Farm Hand May Have Won $1 Million Picking Card

A 47-year-old unemployed farm worker from Carlsbad apparently won $1 million for picking all nine winners in a handicapping contest Sunday at Hollywood Park.

But Neil Papiano, an attorney for Hollywood Park, cautioned that the insurance company that underwrites the payoff for the track might challenge Rodolfo Sahagun’s winning ticket because it contained five erasures. Sahagun changed his mind in five races and picked other horses.

“I don’t know if there will be any difficulty (with the insurance company),” Papiano said. “But I’m just pointing out that there might be some problems. The contest rules say that there should be no defacing of the front of the ticket.”

If Sahagun’s ticket is honored, he will receive annual payments of $50,000 for the next 20 years.

Out of a crowd of 46,769, there were about 30,000 entries in the contest. Favorites or near favorites won the first seven races and 29 people had picked all of the winners.

But in the eighth race, the Swaps Stakes, the winner was Padua, a 13-1 longshot, and that eliminated everybody but Sahagun. Poly Test, Sahagun’s pick in the last race, won by a neck over I’ll See You. Had Poly Test not won, Sahagun still would have won $100,000 for being the only entrant to pick eight winners.

“I felt like crying,” Sahagun said after Poly Test won.

Sahagun said he has been coming to the track for more than 30 years and once shared a pick-six payoff of more than $24,000 with a relative several years ago. Sahagun bet $32 on Sunday’s pick six and had one winning combination, which paid $242.80, a record low at Hollywood Park.

Once a virtual daily race-goer, Sahagun has gone to the races less frequently in recent years. Asked why he came Sunday, he said: “Because my wife’s coming Monday.”

Horses saddled by trainer Gary Jones ran 1-2 Sunday in the $204,500 Swaps Stakes at Hollywood Park, with Padua holding on to beat Turkoman by a nose at the wire.

Pat Valenzuela rode the winner, who paid $29.80 to win and earned $123,500 for the Elmendorf Farm. Padua ran 1 miles in 2:01 2/5.