July 27, 2011. This date is forever scorched into my memory because it is my only single-day win of more than $1 Million dollars. As I sit down to reflect back nearly a decade after that event, I can’t help but think about how many things had to go my way for that to ever happen.
I was living in Huntington Beach at the time, 100 miles north of Del Mar Thoroughbred Club. My work was focused on Universal Metals, a company I started when I was 22 years old. It was performing very well and when I wasn’t at Universal or with family, chances are you could find me around the track with the horses I owned, or wagering on the day’s races.
At that time, I owned four thoroughbreds. Every day that we got to race was a reason to be excited. On this day, though, it was doubly so. Not only was my filly Three Cuties running, she was running in the first leg of a Pick 6 that that had a huge carryover PLUS a $50,000 bonus added by the track. I thought to myself, with the carryover, added money and all the new money in the pool, there would have to be more than a million dollars at stake!
Three Cuties was a durable filly, but definitely not a “win early” type. As her owner, I was beginning to wonder if she was a “win ever” type. Regardless, we were entered in the 3rd race of the day, a maiden claiming event, and with nine races carded we were also the first leg of the Pick 6. If I was going to have the day of a lifetime, it was going to be a horse I owned that got it started.
I spent eight hours the day before the races handicapping for my Pick 6 ticket. I decided to take a stand with my own horse in the first leg and make her my only single of the day. This, in a seemingly wide-open race where any one of six horses had a legitimate shot. As any gambler understands, sometimes you just get this feeling about things and that’s what I committed to.
Onto the actual race … We had drawn post #9 that day and I remember standing in the paddock before the race. Tyler Baze, who I have incredible respect for, was up for us that day. As he walked out for the race, I reached out and shook his hand and said, “Hello Tyler, my name is Scotty McKeever. You have to trust me that the #8 horse in this race is going to stop. Just get out of the gate and grab hold of her, then make one run and we will beat the 8.”
I am eternally grateful for Tyler Baze. He made the PERFECT ride that day. The #8 horse, a filly named Judy’s My Angel, was the morning line favorite. Everything in my soul told me she was going to blaze out of the gate stop at the end of the race. I can remember like it was yesterday the sound of Trevor Denman’s voice ringing over the loudspeaker, “Judy’s My Angel now kicking clear and turning for home.”
It was intense. For a bit it looked like Judy was running away. And then it happened – she started to slow down. And we started to speed up. Three Cuties came charging hard and had just enough talent and, with a perfect pilot, was able to nose the Judy’s My Angel at the wire. If Tyler does one thing differently that day, there’s no way our horse wins.
Three Cuties, in her only win of 2011, had set the course for what was to become an incredible day. With her singled, I had adequate coverage and confidence to get through the next four races and things continued to fall my way. One race after another, live favorites were getting beat and I had all the winners covered. I was 5 for 5 going into the last leg.
Because of singling my horse in the leg 1, I was live to five horses going into the final leg of the Pick 6. Due to the lack of favorites winning, most Pick 6 tickets were eliminated by the time we got to the last leg. There were a mere 86 live tickets headed into the sixth and final leg.
For four of the five horses I was live to, there were other players with live tickets that I would have split the pool with. When looking at the will pay amounts, though, I was ecstatic that I was the ONLY player left with a live ticket to the #3 horse, a 20/1 morning line longshot named January Miss that happened to be trained by the trainer of my horses, Paul Aguirre.
How this horse even ended up on my ticket is a miracle. I was having lunch with Paul a couple days prior and asked him about a first time started he had entered: “Paul, do you think your filly in the last race has a shot?” I asked. Paul began to answer in the way trainers normally speak. He was telling me the horse probably needed a start and may not be quite ready. All the usual things we come to expect to hear from trainers. Then, all of the sudden, his wife Lisa spoke out. Lisa interrupted with a resounding, “YES! Yes, we have a shot. I like this filly and know she’s going to be a winner.”
Still, a 20-1 shot first time starter? Was I really going to put January Miss on my ticket? I was non-committal and had no idea what to do. Finally, race day came and it was time to place my Pick 6 wager. I went through the first five legs of the Pick 6 with no issues. For the final leg, I listed the four horses I was committed to and the teller looks me straight in the eyes and asks, “Any others?”
I stopped in my tracks and just went in the tank. I knew I had left off Paul’s first-time starter in the 9th and final race. Adding her was going to cost me an extra $500! This whole time, all I could hear was Lisa’s voice ringing through my head proclaiming, “YES, yes … we have a shot.” She always had such great intuition and she believed in the horse. I could not stomach the idea of her being right and not having that horse on my ticket. After spending what felt like an eternity thinking about it, I finally responded to the teller and said, “Add the 3, and hit the print button.”
Adding January Miss to my ticket made my total amount wagered $3,024, and I was confident that I had every race bet right. As it played out, January Miss would make a desperate bid to charge from last to first after a frontrunning longshot set the track on fire with blazing fractions. If January Miss doesn’t get there, I would have been completely eliminated. The horses that came in 2nd and 3rd in the sixth leg were nowhere to be found on my ticket. As it turned out, the two-year-old first time starter was my only shot. And that extra $500 I spent … well, it ended up making me a million dollars.
In addition to being the only winning ticket to claim the $1.1 Million pool, I shared 20 of the 85 consolation wagers for another $100,000. After the track took out a 28% tax, I was sent home with $900,000! This win was a keystone moment in my career. It had validated my credibility as a handicapper and gave me much more confidence in what I believed was possible. Fast forwarding to today, and I have more than $5MM in total Pick 6 winnings, have won multiple tournaments, and am this year’s champion of the Pegasus World Cup Handicapping Challenge. What a crazy ride!
Prior to July 27, 2011, I’d hit more than two hundred Pick 6 wagers. This one, though, was by FAR the biggest. Del Mar Thoroughbred Club was so kind and bought our entire group dinner out that night. We had all the cocktails, appetizers and steaks we could handle, and I couldn’t imagine a better way to finish the day.
Thinking back to that day brings back so many memories, along with the realization that if I ever want to win $1.2 Million dollars again, I have to be willing to take stands, spot the opportunities to beat vulnerable favorites AND have everything go my way. Three Cuties won four races in her lifetime. January Miss won just two. On this this day, they both won, and are huge characters in this story.
With the development of EquinEdge, I spend minutes instead of hours handicapping race cards. I do still take my stands and look for big payouts, though. This August, I will compete in the National Handicapping Championship, where there is a $1 Million dollar bonus for the current Pegasus Betting Challenge Champion in addition to the $800,000 tournament prize pool. To win $1 Million dollars one time is remarkable, to do it twice would require ridiculously good fortune. Just to have the opportunity is remarkable.
I hope to see everyone in Vegas this August during the NHC as we search for the next unlikely characters to become stars of our story!
