Pick six pays $173,912 to single winner

A pick six payoff of $173,912 on Sunday at Del Mar was hit by a bettor who put $29,652 into the wager, with the winning combination purchased on an $8 base play instead of the minimum $2 base play for the pick six.

As a result of the winning ticket being purchased at an $8 base, there were four winning combinations. But owing to California Horse Racing Board rules, which treat multiple winners from the same original paper ticket – or with the same serial number, if purchased electronically – as a single ticket, the $8 ticket was treated as though it was the only winning ticket, thus triggering the single-ticket jackpot pool as well as the regular pool.

The change in wagering rules to allow multiple winning tickets to be treated as a single ticket if all the bets were processed on the same original ticket came because of concerns that bettors who had scratched into a favorite and ended up with the same horse twice, or had two winners owing to a dead heat, were being prevented from taking down a single-ticket jackpot.

Going into the final race Sunday, the eventual winning horse, 3-1 shot Canadian Ginger, showed four combinations being alive to him in the pick six will-pays. There was a delay in posting the payoffs after the race because when it was confirmed that all four tickets were found to be from the same source, the jackpot was triggered and the posted payoff adjusted.

Sunday’s winning ticket was played via Hunt Valley, Md., according to a press release from Del Mar. Hunt Valley is a hub for AmTote, which processes bets from numerous advance-deposit wagering outlets, some catering to well-funded players known to use computer-assisted wagering (CAW) programs.

Further evidence that the wager was made via a CAW came from a California Horse Racing Board announcement late Monday that it had reviewed the wagering transactions of the bet, and it showed that the “account holder placed 8,613 wagers totaling $29,652.”

“All wagers were placed in batches, the last batch approximately 4 minutes before the first leg of the Pick 6,” according to the statement, first revealed on the Twitter account of the board’s spokesman, Mike Marten. “All 8,613 wagers used just one horse in each race, or using the popular wagering terminology, with six singles. However, the denominations of those wagers differed.

“Approximately 70 percent were made in the traditional $2 increment. The rest were in various denominations of $4, $6, $8, $10, $12, $14, $16, $24, $26, and $60.”

Marten’s final tweet said the longest priced winner, which paid $114, was on 1 percent of the tickets.