Del Mar lowering jackpot pick six minimum wager from $2 to 50 cents

Del Mar is lowering the minimum amount for pick-six wagers from $2 to 50 cents at its autumn meeting from Oct. 31 to Nov. 29. The track received regulatory approval for the meeting from the California Horse Racing Board on Thursday.

The pick six at Del Mar will continue to have a single-ticket jackpot format, with 80 percent of the net pool paid to tickets with six winners, or into a carryover, and 20 percent of the net pool paid if there is one winning ticket, or into a carryover until there is one winning ticket.

With that format, there are occasions when the pick six has two carryovers.

“We expect this to increase the pick-six pool,” Del Mar chief marketing officer Craig Dado told the racing board on Thursday. “It is an experiment and we will monitor it closely.”

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The pick-six pools have been overshadowed in the last decade by growth of two 50-cent bets – the pick four and pick five.

On Sept. 7, the closing day of the track’s summer meeting, the late pick four had a handle of $673,189, while the late pick five handled $1,056,098. The $2 pick six had a handle of $521,693 on a day with a single-ticket jackpot carryover of $19,226 and a mandatory payout.

On Sept. 6, the late pick four handled $652,911, while the late pick five handled $1,019,181. The $2 pick six handled $167,945 without any carryover or mandatory payout.