ARCADIA, Calif. – While the festive return of Breeders’ Cup to Santa Anita brings renewed excitement to the fall meet, horseplayers may argue the season’s biggest development is the highly anticipated comeback of two popular wagers. Santa Anita opens Friday for a six-week meet highlighted by the Nov. 3-4 Breeders’ Cup on closing weekend and a refreshing change to the wagering menu that starts opening day. Santa Anita will reintroduce a traditional pick six to replace the shopworn single-ticket jackpot and add an all-turf daily pick three, with a $3 minimum, on the final three turf races. The changes are welcome and well-timed. “It’s nice to debut something on a Breeders’ Cup meet, because everyone is paying attention,” Santa Anita general manager Nate Newby said. “It’s a good time to do something new and not fall under the radar.” The spotlight is on Santa Anita this fall. The 2023 Breeders’ Cup is the 40th overall and 11th at Santa Anita, which tweaked its betting menu to resemble a Breeders’ Cup format that includes a $1 pick six and $3 turf pick three. :: Bet the races with a $250 First Deposit Match + $10 Free Bet and FREE Formulator PPs! Join DRF Bets. “Our goal is to have a consistent wagering menu [to correspond] with the Breeders’ Cup and flow right into the big day,” Newby said. “The players’ feedback has been to try something like this. A few of us much prefer this [pick six] format.” More than a few bettors agree. Pick six takeout is 23.68 percent, compared to 46 percent effective takeout on the single-ticket jackpot. The pick six, which will be a $1 bet, pays 70 percent of the net pool to perfect tickets or standard carryover and 30 percent to consolations. Santa Anita considered a $2 minimum for the pick six, the same as when the bet was replaced by the 20-cent jackpot. The track settled on $1; the wager covers the final six races. “One dollar makes it more playable for an average-sized ticket,” Newby said. “Maybe we would try $2 at [a future meet], but based on the feedback we got, $1 opens it up to a bigger range of players.” Santa Anita plans to continue the 70-30 pick six format during the 2023-24 winter-spring meet. Del Mar this week also confirmed plans to return to a traditional 70-30 pick six format, with a $1 minimum, when its fall meet begins Nov. 10. If the reinstituted pick six marks a return to tradition, so does a $3 pick three at Santa Anita. Long before low minimums diluted payoffs, the track offered a daily pick three with a $3 minimum. The new all-turf pick three is a throwback that highlights a key element of California racing. “We feel we have the best year-round turf racing and want to feature that,” Newby said. An initial plan to offer the wager at a 15 percent takeout was met with resistance. Santa Anita settled for the standard 23.68 percent exotic-wager rate. With a $3 minimum, bettors must formulate handicapping opinions and wager accordingly, rather than a lazy “spread” strategy that is common with low minimums. Rolling pick threes with a 50-cent minimum will continue to be offered throughout the card. Friday’s turf pick three is races 5, 7, and 9. Race 5 is a turf sprint for statebred maiden 2-year-olds; bred-for-turf Potito switches surfaces following two better-than-looked efforts on dirt. Race 7 is a nonwinners-of-two claiming mile led by dropper Lone Scout and last-out runner-up Numero Dix. Race 9 is a $50,000 to $62,500 maiden-claiming turf mile in which Autoline, Quintecents, and Six Magpies are leading contenders. The initial turf pick three is not the highest quality, but fields are big on a circuit increasingly reliant on turf. More turf races than dirt races were run the last two Santa Anita autumn meets. Racing secretary Jason Egan expects the turf trend will continue. “We’re obviously going to lean into the turf like we have the last couple of years,” Egan said in a Santa Anita publicity release. “The front half of the meet especially will be heavy on the grass. We’ll be a bit limited on turf the second half with the Breeders’ Cup being here due to rail settings and things like that.” A one-day pick six wager that links Breeders’ Cup preps at Santa Anita and Keeneland is scheduled for Oct. 7. The $1 bet, hosted by Keeneland and therefore not subject to California rates, will be offered at a 15 percent takeout. The wager will include three races at each track. Santa Anita’s fall stakes schedule is front-loaded with Breeders’ Cup preps. Sixteen stakes will be run the first two weeks of the meet, including the Grade 3 Chillingworth Stakes for female sprinters on Friday. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.