Pick Seven Pool Is Off to Fast Start

The National Pick Seven, the first attempt to form a nationwide betting pool, is off to a fast start, causing some racing officials to speculate that the final pool will approach $20 million.

At mid-afternoon Friday, Churchill Downs announced that an estimated $1.5 million had been bet on the wager, which requires picking the winners of all seven Breeders’ Cup races.

“The wagering has been strong around the country, and the reporting procedure has been extremely smooth,” said David Sweazy, director of operations at Churchill Downs, who is in charge of this bet.

Information from 40 tracks will be sent to Churchill Downs by fax Saturday, and the track will calculate the number of winners and state-by-state payout prices. It’s expected to take at least two hours for all of the information to be gathered and the winners announced.

Santa Anita had handled $310,883--$159,363 on-track and $151,521 off-track--by 5 p.m. Friday. However, Hollywood Park and Los Alamitos and other satellite betting facilities were continuing to take bets while quarter horse racing was conducted Friday night at Los Alamitos.

Churchill Downs was unable to give a more accurate accounting of early betting because New York tracks and off-track sites were taking bets until 11 p.m. and Las Vegas was taking bets until 2 a.m. today.

Betting sites in Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska were closed because of heavy snow, and the weather at Churchill Downs also became a factor. Heavy rain Thursday night and Friday morning made the track sloppy. Many bettors were waiting to see how well the track dried before placing their bets.

Despite such factors, officials were pleasantly surprised so much money was being bet. The bet was originally expected to produce only a $10-million to $15-million pool.

Some were forming betting syndicates to try to cover as many horses as possible. There was word of at least one $100,000 bet that would be placed at Santa Anita, and one New York syndicate was expected to place a $1-million bet in Las Vegas.

If a bettor were to bet every horse in every race, the Pick Seven cost would be $60,217,344.