Pick-Six Players Get Shut Out

California pick-six players were shortchanged last week when they bet more than $23,000 into an Aqueduct pool one day, then were prevented from going for the same pool when there was a carry-over the next day.

The inequity underscored the complexity of satellite betting, particularly in California, where full-card simulcasting is severely restricted by an antiquated state regulation that limits on-site betting to 23 out-of-state races per day.

The state tracks with live racing -- in this case, Santa Anita and Bay Meadows -- determine the menu of out-of-state races that players can bet on. On any given day, this will be a selection of races from tracks that include Aqueduct, Gulfstream Park, the New Orleans Fair Grounds, Laurel Park, Oaklawn Park, Tampa Bay Downs and Turf Paradise. Gulfstream, in Hallandale Beach, Fla., and Laurel, in Maryland, are tracks owned by Magna Entertainment, Santa Anita’s parent company.

On Feb. 2, pick-six players were salivating over carry-overs of about $140,000 each at Gulfstream and Aqueduct. The California betting menu included the pick-six races at both tracks.

There were no perfect pick-six tickets sold. For Feb. 3, carry-overs ballooned at both tracks, Aqueduct’s growing to $420,000.

But when eager pick-six bettors arrived early at Santa Anita and off-track betting locations in California, such as Hollywood Park and Los Alamitos, they were stunned to see that only four races, six through nine, were being offered from Aqueduct. The pick six started with race No. 4. Santa Anita, because of its relationship with Gulfstream, routinely carries most of the Florida track’s races, so that pick six was no problem.

Many bettors were furious about Aqueduct. One of them made an angry call to the Mike Willman-Kurt Hoover radio show last weekend. He said he had bet more than $500 on the pick six at Aqueduct on Feb. 2, and then, with that money still resting in the untapped pool, was unable to place another bet on the pick six on Feb. 3.

Instead of getting to bet more races from Aqueduct on Feb. 3, including the opening two legs of the pick six, California bettors were offered three races from Tampa Bay Downs. The Aqueduct pool reached $1.1 million, with seven winning tickets worth $154,111 apiece. One winner made his bet at Aqueduct, but of course there were no winners at any California site. (One person, betting through a hub in Lewiston, Maine, hit the Gulfstream pick six, for a non-Breeders’ Cup-day track record of almost $800,000).

Aaron Vercruysse, simulcast coordinator at Santa Anita, was asked why the Tampa Bay races had been carried at the expense of the opening two legs of the Aqueduct pick six.

“It’s a difficult situation,” Vercruysse said. “The daily race limit makes it tough. We have to make up our minds what races we carry well ahead of time. In this situation, we had to let the [Daily Racing Form] know by Tuesday for a Thursday racing day. Obviously, had we known what was going to happen on Wednesday, that there was going to be another Aqueduct carry-over, we wouldn’t have put those Tampa Bay races in. I know we got some complaints.”

Because of printing schedules, the Racing Form needs lead time to include past performances of simulcast races in its California editions. The Form’s Feb. 3 issue was printed on Feb. 1, in time for distribution on Feb. 2. Left unsaid, however, is that Santa Anita knew on Feb. 1, when Aqueduct didn’t race, that the Feb. 2 carry-over was already a healthy $140,000. A potential carry-over for Feb. 3, while perhaps not likely, was going to be juicy, and well-played, if it materialized.

Bettors attending betting sites hopeful of playing the pick six on Feb. 3 were in effect turned into second-class horseplayers, because those with telephone and Internet accounts in California have the luxury of betting full cards. But this is at cross-purposes with what tracks frequently harp about: getting more people to come to the track.

“I would like to see the limit on imported races eliminated,” said John Harris, chairman of the California Horse Racing Board.

Harris sympathized with the pick-six bettors who were shut out at Aqueduct on Feb. 3.

“It doesn’t make much sense to limit races on-track, when there are unlimited races for those with [betting] accounts,” Harris said. “I will continue to urge horse interests to get legislation that will correct the bigger aspect of this problem.”