The “new era” has brought a buzz back to the racecourse and will the Pick 6 return to its former regular big pool glory? (Candiese Lenferna Photography)
There was a time the luckiest people in South Africa were not lottery winners, but Pick 6 millionaires or others who had landed big Pick 6 dividends.
I seem to recall the first ever Pick 6 millionaire was a Durbanite. His name quickly became legend and was whispered when he was sighted at the races, although I could be confusing him with the lucky ticketholder the time First National Bank had ticketholders attached to each horse in a big race at Turffontein and the winner landed a cool R1 million. The winner of that prize was definitely a Durbanite.
Nevertheless, the Pick 6 took the country by storm and was the stuff of dreams. I know two punters who bought houses on the back of massive Pick 6 wins.
In the old days before fractional betting was introduced there was even the phenomenon of Pick 6 syndicates, who submitted permutations that would be unaffordable for just one person. Any winning dividend was obviously split between the members.
Some of these syndicates apparently remained intact after fractional betting started simply due to the value of the combined input of all of the members. For example some of them might expect to be too busy on occasion to study form, while alternate meetings would bring confidence in certain runners from alternate members, so it made sense to combine forces.
I recall on more than once occasion when living in Johannesburg observing passionate Turffontein punters sprinting down the grandstand at full throttle shouting “CARRY OVER!!!” when a bad day of results culminated in an upset in the last leg of the Pick 6. The anticipation of a Pick 6 carry over in the glory days of racing was enormous. It was almost as exciting as winning a bet and there was always a buzz in the on course bars and car parks after a carry over had been announced.
There was also a time the health of racing was measured by the size of the exotic pools. At one stage if the Pick 6 pool dipped below R1 million there was serious cause for concern. The size of the pools gave an inkling of how much money would be returned to racing.
These days in both KZN Racing and Cape Racing those calculations are probably superfluous, because the returns to racing are probably bigger than ever and are coming from Hollywoodbets and Greg Bortz, who now own both Cape Racing and KZN Racing together.
The exotic pool sizes are thus no longer observed with as much concern.
However, the one bet whose pool size is probably important for the health of racing is the Pick 6 and this is because it is the bet which has the greatest chance of having only a single winning ticket holder.
The winning dividend obviously can not be higher than the pool and the dream bet did lose its gloss for a while recently as the chances of landing life changing amounts became less regular.
So the good news is the Pick 6 does seem to be making a comeback with the bulllishness that is accompanying what has become known as “the new era”.
There have been a few R1 million plus pools lately and the weekend pools seem to be climbing.
Burgeoning Pick 6 pools will bring burgeoning interest to the races and if the glory days are soon back i.e. R1 million plus Pick 6 pools at virtually every race meeting then it can only be good for the game.
The many who would take the like of 1% Pick 6 pemutations for R100 every Saturday or during the week might return in force too.
