Here are six names for a potential Heinz that could get you out of a pickle

The request to “please pass me the ketchup” is something you’ll hear in multiple languages at a cookout, a barbecue and a braai in every country around the world.

The food processing company Heinz has been manufacturing tomato sauce since 1876 and remains the global market leader in ketchup, selling 650 million bottles a year.

Henry John Heinz actually began packaging foodstuffs in Sharpsburg, Pennsylvania, in 1869. Before supplying tomato sauce he first took a punt on bottling horseradish but I bet he never anticipated his name would become associated with punters who relish trying to win big on the horses.

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A ‘Yankee’ is a bet type which consists of four selections that allow for 11 possible winning combinations, six doubles, four trebles and a single four-fold all to come.

Punters who take a ‘Canadian’ require five selections. This bet type offers them 26 individual bets across their five choices. There are 10 doubles, 10 trebles, five four-timers and one five-fold accumulator.

If you have six picks and you put them all together in a multiple accumulator the bet is called a ‘Heinz’.

Why?

The answer lies in the marketing genius of the founding father of the Heinz condiment empire.

Before the turn of the 19th century Henry found himself in New York City and was captivated by a shoe shop advertising that it had ’21 styles’ of footwear. He liked the idea of attaching a specific number to his own brand and although by this time he was already known as the ‘pickle king’ and his company was manufacturing and distributing in excess of 60 products, he chose to combine his lucky number five with that of his wife Sarah and proceeded to launch the slogan “57 varieties”.

Soon Americans travelling by train would catch sight of multiple number 57s carved into country hillsides, while in New York itself Heinz got his company to create the first ever electric billboard in the city. Unmissable with it’s giant flashing pickle, the sign towered six stories high and its 1 200 fluorescent bulbs lit up the message “57 Good Things For The Table”.

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That brand identity still appears on every Heinz Tomato Ketchup bottle as well as on their mustard, mayonnaise and of course their baked beans. After all we all know that “Heinz Means Beans”.

If you haven’t connected the dots by now, there are 57 combinations in a six pick ‘Heinz’ accumulator. Fifteen doubles, 20 trebles, 15 four-folds, six five-folds and one all to come six timer.

I mention the Heinz bet-type because this will be my last article for a while.

My intention is to ketchup with some unattended drudgery but in not wishing to depart the table without trying to ‘sauce’ at least one good thing, I thought I would throw out six names for a potential Heinz. I shall leave it to you Dear Reader to decide what event they might win.

In alphabetical order those half dozen names are: Alcaraz, England, Manchester City, Mucho Dinero, Scheffler and Vanillia.

Let’s pray that in a few months time when we look back in Heinz-sight, some of these names have lit up a few electronic billboards and got us out of a pickle or two.

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