HorseRacingFLA Staff Report
Gulfstream Park on Wednesday will begin the second-to-last week of its 2016-2017 championship meet, with a 10-race card and first post of 12:35 p.m.
The Hallandale Beach track’s biggest meet has ten race days left and will end on Sunday April 2. Gulfstream will begin its three-month spring meet on Wednesday April 5.
Unless otherwise noted, first post time at Gulfstream will be 12:35 p.m. for the remainder of the championship meet’s Wednesday through Sunday schedule. An exception will be a 12:00 p.m. first post on Saturday April 1, when the $1 million Florida Derby (Grade 1) will be one of nine stakes races on the card.
Rainbow 6
On Wednesday, the Rainbow 6 carryover will be $865,950. It will be on races five through ten, with the sequence scheduled to begin at 2:32 p.m. The carryover has been growing because Sunday was the 18th straight race day without the jackpot payoff requirement of just one ticket with the winners of all six Rainbow 6 races. The jackpot is the full carryover plus 80 percent of the day’s new Rainbow 6 bets.
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.
Upcoming Stakes
Gulfstream has three stakes races scheduled for Saturday March 25.
The $100,000 Skip Away (Grade 3) is 1 1/8 miles on dirt for 4-year-olds and up.
The $75,000 Spectacular Bid is 6 ½ furlongs on dirt for 3-year-olds. The $75,000 Any Limit is six furlongs on dirt for 3-year-old fillies.
Entries will be out on Wednesday afternoon.
Inside Information The 5-year-old mare Distinta won the first stakes race of her career on Saturday, beating Wheatfield by a half-length in the $200,000 Inside Information (Grade 2).
It also was the first U.S. stakes win for trainer Victor Barboza Jr., who said he won 28 stakes in his native Venezuela.
Distinta won in 1:23.93 on the track listed as fast. It was the second-slowest winning time in the last 20 runnings of the Inside Information.
Winning Times in most of the other dirt races also were relatively slow at Gulfstream on Saturday. Distinta received an Equibase speed figure of 99, which is modest for a graded stakes.
Distinta was 11-1 and Wheatfield was 20-1 in the eight-horse field. They combined for a $2 exacta that paid $288.80.
Both horses passed Dearest, the 3-1 second choice, in the final strides.
John Velazquez rode Distinta. Fellow Hall of Famer Edgar Prado rode Wheatfield for trainer Danny Pish.
Curlin’s Approval, the 3-5 favorite, never challenged for the lead and finished fifth. In her two previous races, both at Gulfstream, she won the 1 1/16 mile Royal Delta (Grade 2) and the seven-furlong Herecomesthebride (Grade 3).
— Photo on home page by Barry Unterbrink
