Perfect Pick Nine Earns Two Bettors a $921,888 Payoff

A 59-year-old Pasadena man and a 45-year-old Culver City man cashed the only winning ticket on the Pick Nine bet at Santa Anita Saturday and shared a payoff of $921,888.20.

The two men, who asked that their names not be used, walked away from the track with more than $737,000 after 20% was deducted for federal taxes.

One man took his payment in cash, and the other man took some of the money in cash and the rest in a check.

The payoff is not a record, since a Santa Rosa man hit a Pick Six at Bay Meadows for more than $1.1 million last December, but it is the most ever paid in California for a $1 wager.

The Pick Nine, in which bettors try to pick the winners of all nine races, had not been hit since Santa Anita opened on Dec. 26, and large amounts had been carried over in the pool each day.

Most of the horses that won Saturday were favorites, but the first-race winner, Bolger Boy, had been winless in his last six starts and was a 19-1 longshot.

“I’ve followed that horse for a long time,” one of the winners said. “He owed me a lot of money.”

The 45-year-old man said he is employed in the Los Angeles Community College system. He and his partner won with a ticket that combined 17 horses and cost $144, with Bolger Boy their only pick in the first race. The pair said they also bet other tickets costing more than the winning one.

The Culver City winner said he dreamed that he and his partner would win and called the other man to tell him.

“I couldn’t remember how much we won (in the dream),” the man said, “just that we won a lot and went upstairs to collect it.”