12:40 P.M. Post Time for Thursday’s Eight-Race Program at Old Hilltop
BALTIMORE, Md. – Historic Pimlico Race Course will kick off Memorial Day weekend Thursday with a live eight-race program featuring a carryover of $432,827 in the 20-cent Rainbow 6.
Post time is 12:40 p.m. for the first of four programs that also mark the final weekend of the 12-day Preakness Meet, which began May 12 and runs through a special Memorial Day holiday card May 30.
The Rainbow 6 carryover dates back to the last live racing day, when Early Voting captured the 147th Preakness Stakes (G1) May 21 to give Seth Klarman’s Klaravich Stable and trainer Chad Brown their second victory in the Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown in six years.
Thursday’s Rainbow 6 carryover is the largest in Maryland since it reached a state-record $1,435,080.75 over 27 consecutive racing programs before a mandatory payout of $31,028.08 to multiple ticketholders July 4, 2021.
Introduced in Maryland April 2, 2015, on opening day of Pimlico’s spring meet, the Rainbow 6 had a prior state record carryover of $345,898.33 spanning 31 racing programs before being solved by one lucky bettor for a life-changing $399,545.94 payout April 15, 2018 at Laurel Park.
The Rainbow 6 jackpot is paid out only when there is a single unique ticket sold with all six winners. On days when there is no unique ticket, 60 percent of that day’s pool goes back to those bettors holding tickets with the most winners while 40 percent is carried over to the jackpot pool.
However, on mandatory payout days the entire pool is paid out to the bettor or bettors with the most winners in the six-race sequence.
Thursday’s Rainbow 6 sequence spans Races 3-8 and opens with a maiden special weight for fillies and mares age 3, 4 and 5 scheduled for five furlongs on the turf that drew a field of nine including Pray for the U S A, entered for main track only. The 7-5 program favorite is 3-year-old Visby, a second-time starter for trainer Justin Nixon that was beaten a length in an April 22 maiden special weight at Laurel by La Casa d’Oro, who came back to run sixth in the Miss Preakness (G3) May 20.
Race 4 is a six-furlong claimer for fillies and mares 3 and up which have never won two races. Some Is Nine enters the race of a 2 ¾-length maiden claiming victory May 15 at Pimlico, her fourth start since being claimed for $10,000 by trainer Mario Serey Jr. Trainer Kieron Magee sends out Moon Biz, who has been third or better in four of eight lifetime starts including her lone victory at this level Feb. 27 at Laurel.
Ten maiden fillies and mares age 3, 4 and 5 are entered to sprint six furlongs in a Race 5 claiming event. The Elkstone Group’s Maryland homebred Doomscroller, a 3-year-old daughter of Belmont Stakes (G1) winner Tonalist, is 7-5 on the morning line as she drops to the $16,000 level after finishing off the board in her first three starts, one in a maiden special weight and two with the waiver in maiden claimers.
Golden Can and Whiteknuckleflyer figure to vie for favoritism in Race 6, a $40,000 allowance for Maryland-bred/sired fillies and mares 3 and up scheduled for five furlongs on the grass. A four-time winner, Golden Can will be making just her second start since last October after finishing fifth in an off-the-turf optional claimer May 19 at Pimlico. Whiteknuckleflyer ran second in last September’s Small Wonder at Delaware Park and has not raced since finishing a troubled seventh in the Smart Halo Nov. 13 at Laurel.
The feature comes in Race 7, an optional claiming allowance for 3-year-olds and up sprinting six furlongs where both Hampden Lane and Hagler are entered for a $62,500 tag. Hagler ships in from New York for trainer Rudy Rodriguez after going 0-for-3 this year including fifths in the Jan. 1 Jerome and Feb. 6 Jimmy Winkfield at Aqueduct. The 7-5 program favorite is Rominski, who has a win and two seconds in three lifetime starts. Trained by Claudio Gonzalez, he was second by 1 ½ lengths as the favorite in a six-furlong optional claimer May 5 at Laurel, his first start in more than five months.
Thursday’s card wraps up with a six-furlong claiming sprint for maidens age 3, 4 and 5 where Frightland is a 3-5 morning line favorite for trainer Brittany Russell off his first two starts, both this year at Laurel. The 4-year-old Munnings gelding was fourth in a six-furlong maiden special weight April 22 before finishing second in a 5 ½-furlong maiden claiming turf sprint 19 days later. Feargal Lynch, aboard for each race, returns to ride.
Notes: Russell, whose 2022 Laurel spring title made her just the fourth female to win a meet championship in Maryland, leads the Preakness Meet standings with five wins, one ahead of Mike Trombetta, Jamie Ness and Richard Sillaman … Jevian Toledo sits atop the jockey standings with 10 wins, four more than Victor Carrasco and Jaime Rodriguez.
Maryland Jockey Club Press Release
Photo by Jerry Dzierwinski/MJC
