He wasn’t picking the winner, he was picking the second place horse …
Summary: A murder at a local race track leads to organized crime and drug running.
Original air date: October 27, 2006 (US)
Written by: J David Harden
Directed by: John Behring
Opening numbers:
6: Furlongs
6:Winners
6: Bodies
Pick: 6
Family Concepts: (character development)
- Don was a tactical training instructor at Quantico after he stopped working Fugitive Recovery. Liz Warner was one of his students.
- Larry and Megan work out a dating system to give Larry more structure in their relationship.
- Alan spent a lot of time at race tracks before he met Margaret. He got hooked on racing as a kid.
- Don never talked much about himself or his family when he was teaching at Quantico.
- Megan drives and Acura with a nav system
- Larry: I never percuss for pleasure.
- Charlie: I’ll be home later for dinner.
Alan: OK … I’m going out for dinner. - Megan: Got a name?
Colby: And an address. Plug that into your fancy little nav system in your Acura.
Megan: Oh don’t player hate.
Danny Roberts is a local rail bird who is murdered in broad daylight at a race. Don’s team is called in by an Organized Crime agent Liz Warner, to help with the case. She has been investigating a drug running group who comes to the track regularly, and during that investigation, Warner found a link between the track and a local mob boss, Ivan Tobakian.
One of the items found on Danny’s body is a notebook he’s used to track and modify his betting system, Charlie is surprised to find out Danny has won his last thirty bets using this system since it’s purpose is to pick the second place horse, not the first place winner. Danny had found a way to exploit a flaw in the para-mutual betting used at the track, but somehow his system stopped working. Looking into the system further, and with help from Alan, who used to spend a lot of time at the track, Charlie finds evidence of race tampering.
Charlie’s research turns up five other people who like Danny exploited the race tampering to win a pick six bet, interestingly the other five people are now dead. Colby and Megan find out all five had been unemployed and looked for work through various job shops. All five of them interviewed at the track where Danny died, and all five were interviewed by Maurice Conners, the track owner. Conners admits he interviewed people and Tobakian was looking for specific types of people, single, no families, to work in one of Tobakian’s clubs. Agent Warner looks through Colby’s research and finds another link for Tobakian to crime, the group of men she was investigating for drug crimes, were also working in the club. Tobakian was laundering the drug money through the race betting.
Danny’s girlfriend, Sharlyn helped him with his system once they discovered the tampering, Megan offers her protection if she will help bring down Ivan Tobakian. Tobakian is arrested at the track for the drug charges, the race tampering and murder.