by Frank Cotolo
March 23, 2010 6:09am PT
The Hopeful Final for sophomore colts took place at Yonkers Raceway on March 20, having been delayed a week due to the track being dark due to weather. Our choice, Joey The Czar won it and paid $3.70. That price isn’t anything to boast about but remember we called for his victory over two weeks ago, at which time we were confident he would be overlooked for the morning-line favorite.
By Lucky Kalanges
If you have noticed the frequency of Pick 6 carryovers at Beulah Park picking up over the last few weeks, rest assured you are not alone. Since Beulah kicked off its unique Fortune 6 wager on January 9, it has “carried over” numerous times, resulting in a jackpot pool that now stands at $307,465 going into Saturday’s card.
Despite an affordable $0.25 ticket price, what makes the Fortune 6 so hard to hit is that the jackpot pool only pays out if there is a single winning ticket. This has resulted in more than a little confusion among our players, some of whom have hit 6-for-6 at Beulah only to be perplexed by receiving a three digit payoff when they thought they were betting into a six figure carryover pool. This was a conundrum begging for an answer, so I thought I would take my best shot at explaining how the Fortune 6 works.
For Wednesday’s card at Beulah, the Fortune 6 was held on races 3-8. A total of $56,942 was bet into the Pick 6 pool. Of this total, 22.5% or $12,812 was the track’s commission on the bet, leaving $44,130 left to be split among all winning ticket holders.
Of the $44,130, only 40% ($17,652) is paid out if there are multiple winning tickets with the remaining 60% of the pool ($26,478) being carried over to the jackpot pool for the next day. In the event there is only one winning ticket holder, the entire $44,130 plus the jackpot pool, which on Wednesday stood at $281,466, is paid out. Thus, if there were only one winner on Wednesday, he would have taken home a total of $325,596.
Here are Wednesday’s Win prices and field sizes at for races 3-8 at Beulah:
Race 3 – $3.80 - 6 horses
Race 4 – $4.40 – 7 horses
Race 5 – $5.20 – 6 horses
Race 6 – $4.20 – 7 horses
Race 7 - $55.00 – 7 horses
Race 8 – $7.00 -7 horses
Just like any Pick 6 carryover, as the Fortune 6 pool continues to grow, it is going to take considerably more action from serious players. One heavy hitter on Youbet.com invested nearly $4,000 – covering nearly 15,700 combinations - trying to be the single winner on Wednesday. By my calculations, he had one of 8 winning tickets sold in a sequence that consisted of five favorites and a 26-1 shot.
Given all this information, there are few things to keep in mind if you’re thinking about playing the Fortune 6:
1. You are realistically playing for a pool of about $20,000, so don’t get your hopes up if you hit 6-of-6.
2. Throw in that 99-1 bomb. Normal handicapping logic does not always apply when you are trying to be the only winning ticket holder. With a 25-cent minimum and short fields being the rule at Beulah, you are going to have to land multiple longshots on your ticket to have a reasonable chance at hitting the jackpot pool.
3. Don’t be afraid to use the ALL button. If a race looks particularly difficult, consider buying it.
Even if you don’t take down the entire pool, the Fortune 6 can offer decent value. On Wednesday’s card, for instance, the Fortune 6 paid $2,166.50 for a $0.25 bet, which is like getting $17,332 back for a regular $2 Pick 6 ticket. Speaking in $2 increments, the Fortune 6 returned nearly four times what a $2 Win parlay on all six winners at Beulah would have paid ($4,393.40) on races 3-8 Wednesday.
Finally, there are only five Fortune 6 cards remaining at Beulah Park: April 10, 12, 13, 14 and May 1. If nobody hits the jackpot pool by Wednesday, April 14, the entire pool will be paid out on closing day, which just happens to be Kentucky Derby day. With all the attention going to the Derby, the Fortune 6 will offer great value to anyone who hasn’t played it or who has contributed very little to the jackpot pool. That’s because you won’t be playing for the 40% consolation pool anymore; you will be playing for a share of the entire pool, virtually all of it being money lost earlier in the meet.
If you are ever going to play the Fortune 6, the first Saturday in May just might be the day to do it.
by Brian Zipse (ZATT)
ZipseAtTheTrack
March 22, 2010 1:30pm PT
In yesterday’s column, I expounded the qualities of Malibu Moon as a world class sire.
Devil May Care
In a perfect lead-in for today’s column, A daughter of Malibu Moon happens to be my number one star of the week. While favorites D’Funnybone and Unrivaled Belle scored in the Swale and Rampart, and Nick Zito’s longshot Ice Box got up in the final jump to win the Florida Derby, it was Todd Pletcher’s filly, Devil May Care, who stole the show. By Malibu Moon out of the Red Ransom mare, Kelli’s Ransom, Devil May Care won her second graded stake in her short career.
by NicksPicks – @email
March 21, 2010 10:32am PT
We would like to welcome Nick and his free picks to the Youbet.com blog. Every Sunday he will be providing a free sheet for Youbet blog readers. Be sure to tell us how you do using them in the comment box below or via the email link above. We will be constantly looking to add new handicappers as the blog grows, and we want to hear from readers what they think about the products offered. There are lots of touts, systems and tools for handicapping a horse race. We want to provide the best we can to provide a better online horse racing experience, preferably with Youbet.com, of course.
