As I said, I wasn't making a serious pick 4 play-- if I had I would have used several more horses, and certainly the winner-- but that would have meant spending several times as much, and diluting the play and possible return enough that I didn't think it was worth it. There's also a money management issue-- I didn't bring that much cash with me, hadn't hit the races I played earlier on the card, and didn't want to tie my money up in a 4 race bet, especially since I really liked the King's Bishop, the Travers and the last (wrong about that one).
My thinking on the two I played was pretty basic, and similar in both cases. Stake horses, especially grass horses, run a very high percentage of tops. Both of these had tops that made them very strong (maybe the two best tops in the race, I don't remember), and were big prices. My play was basically just a mental health bet, since if one of the combinations I played had come in paying 10k and I didn't have it I would have had to shoot myself for the third time in one week-- I actually did say to the teller (who gave me a funny look because I generally bet more than $64) "mental health bet".



TGJB