Santa Anita: Horses to single in the mandatory-payout $266,212 Pick 6 carryover

Have you heard the news? Saturday brings the mandatory payout of a $266,212 Rainbow Pick 6 carryover at Santa Anita. The final pool is expected to reach about $2 million.

Be warned, however, that winning a share of the 20-cent wager will be anything but easy. The Pick 6 runs from Race 5 (post time 6:10 p.m. ET) through Race 9, a sequence containing 62 entries (averaging 10.3 per race) and 963,144 possible outcomes before scratches. Furthermore, five of the races are claimers and there isn’t a single stakes in the sequence, which means narrowing down tickets could prove difficult.

If there’s a single worth building tickets around, it might be #1 King Zog (5-2) in Race 5, a $50,000 maiden claimer for California-bred juveniles sprinting six furlongs on dirt. King Zog has run three times so far, and while he faltered to fifth place in his lone previous run over this class level, he was smashed between rivals at the start and possibly didn’t run his best race thereafter.

King Zog’s other two starts have been solid. He finished second by a head in his debut against non-state-restricted $32,000 maiden claiming company at Del Mar and most recently came home second in a $30,000 maiden claimer at Los Alamitos. The 71 Brisnet Speed rating King Zog posted at Los Alamitos ranks as the highest last-out figure posted by any horse in Saturday’s field, so a typical effort from King Zog should send him to the winner’s circle under apprentice jockey Abdul Alsagoor, who rides with a beneficial seven-pound weight allowance.

Another possible single opportunity comes in Race 9, a $40,000 maiden claimer for two-year-old fillies dashing six furlongs over the main track. The experienced runners don’t appear overly formidable, and morning line favorite #2 La Paloma Blanca (5-2) is switching from turf to dirt even though her pedigree (by Kitten’s Joy) isn’t really geared toward success on the main track.

Therefore, we’ll take a shot singling the first-time starter #4 Bruins Mastery (4-1). Trained Rene Amescua wins at a 26% rate with horses debuting in maiden claimers, and Bruins Mastery enters off a trio of sub-1:01 five-furlong workouts, so she appears to have at least a little talent. Singling an unraced horse is risky, but if Bruins Mastery prevails as a 4-1 single, we’ll be well on our way to cashing a nice Pick 6 payoff.

Good luck!