Ainsley Walters, Freelance Writer

Chin See

SATURDAY'S FALSE start at Caymanas Park not only left bettors dissatisfied but also opened the eyes of Caymanas Track Limited (CTL) and the Betting Gaming and Lotteries Commission (BGLC) to an anomaly in the rules governing the popular Super-6 and Pick-9 bets.

Punters at Caymanas Park and scores of off-track betting parlours were left pondering the outcome of Saturday's sixth event in which at least five of the starting gate's 16 stalls opened seconds late, causing a false start.

Bettors shocked

When the dust settled, bettors holding Super-6 and Pick-9 tickets were shocked to learn those bets were being automatically treated as losing tickets and the multimillion-dollar jackpots carried over to this Saturday's race meet.

The Super-6 and Pick-9 bets require punters to spot six or nine consecutive winners, respectively, usually the last six or nine winners of the race meet.

Aggrieved punters are adamant their bets should have been similarly handled as some triples and doubles were rewarded as winning bets with bettors automatically given all the horses in the sixth event due to the false start.

The rolling triple, starting at the fourth event and ending at the abandoned sixth race, returned $180 for the combination of winning horses numbers three, six and all, as declared by CTL, due to the false start.

The double, starting at the fifth and ending with the sixth event, returned $36 for winning horse number six in the fifth and all in thesixth, as declared by CTL, again, due to the false start.

In addition, CTL also paid out $208 as dividend for triples covering the fifth, sixth and seventh races with winning horse number six in the fifth, all in the sixth and number two in the seventh.

This has not gone down well with losing Super-6 and Pick-9 bettors as all win, place, exacta, quiniela, trifecta, hi-five, new doubles and triples on the said sixth event were also refunded to punters after the false start.

William Chin See, chairman of CTL, yesterday said he was aware of the matter and would have the relevant persons examine the rules.

"I'll certainly ask the people to look into the rules to see if they need any tweaking," he said.

"That's the most I can say at the moment but, I agree, it merits some consideration," he added.

Derrick Peart, executive director of the BGLC, said he was aware of the false start but had no idea dividends were paid out on all the horses for some bets involving the sixth event.

Peart said he too would be investigating the matter especially the rules governing the Super-6 and Pick-9 bets.