A horse named Slam Dunk Sermon slammed home a single winning ticket in Santa Anita Park’s Rainbow Pick Six Jackpot pool Friday afternoon. That 20-cent solo ticket brought its owner a $436,787.25 payday.
The ticket was purchased for $1,972.60 as part of a batch betting wager at the Hunt Valley wagering hub in Maryland. Batch betting is the act of making hundreds or even thousands of bets simultaneously.
The Rainbow Pick Six wager came home when Slam Dunk Sermon, going off at 8/1 in a field of nine older horses, rallied three-deep coming around the turn. He opened up for a length victory in the 6 ½-furlong $20,000 claimer. It was the 5-year-old gelding’s ninth win and 13th in-the-money finish in 22 starts.
This Rainbow Pick Six came into Friday with a $365,340 carryover. Bettors threw another $93,629 in new money at the wager, which pays its total pool only when a single ticket holds all six winners in the designated races.
Rainbow Pick Six opens with two good prices
Friday’s Santa Anita Rainbow Pick Six opened with the third race, won by debut runner Norah’s Princess. She took the maiden special weight by three-quarters of a length at 7/1. Bicameral (9/2) won the fourth race, a one-mile maiden special weight, by 10 ½ lengths. It was her first victory in five starts.
Flat Out Joy, also going off at 9/2, captured the fifth: a one-mile $20,000 claimer. She won her first race in eight months – and eight races — with her career-best 93 Equibase Speed Figure.
Arthur Spooner, who went off as the 3.30/1 second choice in the sixth race, won that $50,000 maiden claimer by 1 ½ lengths. It was the gelding’s first victory in 11 races and came six days after he finished seventh in a $50,000 maiden claimer by nearly eight lengths.
Rose Maddox the only winning favorite in the sequence
A more predictable contender won the seventh race: Santa Anita’s Friday feature. That was Rose Maddox, the 2.10/1 favorite in the one-mile, Cal-bred turf race for fillies and mares. The 3-year-old filly won her second race in two weeks with her best Equibase: a 92. Rose Maddox’s neck victory in the Rainbow Pick Six penultimate race was her third overall and sixth in-the-money finish in seven races.
That resets the Rainbow Pick Six going into Saturday’s 10-race card at Santa Anita.