Putting the Sting on the Place Pick 6

Since I have only been blogging for a month or so, you may not know that I have a tendency to get fascinated with certain activities.  Lately I have become obsessed with the Place Pick 6 wager that is offered at Monmouth.

I am not quite sure why, that right now, I’ve got a thing for a Place wager, but it may have to do with one of my favorite movies. In the 1973 classic, The Sting, there is the climactic scene when Hooker and Gondorff complete the sting on banker/gangster Doyle Lonnegan. Do you remember it?  If for some reason you have not seen this movie, then you must!

Doyle Lonnegan: I put it all on Lucky Dan, half a million dollars to win.

Kid Twist: To win? I said place!  Place it on Lucky Dan! That horse is gonna run second today.

Since Hooker and Gondroff made money on a Place bet, then why shouldn’t I do the same? 

I do love that every time I work on the Place Pick 6 I get a flash of that scene.  Besides the influence of The Sting, there is my current focus on the multi-race horizontal wagers.  Then add in that the bet has a 50¢ minimum and I have no choice but to be a really big fan.

In my quest to conquer this Place bet I have made a spreadsheet that keeps track of my (ROI). Another chart analyzes the performance of my singles and multi-horse attempts in each leg.  It is clear that there should be a limit to how much money should be invested on any given day because the payoffs can be really small $7.25 or $12.75.  On the other hand some results have been amazingly high, with 2 IRS payouts of $625 and $4,800 in the first 16 days.

A successful result should include cashing more than once from any individual winning ticket.  This can happen when you have both the first and second place finishers in any given leg, or basically having the exacta in that race. The bigger payouts happen when your place horse shares the finish with a long shot, thus diminishing the number of people that will share the pool.

I have set a somewhat arbitrary limit of $36 on my investment.  That is a relatively small amount to invest in a multi-race wager. So, why not join me this summer and try to put “the sting” on the Place Pick 6? 

ABC’s of the Monmouth Hall of Champions -Today Inside Information – Inside Information raced 17 times in the silks of Ogden Mills Phipps with 14 victories and earnings of $1,614,805. In 1995 she won the Breeders Cup Distaff and Older Female Horse of the Year. At Monmouth Park, Inside Information won the 1995 Molly Pitcher Handicap. She joined the Racing Hall of Fame in 2008. Inside Information ranks 35 in the Horse Racing Nation 250 Top Fillies and Mares of All-Time and 98 in the Top 250 Horses of All-Time with an 8.56/10 rating.