Inside Saturday's Rainbow 6 Takedown

The Gulfstream Park Rainbow 6  had just one winning ticket on Saturday, and it paid $244,788.08 on the 20-cent only bet.

It was the only ticket with all six winning horses. The program numbers of those horses were 11-12-9-4-2-5. 

Gulfstream will begin a  new Rainbow 6 pool on Sunday. The 12-race card has a first post of 12:45 p.m.

The Rainbow 6  will be on races seven to 12 with the sequence scheduled to start at 3:52 p.m.


The Saturday winning ticket took down the entire carryover of $154,834 plus 80 percent of the day's Rainbow 6  bet of $112,457 (20 percent takeout).

The sequence began with Independent Worker (11) at 45-1 winning the sequence-starting seventh race.  It ended with First Off (5), the 1-2 favorite, winning the 12th race. In between, the winning horses' odds were 15-1, 22-1,s 7-1 and 2-1.

There were 61 runners in the six races. The combination of the large fields and longshot winners left  only six live  tickets going into the  12th race.

Each of those tickets had a horse singled out.  One ticket, and only one, had First Off as a single in the 5 1/2 furlong dirt race--a $10,000 maiden claimer for fillies and mare3-YO and up.

No doubt, numerous other tickets had First Off as a  single.  But those tickets  got knocked out earlier in the Rainbow 6.

That points out the biggest risk in the Rainbow 6--there are no consolation payouts.

First Off's credentials were obvious. The 4-year-old daughter of First Dude was dropping from  the $20,000 level, coming off a bullet workout at Gulfstream; and had hit the board in three of four starts.

 She also had these connections: owner Frank Carl Calabrese, trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. and jockey Paco  Lopez.

First  Off was the leader  at every  call and won in the respectable time  of 1:04.14.

The carryover had built up over ten days when there were multiple tickets with the winners of  all six winners.  On those days, Gulfstream takes out 20 percent of the new Rainbow 6 bets, divides 56 percent among winning tickets and adds 24 percent to the carryover.

Gulfstream said the winning ticket was purchased on Xpressbet. That is the advance deposit  wagering company owned by The Stronach Group, the parent company of Gulfstream.

*On Saturday the Late Pick 5  paid $12,748.30 for the minimum 50 cent  bet.  Tickets with four of five winners paid $98.15.  The number of winning tickets was not readily available,=. The Late Pick 5 pool was $120,008.