A bettor won $173,912 on a single Pick 6 ticket at Del Mar. Here’s how it happened.
Random notes:
▪ Last Sunday, someone won a $173,912 Pick 6 on a single $8 ticket at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in California. That’s rare. How it was accomplished was unique, as well.
According to Michael Marten, spokesman for the California Horse Racing Board, a single account holder placed 8,613 individual wagers totaling $29,652 on the Del Mar Pick 6. All 8,613 wagers picked just one horse to win in each race. The denominations differed. According to Martens’ Twitter account, “The horse that paid $114 and triggered the massive payoff ($173,912) was on only 1 percent of the 8,613 tickets.”
The wagers were made in “batches” which are normally done using computer models and algorithms. According to Marten, the last “batch” was placed four minutes before the start of the first race in the Pick 6. And, as John Cherwa of the Los Angeles Times points out, “These big bettors aren’t slaving over a Daily Racing Form with black pens and yellow highlighters. They are not filling in bubble cards. Math is making the call.”
▪ By the way, the winning ticket was purchased in Hunt Valley, Maryland. I have stayed in Hunt Valley numerous times when covering the Preakness at nearby Pimlico Race Course. The Stronach Group owns both Pimlico and Santa Anita. It also owns the AmTote hub through which the purchase was made. Stronach does not own Del Mar.
▪ I still think there will be college football in the fall. Call me crazy, but you would be far from the first. I think the start will be delayed. I think there will be fewer than 12 regular-season games. But the lost revenue is too big a price to pay. So I still think there will be college football in the fall.
▪ The biggest threat to college football? On-campus parties. Fifteen Rutgers football players recently tested positive for COVID-19. All had been to an on-campus party.
▪ If college football is canceled, which will you miss more, the games or the tailgates?
▪ Two beings I do not envy: Parents trying to decide whether to send children back to school. And KHSAA Commissioner Julian Tackett, trying to navigate high school sports and COVID-19.
▪ Fifteen Miami Marlins players testing positive for COVID-19 is not the deal. How Major League Baseball handles the ongoing situation is the deal. It’s also an object lesson for the NFL and college football, both bubble-less sports.
▪ Louisville was granted a 45-day extension to respond to the NCAA’s Notice of Allegations.
▪ Lou Henson died on Saturday. He was 88. Forgive the former Illinois basketball coach if he went to his grave believing that Kentucky’s Dicky Beal walked in the 1984 Mideast Regional finals against the Illini. The regional was played at Rupp Arena. Kentucky won. Henson was not happy. RIP, Coach.
▪ Yes, the Reds are losing, but we are watching. Fox Sports says that among its regional sports networks, Cleveland has the highest rating for baseball (11.9), followed by St. Louis (9.6) and Cincinnati (7.6).
▪ Reds TV play-by-play man Thom Brennaman mistakenly said on a weekend broadcast that he read that former slugger Jack Clark was no longer with us. Turns out, Clark is still with us. So is his wife, who tweeted for the first time in her life to correct Thom. Score it an error.
▪ By the way, the Reds sold 900 fan cutouts for Great American Ball Park in the first eight hours they were available. That’s at $75 a pop. Proceeds go to charity.
▪ During the five-day Keeneland meet, I wrote on 22-year-old jockey Keith James Asmussen, son of Steve Asmussen. Happy to report Keith earned his first career win last Sunday at Lone Star Park in Texas.
▪ I recorded a podcast with former Courier-Journal sports columnist Dave Kindred, winner of the prestigious Red Smith Award. We talked Adolph Rupp and racism. We also talked about what Dave is doing now, basically retired in Morton, Ill. His journalistic passion now is the Morton Lady Potters basketball team. If you’d like to listen, visit Kentucky.com.
