The highly anticipated Scottsville Pick 6 got off to a dismal start today for may punters with the fancied Sergeant Hardy jumping awkwardly under Bernard Fayd’herbe and losing ground at the start before running unplaced.
The national feature Pick 6 pool fell short of the anticipated R3,9 million and closed on R3,64 million.
The Sporting Post’s Top Bet of the day, Sergeant Hardy, a top-class son of Captain Al really looked hard to oppose and loooked a good thing at the weights in the Pinnacle Stakes.
But after opening in the red at 15-20 in the morning, he couldn’t be given away and went out to 24-10.
To aggrivate matters, the second favourite Billy Silver was scratched lame prior to the start with a 20% deduction, yet the high-ranking Sergeant Hardy continued to drift.
“Only R91 158 was traded on Interbet and they couldn’t give him away. Little wonder people think racing is a bad game and punters are leaving the game in numbers,” said an angry punter, whose frustration was confirmed by more callers.
The race was won in good style by the Louis Goosen speedster, Hashtag Strat, who was winning her fourth race from 20 starts.
Sergeant Hardy was declared under starter’s orders after a race review and went off tote favourite.
The Saftote website went on a go-slow prior to the jackpot and a further delay was caused by an unexplained respositioning of the starting gates for the running of the Allan Robertson Championship.
We soldier on.