky Sgt.'s wife said when she accompanied her husband to claim the prize. "Then, he shows me this ticket that says he won $19,740."

Lucky Sgt., who is a retired U.S. Postal Service worker and has two adult children, told the Lottery that he plans on using some of the winnings to take a trip with his wife and will save the rest.

For selling the winning Racetrax ticket worth over $10,000, Sharpsburg Pike Liberty received a $197.40 bonus commission from the Lottery, or 1% of the prize.

(Click to display full-size in gallery)Hagerstown's "Lucky Sgt." enters the Lottery Winner's Circle for the third time in five years after claiming another big Racetrax prize.