Racing: Juicy $1m Pick6 much better suited to Mudgway meeting

I suppose we have to expect some hard-headedness from the TAB.

Like any billion-dollar business, the effort to maximise turnover will always lead to bureaucratic decisions.

We've got a $1 million Pick6 at New Plymouth on Saturday.

That's fine, but how much better would it have been to have had the million on the line for the $200,000 Mudgway Stakes day at Hastings on Saturday week.

The best fields imaginable to bet on AND a million-dollar added attraction.

What a way to end one of the worst, most disruptive winter racing scenes in recent decades.

It would have magnificently set the stage for what is guaranteed to be a classic year in horse racing.

This week punters are set the tough task of sorting out mainly lower class horses on a track that rated 5.0 and heavy yesterday.

The Hastings track was yesterday heading towards good.

It isn't just that around $400,000 jackpotted from last week's Te Rapa Pick6 and that the TAB generally likes to run their headline punting option week by week.

The TAB admits it would much rather have the million dollars on Taranaki's low-key meeting.

"It will make this raceday, whereas the class of horses makes the Mudgway day," says the TAB's Michael Dore.

"Next week racing will hold centre stages, this week it's the Pick6."

You can't really argue with that, but there are other considerations.

The TAB loves jackpotting Pick6s; they provide outstanding advertising fodder next time up.

But consider this - the really big pools tend to be won more often than not by small numbers of winning tickets.

You will never make a case that one person winning the million - which generally means no one has won anything for a week or two - drives turnover for the next month or more better than, say, 300 winning $3500.

It might not be the amount it was 10 years ago, but a million dollars will never lose its magical appeal.

It will forever drive punters to have a crack, but do they back up in the following week's Pick6 after going out in the first couple of races?

They do if they've won a couple of grand.

Some racing club chief executives are happy not to have a million dollars or more in the Pick6 operating on their meeting, believing it detracts from other forms of betting on the day - racing clubs receive no commission on Pick6.

Others believe it actually drives other forms of investing. Such intense form study has been done that when punters progressively drop out of Pick6 they utilise that information through betting on the normal tote.

Hawkes Bay's John McGifford is happy to have the $1 million at Taranaki, but concedes it is a bit of an ask for punters.

The Bay is going to be well served anyway, with a $250,000 Pick6 guaranteed for Saturday week, $500,000 for Stone Bridge Stakes day and $1 million for the Kelt Capital programme.

"And there is always the chance that Saturday's Pick6 will jackpot," says McGifford. Indeed.

You can't be a bookmaker if you don't know what's going on.

TAB head bookie Paul Lally made sure he was at Tuesday's Taupo barrier trials to see the $200,000 Mudgway Stakes headliners have a serious hit-out in preparation for the season's first highlight.

Darci Brahma might have been beaten by Kristov in his heat, but his Mudgway price was shortened moments later.

"I was really impressed with Darci," said Lally. "He looked his actual price tag - a million dollars.

"He could have won easily if his rider had wanted and I've brought him in from $3 to $2.75."

At the same time Lally eased the victor Kristov out from $8 to $9. It reinforces the old line that you can't beat seeing it with your own eyes.