The Week Ahead: Gulfstream and Pimlico

Gulfstream Park has its regular Wednesday through Sunday live  racing schedule this week, along with simulcasting that will feature Saturday’s Preakness Stakes  (Grade 1) at Pimlico in Baltimore.

Gulfstream will have nine races on Wednesday, with  a first post of 1:15 p.m.

The carryover is $218,821 on the Rainbow 6,  on the fourth through ninth  races.  The carryover has grown because Gulfstream  has gone twelve straight race days without the jackpot payoff requirement of just one ticket  with the winning horses in all six Rainbow 6 races.

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.

Tampa Bay Downs will not have live racing again until June 30 when it begins its annual two-day Summer Festival of Racing.

Meanwhile, the Oldsmar track is open daily at 11:00 a.m.  for simulcasting with Gulfstream Pimlico and other major tracks.

Saturday at Gulfstream

First post is 1:15 p.m. at Gulfstream, unless otherwise noted.

Gulfstream’s first post this Saturday, may 20, wil1 be 1:00 p.m. to assure that its 11-race card will finish prior to the Preakness which has scheduled post of 6:45 p.m.

On Saturday, Gulfstream will have the $100,000 Big Drama Stakes at seven furlongs on dirt for  Florida-breds 3-years-old and  up.

It is the first stakes in a new ten-race series at Gulfstream sponsored and funded by the Florida Horsemen’s Benevolent & Protective Association and by Gulfstream.

The races all have $100,000 purses. Six of them are restricted to Florida-breds.  Four races are Florida-preferred. They are open to horses from all states, with bonuses for Florida-breds that finish first through third.

Pimlico

Pimlico will hold the post-position draw for the Preakness at 5:00 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday.

Scheduled post for the Preakness is 6:45 p.m. on Saturday.

On Friday, Pimlico will have its annual Black Eyed Susan day lead-in to the Preakness.  It will have a 14-race card with first post of 11:30 p.m.

There will be six stakes races, highlighted by the Black-Eyed Susan (Grade 2) at 1 1/8 miles on dirt for 3-year-old fillies and the Pimlico Special (Grade 3) for 4-year-olds and up at 1 3/16 miles on dirt.

The Preakness, for 3-year-olds, also is 1 3/16 miles on dirt.

A field of ten is expected. It will be headed by Always Dreaming, winner of the 1 ¼ mile Kentucky Derby (Grade 1) at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., on May 6.

Owners of the Kentucky Derby’s second place finisher Lookin at Lee and fourth place finisher Classic Empire plan to enter those horses in the Preakness.

Pimlico has a 14-race card on Saturday, with six stakes.  The Preakness is one of nine stakes races on the card.

The 1 ½ mile Belmont Stakes (Grade 1), the third race in the Triple Crown, will be run on June 10 at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y.