Racing: Small fields give punters hope for $1m jackpot

The New Zealand TAB has yet to pay out $1 million to one punter.

But TAB racing manager Michael Dore wonders if today could be that day when a $1 million Pick6 jackpot is staged at the Taranaki Racing Club's meeting at New Plymouth.

Punters are required to select the winners of the last six races at the Taranaki meeting. Because the size of some fields are small it would seem most likely the pot will be struck.

Dore said, however, that just because some fields were small that did not mean the favourites would win. "With small fields you can get races that are run at a dawdling pace and sometimes the race can turn into a 400m sprint," he said yesterday. "Sometimes the worst horse in the field can keep up for 400m.

"We haven't written out the cheque for a million dollars yet. Maybe it will be tomorrow [Saturday]."

Dore said the biggest single payout from a Pick6 was $600,000 in 1990.

Today's Pick6 is the 17th in the TAB's history with a pool of $1 million or more. There have been two Pick6s which have carried pools of $2 million each.

In 2004, a $2 million pot returned a dividend of $25,920.15 with 77.16 winning units. Another $2 million pot in 2003 returned a dividend of $261,096 for 7.66 winning units.

The biggest change to Pick6s in recent years is the ability to take a percentage bet. That allows small punters to take a number of combinations without spending a big amount.

For example, a percentage punter can take what would normally cost $100 for 10 per cent and it would only cost $10. But in that example the punter would only receive 10 per cent of the dividend.

For those who cannot be bothered with studying the form, they can opt for an easybet.

This is a computer-generated random selection with a weighting towards the favoured runners at the time of betting.

One of the more popular easybets costs $8 but punters can spend more if they wish.

The betting unit for a Pick6 is 50c. Bets need to be placed by 2.25pm, the starting time of the first leg today.

- NZPA