The Pick 6 at Saturday’s Gr 1 L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate meeting will be a popular bet and should attract a massive pool. And, against the norm, it does not appear hard to catch at first sight.
Whisky Baron looks hard to beat in the first leg, the Gr 2 Glorious Goodwood Peninsula Handicap over 1800m, and Newlands and Bela-Bela are possible Pick 6 bankers too in the Gr 3 Cartier Politician Stakes over 1800m and the Gr 1 Maine Chance Farms Paddock Stakes over 1800m respectively.
Smart Call (Liesl King)
In the big one the duo of Legal Eagle and Marinaresco look hard to oppose.
The biggest hurdles look to be the last two legs, the Gr 3 BMW Chairman’s Cup over 3200m and a Conditions Plate over 1400m for fillies and mares.
However, as soon as one of the “meeting bankers” are beaten, the dividends become lucrative on these big racedays.
This is what makes the Pick 6 such an intriguing bet.
Therefore, the shrewd might be burning the midnight oil studying those last two legs in order to narrow down their choices there, while at the same time attempting to find one or two who can upset in the seemingly easier legs.
Last year, for example, Light The Lights turned out in retrospect to be a good bet in the Peninsula at odds of 10/1. Gelding had settled and improved him and as one who had always been blessed with plenty of ability he was cherry ripe to deliver. He duly did so.
Smart Call, in retrospect, was also a good thing in the 2016 Paddock Stakes, where she started second favourite. Hindsight has shown the progeny of Ideal World improve continually and Smart Call had already won a Gr 1 over a middle distance the previous season as a three-year-old, the Woolavington 2000. Furthermore, she was a member of one of the best three-year-old fillies crops the country had ever seen.
Everybody becomes an expert after the race, but it is never easy to be one beforehand, especially in a bet as difficult as the Pick 6.
Nevertheless, catching the Pick 6 on a big day is the ultimate challenge and there are virtually always handsome rewards.
The beauty of the Pick 6 bet locally is that fractional betting has allowed punters to take as little as 1% of a full permutation.
This is what also makes the Pick 6 the most fun bet on a big day and probably the one worth spending the most time on.
By David Thiselton
