What happened with that Santa Anita Pick 6 mix-up Saturday?

Bettors were upset on Saturday because of a mix-up in the Pick 6 at Santa Anita.

The track explained what happened in a series of posts on social-media platform X.

“The $1 Pick 6 at Santa Anita on Saturday paid $85,506.90. A single winning ticket was purchased on Xpressbet for $288. Consolation tickets with five winners paid $1,145.10.

“The majority of tracks and ADWs, including wagers placed at Santa Anita, California off-track betting locations, Xpressbet and 1/STBet, had the correct minimums set for the $1 Pick 6 wager.

“However, because of an error by a tote provider, some betting outlets incorrectly offered betting minimums for the Pick 6 at 20 cents. Because of this, they were removed from the Pick 6 pool prior to making the wager official.

“The final Pick 6 pool on Saturday, which included only those wagers at the correct $1 minimum, was $160,055.”

Santa Anita general manager Nate Newby told Daily Racing Form that about $80,000 was refunded to bettors who bought tickets through those account wagering systems in 20-cent increments.

Pat Cummings, executive director of the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation, posted on twitter that someone recently questioned him about ADW accuracy in setting bet minimums.

He cited as an example an ADW default for a jackpot Pick 6 that was set at 25 cents when the bet minimum actually was 20 cents.

“This is problematic for several reasons which are obvious,” Cummings wrote. He said it was impossible to know what went wrong in the case of Santa Anita on Saturday, but in standard U.S. operations the bet minimum “MUST be met to enter (the) pool.

“This isn't the case everywhere in the tote world, though, and it is easily argued that the "flexi-bet" option is LONGGGGGGGG overdue in U.S. racing,” he wrote.