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By Jim Freer
Wednesday, Sept. 9 — As part of a Labor Day week schedule change, Gulfstream Park will not have live racing this Thursday.
Gulfstream will have racing on Friday, Saturday and Sunday with first post time at 1:15 p.m. each day.
There will be one $75,000 stakes race on Friday and one $75,000 stakes race on Saturday.
The Friday stakes is the Hard Worker, at five furlongs on turf for fillies and mares 3-years-old and up.
Speedster R Free Roll heads an eight-horse field. She will make just her second career turf start. On June 6 she won the Tiger Lily at five furlongs on turf at Gulfstream.
The Saturday stakes is the Sensitive Prince, at 1 /16 miles on dirt for 3-year-olds and up.
The 4-year-old gelding East Hall is the most recognizable name and a possible favorite in the six-horse field. He is getting some class relief after going winless in seven starts this year – all in stakes with six at higher levels than the Sensitive Prince.
Last Nov. 8, East Hall won the 1 1/16 mile Millions Classic during the Gulfstream Park West meet at Calder. Earlier in 2014 he won the Indiana Derby (Grade 2) and the Ohio Derby.
On Friday morning we will have a preview of the Hard Worker, and on Saturday morning we will have a preview of the Sensitive Prince.
Gulfstream late this afternoon will draw its entries for this coming Sunday. The Condition Book shows no stakes races.
* On Friday, Gulfstream will begin a new pool for its Rainbow 6, a 20-cent only per combination bet that requires picking the winners of the day’s last six races. For the Friday card, the Rainbow 6 will be on races five through ten.
Rainbow 6 bettors will be starting fresh following Monday’s mandatory payout of the full pool (day’s bets plus carryover). There were nine winning tickets with each receiving $261,743.62.
Gulfstream usually pays out the full Rainbow 6 pool only on days when there is just one ticket with all six winners. On other days, after the 20 percent takeout, Gulfstream divides 70 percent of the day’s Rainbow 6 bets among the multiple winning tickets and puts 30 percent into the carryover.
Monday was a mandatory payout date for the full pool – to multiple wining tickets – because it was the final day of the Gulfstream After Retirement Racing Program (GPTARP) portion of Gulfstream’s summer meet. Under state law, Gulfstream cannot continue with any carryovers beyond that date or a similar date in its racing schedule.
There had been 31 racing days with multiple Rainbow 6 winners, and the carryover for Monday had grown to $662,401.
Bettors at Gulfstream, at simulcast sites and via computer and phone wagering poured $2,035,118 into the Rainbow 6. That was one of the largest single-day totals in the bet’s five-year history. The combination of the day’s bet (minus the takeout) plus the carryover produced a pool of about $2.3 million – resulting in the payout in the $260,000 range for nine tickets.
The payout was large because in the six races only one was won by a favorite and two were won by horses at 17-1 odds or higher.
Friday will be the first of 14 remaining race days in Gulfstream’s summer meet. There will be a mandatory Rainbow 6 payout on Oct. 3, the meet’s closing day. That also will be day for the final races in the four divisions of the Florida Sire Stakes Series.
From Oct. 7 through Nov. 29, Gulfstream will hold its Gulfstream Park West meet at Calder.
During that meet, Gulfstream will offer the Rainbow 6 under the same rules as at its Hallandale Beach track, 7 miles to the East of the Calder property.
