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Friday, July 20, 2007

Suspicious Pick Six

- Brad Free, writing in the Daily Racing Form's DRF Plus section, is rather suspicious of yesterday's Pick Six at Del Mar. Despite winning horses at odds of 65-1, 8-1, and 14-1 amongst the first four legs and a 9-2 winner of the fifth leg, there were still two live combinations, with the two favorites, in the 8th and final race of the day. At that point, Free observes, the mythical payout on a $2 parlay far exceeded the $198,000 in the pool. When 9-5 Mix swept past the final race field, one lucky winner collected the payout of $110,000 (what's the takeout on this bet?? Sounds like more than 4%, that's for sure!)

Just how "lucky" was this winner?

According to the Del Mar publicity department, the lone winning ticket was a $16 combination ticket that “singled” the first four winners, then used four obvious contenders in race 7 and the two favorites in race 8.

Does anyone play the pick six that way? Does anyone single the first four legs including three longshot winners, then “spread” the final two legs using only logical contenders?

Apparently, someone does. According to Del Mar publicity, the lone pick six ticket was purchased at nearby Viejas Casino.

Sure seems like there could be more to this story. [DRF]
Quite a handicapper there to be able to single horses that paid $133 and $31, eh? Hmmm....sounds familiar, don't it?

7 Comments:

Harl said...

While the "winning" ticket may have only cost $16, it could have been a backup ticket or a small ticket in a larger combination of tickets. Perhaps this particular player used the four contenders in the 5th leg and the two selections in the final leg and then created several tickets using various combinations of horses in the first four legs.

I've hit many "winning" pick four tickets with something like 1x1x1x3 combinations, but those are part of a much larger spread of about 50-60 different combinations.

Alan Mann said...

Kevin -

Certainly could be, and I hope you're right. The last thing we need is more doubt about the integrity of the tote system.

Anonymous said...

According to Bob Ike's sources, it was an 80-year-old with a paper ticket who cashed.

Harl said...

Whew.

Anonymous said...

Alan,
Must be multiple tickets. You're sounding like a 9/11 truther on this one, buddy.

Anonymous said...

I hear that winning ticket is held by a NBA referee.

Brett said...

Classic anonymous