INNOCENT BETTORS SHOULD BE PAID.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI Horse Racing

INGLEWOOD - With the investigation of the Breeders' Cup pick-six fix moving slower than Thursday afternoon maiden claimers at Hollywood Park, horse racing might face months or years of bad publicity before the case against the alleged cheats is nailed down and the sport gets a measure of satisfaction in the courts.

But there is something the racing industry can do - now - to soothe its fans.

It should go ahead and pay off the bettors who were innocent victims of the apparent scam, as expensive as such a goodwill gesture might be.

The victims are the bettors or groups of bettors who hold the 78 tickets that named five of six winners in the pick-six sequence at the Oct. 26 Breeders' Cup at Arlington Park in Chicago. When they were cashed in that day, those tickets were worth $4,606.20 apiece. But if the payoff on the fraudulent perfect ticket is redistributed, those ``consolation'' tickets would be worth about $43,000.

The difference, up to $39,000, multiplied 78 times, comes to a little more than $3 million. Because payment to the suspects has been held up, that money lies in some bank account somewhere. And it's gathering interest for a racing association when it should be gathering interest for the honest bettors who were skillful enough to pick five.

For legal reasons, perhaps the money owed to the fix suspects can't be redistributed before there's proof of guilt. In that case, racing should find that much money, pooling the resources of its dozens of associations if necessary, and pony up.

Is it worth $3 million to the racing industry to buy good publicity in the middle of a scandal?

Identifying the shortchanged bettors is possible because they had to sign tax forms to collect the $4,606.20.

Chances are, if you frequent a major racetrack, you know somebody who is out $39,000 or his or her share of it. Even if you don't know somebody, as a horseplayer you sympathize.

What paying off the victims can't do is help bettors who might have been ripped off by undetected parimutuel scams in the past, or assure bettors computer-security breaches will be prevented in the future.

What it can do is send the messages that horse racing does right by its customers - something most customers would question - and that the industry accepts blame for the fiasco.

--Who done it: The investigation now centers on three men: Derrick Davis, of Maryland, who bet $1,152 on the Breeders' Cup pick-six in $12 denominations by touch-tone telephone through an off-track betting facility in Catskill, N.Y.; Chris Harn, the programmer fired by Autotote for allegedly using his special access to the company's computer system to alter Davis' pick-six numbers after four of the races had been run; and Glen DaSilva, a bettor alleged to have made bets similar to Davis'.

Immediately after the Breeders' Cup, Davis was identified as the holder of all six perfect pick-six tickets, as well as 108 tickets with five winners, and stood to collect a total of $3.1 million. Davis would have been lauded for his betting acumen had a closer look not revealed the implausibility of his strategy, which found him relying on single selections in the first four races and covering all of the horses in the final two. Davis' singles included 26-1 Domedriver in the Mile and 13-1 Starine in the Filly & Mare Turf, and his final winner was 43-1 Volponi in the Classic.

The three men, whose attorneys assert their innocence, were fraternity brothers at Drexel University in Philadelphia. Each is 29 years old.

On the bright side, it's good to see so many young people getting involved in racing!

--The impact: Among the characteristics required of horseplayers - winners and losers alike - is resiliency. After seeing selections stumble out of the gate, trip and fall down, lose close photo finishes or suffer unjust disqualifications, they have to shrug and move on to the next race or day.

Is it any wonder that after sports events everywhere were canceled Sept. 11, 2001, horse racing was the first sport to re-open - and fans were out in droves Sept. 12?

But racetracks shouldn't assume horseplayers disgusted by the Breeders' Cup pick-six fix - and suspicious of all tote systems - will shrug this off as easily as an everyday bad beat.

Horseplayers are drawn to this form of gambling in part because of the beautiful symmetry of the parimutuel system, in which the odds are determined not by the ``house'' but by the betting, the winners are paid by the losers, and renegade opinions pay best. If racing can't promise uncorrupted betting pools, it loses one of its few edges.

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