Santa Anita Pick 6 winner pockets almost $1.5 million

There was one winner in the Pick 6 on Monday at Santa Anita Park worth $1,478,942. The ticket cost $2,160 and was bet at the Meadowlands in New Jersey.

That is one gold nugget that betting on horse racing has over sports betting. In sports betting, the standard is to bet $11 to win $10.

It is almost impossible to make a sports bet big enough to win a seven-figure amount. Most casinos would blink rather than accept that kind of exposure.

But horse racing is pari-mutuel betting. That means we are betting among ourselves. Racetracks accept the wagers, subtract the takeout, and the rest is paid back to the masses. The only limit to a payout is the size of the betting pool.

Thus, horse racing is perfectly suited for a player to bet a little to win a lot.

The Pick 6 series Monday included horses that won and paid: $5.40, $8.80, $30.20, $12.40, $9.80 and $11.80. That hardly seems like a “Murderers Row” of win prices.

On closer study, none of the six morning line race favorites won. Only one post time favorite, Long Hot Summer ($5.40), won. The key was the series of races had such evenly matched fields that to single a horse in any of the six races was risky. You needed to go many horses deep in each leg to feel any sort of comfort.

As noteworthy as the Santa Anita Pick 6 was on Monday, it pales most days to a Pick 6 hybrid offered by many tracks nowadays.

It has names such as the Rainbow 6, Golden 6 and Single 6. To win the entire pool, a player must have a unique winning ticket. Otherwise, the carry-over continues until the end of the meet. But each is basically the same: unique winning ticket and a low 20-cent bet minimum.

The father of the bet was Mike Weiss at Beulah Park in 2006. If he had patented his Pick 6 idea, he already would be retired.

The one thing it has done is level the Pick 6 playing field. Now a smaller bettor can siphon off a nice win while letting the whales chase the big jackpot.

SAM’S TOWN TOURNAMENT

Sam’s Town will host a two-day handicapping tournament in its racebook June 10 and 11. The entry fee is $500. The top finishers will earn a free berth into the 2017 Horseplayer World Series.

TWIN QUINELLA

There is a three-day carry-over of $14,760 in the Twin Quinella wager Friday at Station Casinos.

HORSE RACING PHONE APP

A horse racing phone app may not be news to readers outside of Nevada. But Nevada residents cannot play the horses through an out of state Advance Deposit Wagering company. Phone apps for horse racing have been available from these ADWs and around the world for years.

Thus, the news that Boyd Gaming will introduce the state’s first horse racing app is a local breakthrough. Bob Scucci, director of race and sports for Boyd Gaming, made the announcement on the Race Day Las Vegas radio show Thursday.

There is a good reason this took so long. Nevada is the most highly regulated state in the country for gambling. Nothing gets fast tracked for approval without being properly vetted.

Richard Eng’s horse racing column is published Friday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. You can get his Santa Anita picks by emailing him at rich_eng@hotmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: @richeng4propick