Racing: Tough job winning $500,000 Pick6

It doesn't come much tougher in thoroughbred racing.

And the variable to torpedo punters this week is a drying track at Te Rapa.

This will be in direct contrast to the heavy, testing surfaces that the Pick6 runners will have faced in their last start or two.

Yesterday the Te Rapa track after fine, frosty weather all week, was 3.4 and dead.

Compare that to the 5.8 heavy track at Ellerslie on Monday.

Most horses that performed well on that type of track are likely to find tomorrow's surface too good.

Te Rapa course manager Neil Treweek does not expect the course to dry further, even with a total absence of rain.

"We've had frosts each morning and today there was cloud cover over the course throughout," said Treweek.

"There is no drying at all."

A little help to Pick6 punters will be the small fields in Races 8 and 9, which have seven and nine runners with a common double acceptor in Auckland Blues.