Single 6 Saturday at Churchill offers home run chance

It's closing night at Churchill Downs, and a mandatory payout in the single 6 means it could be a getaway day for those skillful enough to pick 6.

The single^6 has proved lucrative all meeting long with an average payout of more than $13,000, and that is with just 77.5% of the pool paying out daily (15% of each bet is takeout, and 10% went to the jackpot). With closing day, however, there is no jackpot takeout, so 85% of the total pool will be returned to bettors PLUS the $716,447 carryover.

It's a challenging sequence as part of a challenging 11-race card. The pick 6 is races 4-9, and there are also Pick 5s on races 2 & 5 and Pick 4s on races 1, 4, and 6 with rolling Pick 3s and double as well.

The bad news is my best bet of the night--#4 in race 11-- is not a part of any multi-race wager beyond a Pick 3. The good news is that the race I had the toughest time with--the opener-- is not a part of the Pick 6. As Alan Thicke (yes, that Alan Thicke) wrote for a 1980s sitcom, "You take the good, you take the bad, you take them all, and there you have the facts of life."

For Single^6 purposes, I plan to lean heavily on #7 Walking the Kitten in race 9. It's the type of race--both in terms of being last in the sequence and a deep turf race--where many will go deep, and I'm hoping zagging here but zigging earlier can produce a big payout at the end.

Full grid below. Good luck everyone!