‘Gambler’ Collects His $1.9 Million for Pick Nine Win

A chunky 33-year-old man from Hacienda Heights, who identified himself as a professional gambler, showed up at Santa Anita Friday to cash a $1.9-million Pick Nine ticket, good for the largest payoff ever in parimutuel wagering.

Craig Phillips, former cab driver, former manager of a fast-food restaurant, has done nothing but bet horses and play poker for the last 10 years. Last Saturday, Phillips reached the horseplayer’s millennium, beating odds that were calculated at 221 million to 1, by picking the winners of all nine races at Santa Anita.

Phillips’ winning ticket cost him $216. He played two losing Pick Nine tickets that day--paying for half of a $2,200 investment with two friends and buying an individual ticket that cost $160. The Pick Nine is a $1 minimum bet, and the pool had swelled to almost $2 million a week ago because nobody had hit the wager in 14 racing days. Most of the money carries over until someone has nine winners.

Phillips’ payoff was $1,906,491.90, breaking by almost $800,000 the previous record return, which was won by a Santa Rosa newspaper printer on a Pick Six bet at Bay Meadows in December.

Because race tracks are required by the federal government to withhold taxes on high payoffs, Phillips actually received $1,525,193.

For a press conference at the track Friday afternoon, Santa Anita put a two-foot-high stack of $100 bills, in $100,000 bundles, on a table, with a smaller pile, representing the government’s share, resting alongside.

Actually, though, Phillips took his money in 30 checks worth $50,000 each, plus $25,193 in cash.

Inveterate handicappers were glad to see that Phillips had won, rather than, for example, a gray-haired grandmother from Pasadena playing her social security number.

Phillips spent three hours handicapping last Saturday’s card, and in part his bonanza stemmed from his recollection--or partial recollection--that a horse running in the ninth race had an affinity for mud. Bedouin, who finished 15th in the 1984 Kentucky Derby and has since sunk to the $10,000 claiming ranks, won the ninth after surviving a stewards’ inquiry over possible interference with another horse in the stretch.

Only two players--Phillips and another person--had picked the first eight winners. The other player’s horse, Disclaim, was not involved in the inquiry and finished seventh.

Disclaim was 4 to 1, the third betting choice. Bedouin, at 13-1, was the sixth choice in a nine-horse field, but the track was muddy and Phillips remembered something about the 5-year-old gelding.

“I remembered that he had broke his maiden a year ago in the mud,” Phillips said Friday.

Actually, Bedouin had won his first race on a fast track at Del Mar in August, 1983, then 10 weeks later had won in the mud at Santa Anita. Because the races were so far back, neither was listed in the Daily Racing Form that Phillips was working with last Saturday, although a mud mark--an asterisk denoting horses that like off tracks--was next to Bedouin’s name in the newspaper.

Phillips said he “paced up and down with my two friends” while the stewards spent a few minutes reviewing television reruns of Bedouin’s race.

“When they said there was no change, it was music to my ears,” Phillips said.

After the races, Phillips said, he phoned one of his three brothers and said to him: “I hope you’re sitting down.”

Another of Phillips’ brothers held one of five winning tickets on the Pick Six last Saturday and collected almost $68,000.

Phillips said he was offered $40,000 for one-third of his ticket after the sixth race. After the eighth race, he turned down an offer of $100,000 for half the ticket.

Asked about the reaction of his two friends, who were partners in the losing $2,200 ticket, Phillips said: “They handled it pretty good. Usually, I don’t like to go partners on tickets. I’ll get them gifts or something. I’ll use some of the money to get things for my family. I’ll probably get a house.”

Phillips, an engaged bachelor who grew up in North Hollywood, has a widowed mother who lives in Anaheim.

Phillips’ winning ticket looked like this:

One horse selected in the first race.

Four horses in the second.

All nine horses in the third.

Three horses in the fourth.

One horse in the fifth.

Six of eight horses in the sixth.

One horse in the seventh.

One horse in the eighth.

One horse in the ninth.

Only three of the nine winning horses--in the third, fifth and seventh races--were favorites. Most of the Pick Nine players were eliminated in the sixth race, when Judge Angelucci, a 4-5 favorite, ran sixth. But Phillips had five other horses on his ticket, including Icy Groom, the winner of the race.

“Picking winners takes a lot of skill, but there’s luck involved, too,” Phillips said. “I felt kind of lucky that day. I liked the races and I felt good.”

Asked if he had a special betting system, Phillips said: “I just follow the horses and pay attention to class.”

He said he waited until Friday to collect his money because he wanted to discuss the matter with his accountant.

He left the winning ticket at a brother’s house for the first two days, then put it in a bank safe-deposit box until Thursday, when he went to the track to identify himself.

Bedouin, by the way, is running in the ninth race Sunday at Santa Anita. Phillips might feel obligated to place a courtesy bet on the horse. Especially if the track comes up muddy.

Horse Racing Notes

The unemployed tomato farmer who picked nine winners to apparently win $1 million in a handicapping contest at Hollywood Park last July has not collected any money, his attorney said Friday. Rodolfo Sahagun, of Carlsbad, had his winning ticket disqualified because of apparent multiple entries, a violation of contest rules. Sahagun is appealing through the courts. “I have filed an amended complaint, and the other parties (Hollywood Park and Mission National, which insured the $1 million prize) have 30 days to respond,” said George Martinez, who represents Sahagun. Martinez said that Sahagun is still unemployed and is on welfare. “What is further complicating this,” Martinez said, “is that the insurance company is in receivership and there may be a bankruptcy.” Jim Robie, an attorney who represents Mission National, said reports of the company going bankrupt are “speculation.” Attempts to reach Mission National officials for comment were unsuccessful. . . . A field of seven 4-year-old fillies has been entered for Sunday’s $150,000 La Canada Stakes at Santa Anita, headed by Lady’s Secret and Videogenic.