NTRA offers national pick 6

The National Thoroughbred Racing Association will offer a pick six wager on Saturday linking stakes races at three different tracks, according to the association's director of simulcasting, Ken Kirchner.

The pick six will link the Lane's End Breeders' Futurity and Shadwell Mile at Keeneland; the Oak Tree Derby and Goodwood Handicap at Santa Anita; and the Beldame Handicap and Kelso Handicap at Belmont Park, Kirchner said. The bet will be hubbed through Keeneland Racecourse in Kentucky at a takeout rate of 19 percent.

Kirchner said that the pick six wager is a "trial run" for the NTRA, which has already had measured success offering linked pick three bets during the summer with races televised live on CBS-TV. Kirchner made his comments on Tuesday at the National Simulcast Conference in Burlingame, Calif. "There's three turf races in there, and there's a few stakes at a mile, and they are all great betting races," Kirchner said. "We're pretty hopeful we can get some interest."

Kirchner said that the pick six will not carry a guaranteed pool. Negotiations with insurance companies to cover the guarantee became too complicated to reach a deal because of the possibility of carryovers in California and New York, Kirchner said.