By Jim Freer
Friday, July 10 — There were multiple winners of the Rainbow 6 bet at Gulfstream Park again on Thursday, thus increasing the carryover to $58,791 for today’s race card.
Today’s total Rainbow 6 pool, of the day’s bets plus the carryover, likely will be more than $100,000.
If the current five-day run of multiple winning tickets continues into next week, momentum could start building toward another mandatory ‘million dollar-plus Rainbow 6 payout.
That happens several times a year at Gulfstream. And the Rainbow 6 frenzy is especially important to the track between April and November, by helping it draw additional simulcast and ADW bettors during its non – Championship Meet months.
Gulfstream will have nine races today, with first post time of 1:00 p.m.
The Rainbow 6, a 20-cent only bet, will be on the day’s fourth through ninth races,
Those six races are all claiming races, and have a total of 59 entrants. That presents a handicapping challenge that Gulfstream management often strives for in the Rainbow 6.
If there is no single winner today, the carryover could be close to $100,000 on Saturday.
Gulfstream pays out the full Rainbow 6 pool (day’s bets plus carryover) only on days when there is just one ticket with all six winners,
On other days it divides 70 percent of the day’s Rainbow 6 bet among tickets with six winners and adds the remaining 30 percent to the carryover.
Thursday was the fifth day of Gulfstream’s summer meet and the fifth consecutive day on which there were multiple winners of the Rainbow 6.
On Thursday, wagering on the Rainbow 6 was $52,168.
It was part of $3,153,315 in all-sources handle on the day’s Gulfstream races. Each winning Rainbow 6 ticket paid $4,866.68.
The payout was buoyed by the win by Island Dude, at 14:1, in the eighth and final race.
Island Dude took the lead coming out of the final turn in the 7 1/2 furlong turf race and won by 4 1/2 lengths in the 11-horse field, where all had claiming prices of $25,000 or of $30,000,
Eduardo Nunez rode Island Dude, a 3-year-old gelding owned by Blackacre Farms and trained by Kathleen O’Connell.
Most tracks’ Pick 6 is a $2 minimum bet.
Gulfstream’s version is geared toward the smaller bettor and teams of those bettors,
It is 20 cents-only per combination. A ticket can have multiple horses in each race, and thus multiple combinations.
For example, a ticket with two horses per race has 64 combinations and costs $12.80.
When the carryover reaches a high level, often $500,000 to $1 million, or near the close of a race meet Gulfstream will have a mandatory payout of the entire pool–even if there are multiple winning tickets.
The last big mandatory payout was on Sunday June 28.
The carryover heading into the day was $383,473. Bettors at Gulfstream and around the country combined to wager an additional $714,825 on the Rainbow 6.
That produced a pool of $1,098,298. Each winning ticket paid $30,929.94.
Gulfstream will have eleven races on Saturday and ten races on Sunday. There are no stakes races either day.
But there will be large fields in the Rainbow 6 races.
On Saturday, the Rainbow 6 races have 66 entrants and on Sunday those races have 73 entrants–both days including Main Track Only and Also Eligibles.
Daily first post time is 1 p.m. for the summer meet, with racing on Thursdays through Sundays until Oct. 3.
