What does a Pick 6 ask you to do?
The tote nominates six races on a meeting — the "legs". For each leg you choose one or more horses. Your ticket wins if, in every leg, one of the horses you chose finishes first. That is all. There are no odds fixed at the time you bet: the Pick 6 is a pool bet, so the payout depends on how much was staked and how many winning tickets there are.
What is a perm, and why does it multiply the cost?
Choosing more than one horse in a leg is called a permutation, or perm. Each combination of one horse per leg is a separate "line", and you pay the unit stake for every line. The number of lines is simply the number of selections in each leg multiplied together.
| Selections per leg | Lines | Cost at a R1 unit |
|---|---|---|
| 1 · 1 · 1 · 1 · 1 · 1 | 1 | R1 |
| 2 · 2 · 1 · 1 · 2 · 1 | 8 | R8 |
| 3 · 2 · 2 · 1 · 3 · 2 | 72 | R72 |
| 4 · 3 · 3 · 2 · 4 · 3 | 864 | R864 |
The jump from the third row to the fourth is the trap. Adding one more horse to each leg feels like a small change; it multiplies the ticket twelve-fold. The unit stake on your tote may differ from the R1 used here — the arithmetic does not.
How is the pool paid out?
All Pick 6 stakes for the meeting go into one pool. The operator takes a deduction set out in its rules, and the rest is shared among the winning lines. If a single line wins, it takes the lot; if a thousand lines win, they split it a thousand ways. That is why a Pick 6 won with six favourites can pay surprisingly little, while one that includes a long shot can pay a fortune to a handful of tickets.
What is a carryover?
If nobody picks all six winners, the pool (or a set share of it, depending on the tote's rules) is carried over to a future Pick 6. Carryovers are when pools grow large and attract syndicates. Two practical consequences follow:
- A carryover meeting has more money to win, but also more tickets competing for it.
- The size of the carryover is published in advance, so you can decide whether a particular meeting is worth a bigger ticket than usual.
What happens with scratchings and dead heats?
Every tote publishes its own rules, and you should read them once. In general terms:
- A scratched horse on your ticket is commonly replaced by a substitute — often the tote favourite in that leg — rather than voiding the line.
- A dead heat for first means both horses count as winners for the Pick 6, so a ticket holding either one survives the leg.
- An abandoned race is handled by the tote's rules for abandoned legs, which can treat every horse in the leg as a winner.
Because these rules differ in detail between operators, the rule book on your tote is the final word.
How do I build a ticket I can afford?
- Set the budget first. Decide the rand amount, then work backwards to the number of lines.
- Find your banker. One leg where you are confident enough to take a single horse halves or thirds the cost of the ticket.
- Spend lines where the race is open. A big handicap field deserves more selections than a small conditions race with a standout.
- Count the lines before you submit. Multiply the selections in each leg. If the number surprises you, take a horse out.
- Consider a smaller pool bet. The Place Accumulator asks for placed horses rather than winners, and the Jackpot covers fewer legs.
Should I join a syndicate?
Syndicates pool many small stakes into one big perm. You get coverage you could never afford alone, in exchange for a share of the dividend rather than the whole of it. Agree in writing who submits the ticket, how shares are counted and how a dividend is split before the first leg runs. Most disputes come from that step being skipped.
How does the Pick 6 fit with other racing bets?
The Pick 6 is one of several exotic bets on the South African tote. If you are new to racing, our overview of different horse racing bets starts with win, place and the forecast bets. And on the biggest day of the racing year, the Durban July draws so much money into the pools that it deserves its own guide.
Quick answers
Can I bet a Pick 6 at a fixed price with a bookmaker?
Some bookmakers offer multi-leg win bets at fixed odds. They are a different product with different payouts; the Pick 6 itself is a tote pool.
Is a bigger perm a better perm?
Only if the extra lines go where the uncertainty is. A bigger ticket raises the chance of winning and the cost by the same rule of multiplication — it does not change the maths in your favour.