Del Mar officials say they talked to “key players” before proposing an overhaul to its pick six this summer. Key or not, those people must not be pick-six players: Those who actually make the bet appear overwhelmingly opposed to the changes. Del Mar was concerned about a 25 percent decline in pick six wagering in recent years, most of that coming on non-carryover days. The solution the track has proposed, however, does absolutely nothing to encourage betting on days without carryovers and may well discourage even longtime pick-six players from participating at all. Under the new plan, most consolation payoffs would be eliminated and there would be no consolation on days when anyone picks 6 of 6. Instead, what would have been consolation payouts will be carried over and added to a jackpot that will be paid only when there is a lone pick six winner. The success of 10-cent and 20-cent “Rainbow”-style pick-sixes at smaller venues was Del Mar’s guiding light here, but they seem to have missed the point of what makes those bets popular: It’s the low cost of each combination, which allows modest players to attack the bet in ways that only the well-bankrolled could in the past. Del Mar, however, proposes to keep this semi-Rainbow Pick 6 at a $2 minimum. Eliminating consolation payoffs is simply a terrible idea. These payouts are what keep many a pick-6 chaser liquid and hopeful, and efficiently redistribute money to many instead of few. Without consolations, many veteran players are saying they will abandon the bet completely, and understandably so: Taking the money that would have been paid as consolations into a jackpot pool effectively raises the takeout on the bet to the usurious neighborhood of 40 percent. This violates every law of wagering common sense and economics. They would be taking millions of dollars that would have been distributed among thousands of players and instead giving it to one or two jackpot winners in the course of the meeting. This discourages investment, reduces churn, and moves payouts from non-taxable to taxable territory. Horseplayers opposed to this change – which judging by emails and message-board comments is well over 95 percent of them – should share their opinions with the California Horse Racing Board, which would have to approve the changes. It should not. Also, speaking of taxable winnings, players now have just two days left to add their support for changes being considered by the Treasury Dept. that would reform withholding and reporting procedures on pari-mutuel payouts. Comments can be posted via NTRA.com/IRScomment. Give Preakness Sunday idea a rest It’s becoming a Preakness Week tradition for Pimlico officials to float trial balloons about making changes to the race. Last year it was the roundly rejected proposal to move the race back a week on the calendar. This year, it was moving the race from Saturday to Sunday as the final leg of a three-day racing festival. According to track officials, Pimlico owner Frank Stronach “wants to do something grand” with the Preakness. When Stronach says he wants to do something grand, you had better pay attention, or the next thing you know there’s a 110-foot statue of Pegasus stomping a dragon towering over your track, as has happened at Gulfstream. This change seems nearly as outlandish. Pimlico can barely sustain a two-day Preakness “festival” now, and switching the race to Sunday would only be disruptive to a longstanding, popular tradition. Why would Pimlico monkey around with the timing of a race that drew a record 131,680 spectators this year? A Sunday Preakness, as it turns out, has nothing to do with grandeur or what’s good for the sport. The scheme is instead tied to the track’s expiring contract with NBC to broadcast the race. If Pimlico does not renew with NBC, one likely suitor is Fox, which has Saturday afternoon baseball commitments and would want the race to be run on Sunday. Moving the Preakness is bad idea, as is splitting up the Triple Crown onto competing television networks. NBC’s commitment to the series has led to record television ratings in recent years, and the Triple Crown is one of the few things in American racing that is not broken and requires no fixing. If Stronach instead wants to build a grand, gigantic statue of a Maryland Blue Crab at the entrance to Pimlico, and that project distracts him from mucking with the Preakness, I’m all for it.