By Jim Freer
The Saturday card at Gulfstream Park has four turf stakes, all with large fields that could offer some big payoffs but without a much-anticipated frenzy of Rainbow 6 betting.
The 10th and feature race is the $100,000 H. Allen Jerkens at two miles on turf for 3-year-olds and up with scheduled post of 4:34 p.m.
It is part of an 11-race card with first post of 12.00 p.m.
The other stakes races are: *$75,000 Tropical Park Derby – 1 1/16 miles turf, 3-year-olds, seventh race, scheduled post 3:01 p.m.
*$75,000 Via Borghese – 1 3/16 miles turf, fillies and mares 3-YO and up, ninth race, scheduled post 4:03 p.m.
*$75,000 Tropical Park Oaks – 1 1/16 miles turf, 3-year-old fillies, 11th race, scheduled post 5:05 p.m.
Later in the morning, we will have previews of the stakes on this Web site. We will have race coverage during the afternoon on our blog.
On Sunday, Gulfstream will have the $100,000 Mr. Prospector (Grade 3) at six furlongs on dirt for 4-year-olds and up. The six-horse field includes South Florida-stabled stakes winners Delta Bluesman and Yourdreamsormine.
Rainbow 6
Even with the four stakes, New Year’s Eve will not be as festive as hoped for by many fans and by Gulfstream management.
That is because on Friday there was just one winning ticket in the Rainbow 6, and it took down the jackpot (including the entire carryover) of $505,610.72.
If there had been multiple Rainbow 6 winners, the carryover would have continued into Saturday and would have been $392,176.
On Saturday, the Rainbow 6 is on races six to eleven.
For several days, Gulfstream has been promoting that on Saturday it will have mandatory payoffs on the Rainbow 6, Late Pick 5 and Super Hi-5—with no carryovers going into Sunday.
If the carryover had continued, Gulfstream history indicates there would have been $1 million or more bet on the Rainbow 6.
On mandatory days, Gulfstream pays out 80 percent of the day’s Rainbow 6 bet (the carryover is 20 percent) and the entire carryover—regardless of the number of winning tickets.
On other days, Gulfstream makes that payout only when there is just one ticket with the winners of all six Rainbow 6 races.
When there are multiple winners on such days, Gulfstream takes out 20 percent of the day’s Rainbow 6 bet. It divides 56 percent among tickets with the most winning horses and adds 24 percent to the carryover.
On Saturday, Gulfstream will divide 80 percent of the day’s bet among tickets with the most winners. The Rainbow 6 is a 20-cent per combination-only bet. Multiple horses can be used in each race, thus setting up a ticket with multiple 20 cent combinations. For example, a ticket with two horses in each race has 64 combinations and costs $12.80.
*Going into Friday, the carryover was $343,542. Bettors added $202,642 to the pool.
Gulfstream reported that the winning ticket cost $900 and was bought in Maryland. It has not disclosed the identity of the ticket holder.
The ticket had the following number of horses in races five through ten – 5, 5, 6, 5, 3, 2.
One of its horses in the tenth and last race was the winner, the 10 horse Sober on Sunday.
Going into the tenth race, it was the only live ticket that included Sober on Sunday.
The ticket had 4,500 combinations at 20 cents each—coming to $900.
The six races had 62 starters.
To have gone ALL in each race would have required 1,152,000 combinations at 20 cents each. The cost would have been $230,400.
If such a ticket were one of two winning tickets, the total payout would have been $113,480 (56 percent of the day’s pool).
Each ticket would have received $56,740.
These numbers point out that even “whales” need to leave out some horses in Rainbow 6 bets.
