I like to play pick 4’s when TVG (FanDuel) is having a promo where if you win 3 out of 4 you get your money back. This past month a promo was running on the late pick 4 on Saturdays at Remington Park. On 09/17/2022 I put in a $9 ticket with 3/3/2/1 horses in each race. I ended up losing the second leg to a long shot but won the other 3 races. I was happy to see my single win in the last race to get my money back. The pick 4 paid $60. On the next Saturday, I thought the pick 4 was too challenging, so I had to pass. Remington was having a bunch of stakes races on Sunday, so I decided to go for that, even though the money back special wouldn’t be in effect.
I put in a $10 ticket with 1/5/2/2 horses in each race. I put the favorite Juju’s Map trained by Brad Cox and ridden by Florent Geroux as my single in the first race of the pick 4. I usually don’t put a single in the first race, but the morning line odds were 1/2 on Juju’s Map. The second race looked wide open, so I picked 5 horses in that race. I didn’t get a chance to watch the races live (they run late at Remington). I checked the results the next morning and saw that the #4 horse at 11/1 had beaten Juju’s Map who went off at 1/5 odds. I’m sure a lot of other people got knocked out in that race. I ended up winning the next 3 races but didn’t get my money back of course. The 50-cent late pick 4 ended up paying $229.
In the past month I played 10 pick 4’s and only won one. It was at Del Mar on 9/4/22. My 1/3/3/4 $18 wager paid $39.55. I singled the first race in that one too. Of the other pick 4’s, I had 3 out of 4 races correct 3 times and 2 out of 4 correct 4 times. Total amount wagered was $100 for a net loss of $60. I don’t think I could have done any better unless I doubled the amount that I had wagered. But in most cases, it was a long shot that I wouldn’t have picked anyway which knocked me out. I will wait until November 4th and 5th for the 2022 Breeder’s Cup races before I try again.