by Mark Ratzky, publicity department, Sacramento Harness Association

Sacramento, CA — Wednesday (July 11) will see the first Chi-Cal Pick 4 Challenge, which combines two races (races 10 and 11) from Hawthorne Race Course in Chicago and a pair (races 10 and 11) from Cal-Expo. The $1 bet comes attached with a $25,000 guaranteed pool.

If nobody completes a perfect Pick Four ticket, a consolation payoff of 25 percent of the pool will be awarded to the player or players who select the most winners in the four-race sequence. The rest of the money will carry over to the following Wednesday.

There will be a mandatory payout on Wednesday, August 1, the last week of the Hawthorne summer harness meet.

This will be the first time Hawthorne and Cal-Expo have teamed up to offer this wager. In years past, Balmoral and Cal-Expo have had success with the Bal-Cal Pick Four, and Joe Scurto, Hawthorne’s Director of Marketing, sees no reason not to expect similar results this time around.

“It’s a good sum of money both tracks are pledging, and when you can win thousands for the price of a buck, we think it’s a nice opportunity for horseplayers.”

Like the popular Bal-Cal, this wager will be offered every Wednesday night, with the racing secretaries at both tracks doing their best to put the most contentious and challenging races in the four spots.

Last fall saw some huge payoffs in the Bal-Cal, with $20,000, $19,000 and $18,000 jackpots coming back for a buck. It will be interesting to see if the Cal-Expo/Hawthorne combinations can produce similar fireworks.

Post time for the first leg of the Chi-Cal Challenge will be at approximately 8:16 p.m. (PDT).

Live racing resumes at Cal-Expo tonight (Wednesday), continuing through Saturday. Post time on Wednesday and Thursday is at 5:35 p.m. (PDT). Post time on Friday and Saturday is now at 6:15 p.m. On Wednesdays, admission is free, plus Cal-Expo offers a complete lasagna dinner, with salad and bread, for just $2.00.

Cal-Expo offers guaranteed $10,000 pools on all Pick-4’s!