Record Pick Six pool for Del Mar

By Ed Zieralski, UNION-TRIBUNE

Originally published September 4, 2010 at 2:19 p.m., updated September 4, 2010 at 7:47 p.m.

DEL MAR — At a time when the stock market is unpredictable, the Padres are on the worst losing streak of the year and the Chargers have two key holdouts, horseracing stepped up Saturday at the Del Mar Racetrack and offered fans a chance to put up $2 and change their lives.
With a two-day, record carryover of $1,597,470 going into Saturday's races, Del Mar's Pick Six pool grew to a track record $6,656,591, breaking the previous mark of $6,057,334 set on Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2007.
It’s the California Lottery, only with horses. All race fans had to do was play a $2 ticket and pick the winners of the fifth through the 10th races on Saturday's card.
Going into the 10th race, 3,015 tickets had all five winners, with one race to go. But after long-shot Harmony's Hope won and paid $22.40, the number of winning tickets was reduced to 124. A ticket with all six winners ended up being worth $$35,553.40.
In all, bettors here and around the country plunked down $21,344,520.82 chasing the Pick Six and other races at Del Mar Saturday, the eighth-highest total handle of all-time for the house that Bing Crosby and Pat O'Brien built.
The crowd built here all day as rockers began arriving late for the ZZ Top concert that follows the race card.
So how did the record pool develop?
It started on Thursday afternoon in the seventh race when long-shot Win for M’lou went off in the feature race at 29-1 and paid $61 to win. No one had that horse on a Pick Six ticket, so that meant there were no perfect tickets in the Pick Six, creating the carryover of $488,667.
On Friday night, again in the feature race, this time the El Cajon Stakes, the longest shot on the board, Haimish Hy, went off at 31-1 and won. Once again, no one picked that horse on a Pick Six ticket, and thus the $1,597,470 carryover, largest ever in the history of Pick Six wagering at Del Mar.