Breaking the Bank: This Week’s Huge Payouts (Mar. 11)
Image:
Description:
Photo by Eclipse Sportswire
The Santa Anita Handicap card at Santa Anita Park on Saturday served as a reminder that if you have the means – and I don’t – to attack the Pick 6 it often is worth the investment.
The Pick 6 for the Big ’Cap card was comprised of Races 6-11. Five of the winners went off at odds of 4-to-1 or less, yet the payout for the lone $2 winning ticket was $234,434 for a $2 bet. The sequence included one favorite, two second betting choices, two third betting choices and 14.80-to-1 longshot Protocol, who won Race 10.
Let’s not pretend stringing together six winners in a row is ever easy, but this Pick 6 was both more hittable than most and more profitable than most for the one lucky bettor who connected.
A 14.80-to-1 winner in the penultimate race led to a lot of shredded tickets, but there probably were three other keys to this big payout.
The first is simply field size. For the Big ’Cap card, the last six races drew 13, 10, nine, eighth, nine and 11 entrants, respectively, for an average field size of 10 for the sequence.
The second key came in Race 7 when 7-to-5 favorite Shakin It Up was defeated. Sahara Sky, a very nice horse, prevailed at 3.40-to-1 but this was probably a spot where many investors singled Shakin It Up.
Another key came in the big race of the day when 6-to-5 second choice Will Take Charge and 3-to-2 favorite Mucho Macho Man lost to 3.80-to-1 Game On Dude. It’s hard to imagine a set of circumstances in which a two-time winner of the Santa Anita Handicap could be overlooked in the race, but coming off a dud performance in the San Antonio Stakes on Feb. 9 it’s not impossible to imagine a number of horseplayers felt pretty confident about using the top two finishers from the 2013 Breeders’ Cup Classic, especially with both coming off strong races.
As we’ve seen in recent Breaking the Bank blogs, often a big longshot can trigger a number of different big payouts and last week that bomb came in Race 8 on March 9 at Fair Grounds.
Jalapeno Lena struck at 75.30-to-1 and keyed the week’s top $2 win payout, the top Daily Double payout, the top $2 Pick 3 payday and the biggest Pick 4 score of the week.
Outside of a fourth-place finish in her career debut in August 2013, there was not much to like about the Louisiana-bred Whambam filly. She had been beaten by at least 11 ¾ lengths in each of her four races since her career debut.
In addition to paying $152.60 to win, Jalapeno Lena also was the start of a Daily Double that returned $2,124.80 when 17-to-1 True Flat won the ninth and final race on the card. Jalapeno Lena also keyed a nice $5,769.60 return for a $2 Pick 3 (Races-7-9), but the monster payout came in the late Pick 4 (Races 6-9) that produced a $74,839.20 return. With only $24,617 in the Pick 4 pool, the winning ticket was a 50-cent ticket that paid $18,439.80.