Contact: Jon Forbes
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FIVE TICKETS HIT MASSIVE PICK SIX AT
ELMONT, N.Y. – Five tickets were left standing at the conclusion of Belmont Park's Pick Six today, which featured a $4,232,368 pool. Each winning ticket, all of which were wagered off track, returned $552,535.
Drosselmeyer's victory in Saturday's Belmont Stakes triggered a $930,495 Pick Six carryover, and $3,301,873 more was bet into the pool on Wednesday.
Two tickets were purchased through Bettor Racing OTB, and two more were bought with TwinSpires. A TVG customer was responsible for the fifth ticket.
Tickets with five out of six winners were worth $884 apiece.
The Pick Six started in formful fashion as the second choice Macho Joe ($5.20) led every step of the way to win by 3 ¼ lengths on the drop from maiden special weight company into the maiden claiming ranks. Macho Joe is trained by Bill Mott, whose protégé Drosselmeyer was responsible for the carryover.
The chalk parade never got started, however, as the second leg, an allowance for New York-breds, went to the largest price on the board. Kaffiend, an 18-1 long shot, led in the final furlong, but was tagged late by Landlash ($44.00). A $2 exacta on the pair of outsiders returned a healthy $359.
The third leg, a maiden claimer for New York-breds, went to the stalker Hooligan's Delight ($9.10), the third choice in the field of 11.
New York-breds continued to have the spotlight in the fourth leg, a wide-open maiden special weight with a field of 10. John Wyatt ($10.00) collared Tapitdar in the final sixteenth of a mile to prevail as the second selection.
The two favorites in leg number five – 3-2 West Coast Flier and 2-1 Be Bullish – dueled for early supremacy and folded in the stretch, setting it up for the third choice Starforaday ($10.80), who took the optional claimer by a widening 3 ½ lengths.
Night Spirit ($15.80) capped the Pick Six with a dominant victory in the $25,000 claiming event for fillies and mares which had never won two races in their career. It was the second winner in the sequence for jockey Kent Desormeaux, who guided Macho Joe to victory in the opening leg.
Racing resumes at
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