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Jockey Miguel Vasquez registered a Sunday hat trick including aboard Smile Po. (Lauren King)
• Post Time Moves to 12:20 P.M. Starting with Nov. 8 Card
• Saturday’s $75,000 Awesome Banner Draws Field of Nine
• Jockey Miguel Vasquez Notches Sunday Hat Trick
David Joseph/Gulfstream Park
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The 20-cent Rainbow 6 jackpot pool is expected to grow to an estimated $100,000 when live racing returns to Gulfstream Park Friday, Nov. 8.
Following a mandatory payout that yielded multiple $40,299 payoffs Oct. 26, the popular multi-race wager went unsolved for a fourth consecutive racing day Sunday.
Friday’s Rainbow 6 sequence will span Races 4-9 and includes a third-level optional claiming allowance feature in Race 8 for 3-year-olds and up scheduled for five furlongs on the grass.
All seven horses entered have won stakes led by 8-year-old geldings and 13-time career winners Yes I Am Free and Xy Speed. Winless in five straight, Yes I Am Free is looking to get back to the form that saw him capture the Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint (G3) in 2022 and 2023.
After a pair of out-of-town starts Xy Speed returns to Gulfstream where he has won three straight races, each sprinting five furlongs on the grass, and six of 13 lifetime with three seconds and two thirds.
Race 5 Friday is a maiden special weight for 2-year-olds scheduled on the grass at five furlongs that drew a field of 11 including second-time starter Fling Ready, a $350,000 son of More Than Ready that ran sixth in debut Oct. 19 at Keeneland.
The Rainbow 6 jackpot pool is only paid out when there is a single unique ticket sold with all six winners. On days when there is no unique ticket, 70 percent of that day’s pool goes back to those bettors holding tickets with the most winners, while 30 percent is carried over to the jackpot pool.
Starting Friday, first-race post time moves from noon to 12:20 p.m.
Saturday’s $75,000 Awesome Banner Draws Field of Nine
Grade 3-placed Mr Skylight, stakes winner Divieto and stakes-placed Secret Lover, Big Effect and Roar Ready are among a field of nine entered for the $75,000 Awesome Banner handicap for 3-year-olds sprinting seven furlongs Saturday, Nov. 9 at Gulfstream Park.
Peter Vesgo’s Mr Skylight graduated in his second career start, a six-furlong maiden special weight March 16 at Gulfstream, then beat winners in his first try April 20 at Keeneland and rallied to be third by three lengths in the May 18 Chick Lang (G3) at Pimlico. Most recently he was seventh following a slow start in a six-furlong optional claimer Sept. 18 at Churchill Downs.
Divieto was a front-running winner of the one-mile Aventura two starts back Oct. 1 at Gulfstream. Secret Lover was fourth in the one-mile Gil Campbell Memorial Oct. 19 at Gulfstream, where he finished second in the FSS In Reality last December. Big Effect, third in the 2023 Juvenile Sprint at Gulfstream, won an optional claimer last out Sept. 28 first off the claim for trainer Rohan Crichton. Roar Ready ran third in Gulfstream’s seven-furlong Carry Back July 5.
Notes: Jockey Miguel Vasquez registered a Sunday hat trick aboard Como ($11.20) in Race 5, Black Fury ($4.60) in Race 7 and Smile Po ($4.40) in Race 10 … Trainer Rohan Crichton won twice with Sudoku Terry ($20.80) in Race 1 and Light Fury ($10.80) in Race 8.
