Single 6 mandatory payout highlights final card

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Closing day of the Churchill Downs fall meet is supposed to be an easy letdown, an anti-climax, a way to go quietly into winter’s good night.

But no.

While there are no stakes to culminate a very busy final week, which included six graded races Thursday through Saturday, there is still plenty of meaningful action packed into a 12-race Sunday finale rife with big fields. Included are five allowances, three maiden-specials, and the prospect of a large mandatory disbursement of the Single 6.

The richest of the allowances (race 10) also drew the most recognizable name on the card: Happy Like a Fool, a graded winner who will be using the $85,000 third-level sprint as a springboard to the Grade 1 La Brea on Dec. 26 at Santa Anita.

“That’s the plan, anyway,” said Wesley Ward, who trains Happy Like a Fool for the Coolmore group. “The timing is right and we’ll see where she is after such a tough race in the Breeders’ Cup.”

Happy Like a Fool chased a fast pace in the Nov. 3 BC Filly and Mare Sprint before settling for sixth, 3 1/2 lengths behind the winner, Shamrock Rose. Julio Garcia will have the mount Sunday when Happy Like a Fool breaks from post 7 in a field of eight fillies and mares. Her main challengers include Mines and Magic (post 1, Edgar Morales), a 5-year-old mare with three wins and three seconds over the local surface, all for trainer Vicki Oliver, and She’s a Gypsy (post 6, Corey Lanerie), a two-time winner here, both for Helen Pitts-Blasi.

The other Sunday allowances go as races 2, 6, 7, and 11. The first two of those are scheduled for the turf, although as of Friday it appeared possible that weather conditions could force those races onto the main track. Overnight rain from Friday into Saturday was forecast, and the Churchill turf already is infused with considerable moisture.

In any event, the Single 6 – and other wagering pools with a jackpot provision, for that matter – is subject to a mandatory payout Sunday. The 20-cent Single 6 will be held on races 7-12, and after failing to be swept by a solo winner since very early in the meet, the carryover had swelled to nearly $200,000 at the end of racing Thursday. So, assuming there was no solo winner to empty the jackpot Friday or Saturday, there should be quite a large handle on the closing-day Single 6, perhaps a half-million dollars or more.

First post for the 21st and final card of the meet is 1 p.m. Eastern. After Sunday, live action on the circuit moves Wednesday evening to Turfway Park in northern Kentucky for four months of winter racing over Polytrack, although many top trainers and jockeys will disperse to Fair Grounds, Gulfstream Park, or Oaklawn Park.