By Pat Hagan of the DAILY SCHTW

Last Friday night at Hollywood Park, we were greeted with a nice 2-day carryover in the Pick Six of $452,038.

Wouldn’t you know it - a slew of longshots on the Friday night card helped ignite a 3-day carryover of $1,481,038 into the Saturday Pick Six.

As soon as the last race was over on Friday night (for people on the East Coast, it was more like 2 a.m. on Saturday), I analyzed Saturday’s Hollywood Park card, armed with the past performances and two of our products that can be found at www.Joe-Takach.com  (the Daily SCHTW Full Card Analysis, the Daily SCHTW Weekly Polytrack Report).

After carefully combing thru each race on the card with a friend of mine, I went to bed

3 hours later-------at 5 a.m.!!!

My friend Wayne and I depart for Churchill Downs later that morning.  It was opening day at the venerable Louisville track.  Although Churchill Downs simulcasts 12 tracks, my mind was set on just one track--------Hollywood Park.

Wayne and I invested $192 (2x1x4x2x3x2) = 96 combinations @ $2 in our Pick Six ticket.

Normally, I’ll a play a $16 or $32 ticket in the Pick Six, but with $4.7 million in the Hollywood Park Pick Six pool, we had to go with more coverage on our ticket to get some leverage.

We bought the ticket upon leaving Churchill Downs and headed back home. With Wayne attending a nearby party, I retreated to my living room to watch the Hollywood Park action on the Television Games Network (TVG).

I settled in just in time to watch the first leg of the Pick Six and witness the #2 horse winning at odds of 6/1. We’re “alive” after the first leg!

Our only single in the Pick Six was in the next race (Race 5). The Daily SCHTW Full Card Analysis gave a strong “thumbs up” to our Pick Six single, Silent Soul.

With added reinforcement from the Full Card analysis, we felt confident in Silent Soul and the horse didn’t let us down as he prevailed as the 3/5 favorite.

The third leg may have been the toughest in the Pick Six sequence. After handicapping the race that morning, I liked 2 horses.  One trained by Bob Baffert and the other by Ron Ellis. Ironically, our Daily SCHTW Full Card Analysis had those two horses on top. For some security, we also included two other first-time starters in the field.  They were longshots from the barns of Richard Matlow and Nick Hines.

Sure enough, the Ron Ellis-trained runner (#5) prevailed in gate-to-wire fashion at odds of 7/1 and the Nick Hines-trained #11 came 2^nd at 21/1 odds.

Three legs down and I’m starting to think to myself, “Wow, we’re in the hunt now!”

The fourth leg of the Pick Six was a Starter Allowance for horses that have never won

2 races lifetime going 6 ½ furlongs.

Wayne and I both liked the #2 and #3. Our Daily SCTHW Full Card Analysis vouched our sentiments as well.  Both #2 (My City by the Bay) and #3 (Oliver Twisted) were its top two choices. Although the trainer of the #2 horse wins at a low percentage, our Daily SCHTW Full Card Analysis raved about his horse and that cemented the inclusion of this horse in our Pick Six ticket.

Sure enough, those 2 horses cross the wire first and second.  My City by the Bay won the race and was a healthy 7/1 on the odds board.

It was now “nervous time”!

The 5^th leg was the Grade 3, $100,000 Inglewood Handicap which traditionally is the feature race on the 1^st Saturday of the Spring/Summer Hollywood Park meet. With 2 horses scratched earlier in the day, it was reduced to a field of 6 runners.

I was strongly behind #6 Willow O Wisp and my friend Wayne liked #5 After Market. For good measure, we had also included #4 Stormin Away on our Pick Six ticket.

Well, #5 After Market prevailed in deep stretch to win at odds of 7/2 and give us 5-for-5 in the Pick Six.

Soon afterward, I started getting phone calls from friends and family in California. I had conferred to them in the morning who I liked on the card. Therefore they knew we were alive to potentially make a big score.

Wayne was at a Kentucky Derby gala party and I was providing him updates after every race. When I called him after the 5^th leg of the Pick Six was over, he started to get really excited.

He asked what the probable payoffs were for our two horses in the 6^th and final leg. They were:

#9:       $49,403

#15:     $365,000

I felt really confident about the #9 filly (I Beat the Fire).  There was reason to.  She was my top pick in the Daily SCHTW Full Card Analysis.  She was coming off two 2^nd place finishes against better fillies in turf affairs at Bay Meadows in Northern California. What’s more, she resided in the top barn of trainer John Sadler.

Wayne wanted to include a 2^nd filly in the last leg, #15 Heather’s Echo.  She was unraced since last September at Del Mar.

I was pacing all over the house in the minutes leading up to the last race and was in disbelief that this was actually happening to me.

The fillies were being loaded into the gate and I propped up in front of the television.  I had Wayne on my cell phone and had the television volume on full blast so as to give him the live call.

Our filly (I Beat the Fire) was laying in 6^th position in the backstretch run. When the field entered the stretch, she was in 3^rd position and gathering up ground. With every passing second, I was yelling “C’mon 9, C’mon 9!” She accelerated into the lead in the final 150 yards and prevailed to score by 3/4ths of a length.

Amidst the celebrating afterward, I truly believe that without the beneficial information from our products (the Daily SCHTW Full Card Analysis and the Daily SCHTW Weekly Polytrack Report), this Pick Six score may have never materialized.