Bettor’s Edge #34: Three Pick-6s Go in Six Race Days

There’s been a run on the jackpot pick-6 pool at Woodbine! Can you believe three pick-6 pools were won in the past six race days? That includes yesterday (Sunday), last Sunday and the preceding Friday. This is amazing, of course, because the only way to win the 20-cent Power Pick-6 pool is to have the only winning ticket.

Can we learn something from examining the winning horses in each leg of the pick-6? The lesson basically is that you can have a bunch of favourites winning the legs and as few as two longer shots in the sequence and big money may come your way.

Favourites, in fact, won four legs of yesterday’s pick-6 and someone still picked up $22,770 for a single 20-cent ticket which, Woodbine says, was among a bunch of other tickets the player bet. Look at the prices of the winning horses in the last six races: $3.80, $29.70, $3.40 (which was part of a dead heat with a $30.30 longshot), $34.70, $4.00 and $9.90.

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Three legs were won by even-money or less horses, and yet the pick-6 was won! The longer price of $29.70 was in a race for maiden 2-year-olds and the $34.70 payoff was in an optional claimer. The lesson is obvious: find a few gut keys and go deeper (maybe “all”) in the other legs and you’re a winner.

In last Sunday’s $13,716 take-down, three legs were won by favourites. The prices were $9.60, $5.50, $17.40 (a stakes race), $81.80, $6.90 and $6.30. And you shouldn’t be surprised to hear the $81 winner came in the dreaded often-chaotic non-winners of two races lifetime (nw2L) condition that you’ve read ad nauseum about in this column. In my books, this kind of race calls for “all” horses in a pick-6 wheel.

In the third take-down a week ago Friday — in which a U.S. bettor spent $6 to win almost $140,000 — there were two favourites in the sequence. The prices of the winners were $7.10, $34.50, $18.60, $41.90, $8.70 and $5.80. The $34 winner was in a race for maiden 2-year-olds, the $18 winner also came in a maiden race and the $41 winner in an allowance optional claimer. The winning player keyed legs three, five and six. His 20-cent wheel looked like this: (2 x 5 x 1 x 3 x 1 x 1).

So what do these winning tickets tell us about the Power Pick-6 — or likely any pick-6 anywhere? That we shouldn’t be afraid of it. We certainly shouldn’t be afraid of throwing some pocket change at it. Find two, three or four favourites and go deep in a leg or two and you could be on your way to a major moolah day. Maybe just go deep in a maiden race or nw2L leg.

As Woodbine’s race meet comes to an end this weekend with four cards, Thursday to Sunday, I’d like nothing more than to find out you gleaned some tips from today’s column that fattened your pocket, purse or HPI account. Go get ‘em!