Nothing longer than a fifth choice won in Saturday's pick-six sequence at Belmont, but all six favorites lost, leading to a fat $186,012 payoff for three bettors who put the six tricky but not impossible winners on the same ticket. Just over $696k was wagered on top of the $166k double-carry from Thursday's and Friday's cards.
The rain came but only briefly, turning the main track sloppy with a 20-minute burst of biblical proportions before the second race. The grass courses probably needed the water and were close to firm, producing times of 1:10.78, 1:08.94 and 1:09.19 in the three turf sprints that began the sequence.
I stayed barely alive through those first three legs, where Prime Obession ($14.80/5th choice), Cannonball ($11.00/3rd) and Beware Ceasar ($10.60/4th) thinned the competition but also thinned me down to a 2x2x1 that pitched a shutout the rest of the way. Typhoon Tycoon ($25.00/4th) and Raw Silk ($18.80/4th) ran the five-race parlay up to $50,691 and set up the following will-pays going into the finale:
#7- $111,607
#9- $186,012
#3, 8- $558.037
#1,4,5- carryover
That worked out to five winners to the #7, three to the #9 and one each to the 3 and 8. I'm guessing that means five different live tickets, as follows:
#7 only - two
#7 and 9 - two
#3,7,8,9 - one
In any case, nothing personal against those five players, but I rooted as best I could for a 1, 4 or 5 and a $558k triple-carry into Sunday but the three outsiders trailed and second-choice #9 Piper's Fort ($8.80) won off for the $186k payoff. Consos were worth $1,097, small consolation for the two ticketholders that singled the runner-up favorite in the finale.
