GP: Thursday Rainbow 6 Carryover is $592,000; Sire Stakes, Mandatory Payout Coming Up

Gulfstream Park will be dark this Monday through Wednesday, and then begin a stretch of four straight race days that will end its spring/summer meet.

On Thursday, the Hallandale Beach, FLa., track will have a first post of 12:00 p.m. for a nine-race card. 

It will have a Rainbow 6  carryover of $592,479. That 20 cent per combination-only  bet will be on races four to nine, with the sequence scheduled to start at 1:40 p.m.

The closing Saturday, Sept. 26, will be the biggest stakes day of the meet. Gulfstream will have six stakes races--topped by the two closing legs in the annual Florida Sire Stakes series for 2-year-olds. 

On Tuesday, we will have the first in our series of previews on those stakes races.

On Sunday Sept. 27, Gulfstream will have a mandatory payout on its Rainbow 6 jackpot--regardless of the number of tickets with the winners of all six Rainbow 6 races.

The jackpot consists of the entire Rainbow 6 carryover plus 80 percent of the day's new Rainbow 6 bets. There is a 20 percent takeout. 

Gulfstream usually pays out that jackpot only if there is just one ticket with all six winners. On most days with multiple winning tickets, the carryover grows by 24 percent. The current carryover has built up over twelve days.

A Florida law prohibits Gulfstream from extending any carryovers into the Gulfstream Park West meet that will begin on Oct. 3.

So, if the carryover keeps growing into next  Sunday it could be as high as $1 million, with the prospect that as much as $5 million will be bet on the Rainbow  6.

It is a situation where many bettors who have not been playing the Rainbow 6 will jump in, hoping to win some of the money that others have lost. 

* On Sunday, each  ticket with all six Rainbow 6 winners paid $2,505.54 on the 20 cent bet.

There were 63 such combinations, according to HorseRacingFLA|'s review of Equibase charts.

Program numbers of the winning horses were 2-1-7-6-6-2.

The carryover coming in was $525,602.

Bettors added $278,751 to the Rainbow 6. Of that, Gulfstream took out 20 percent and then divided 56 percent among tickets with six winners and added 24 percent to the carryover.

*Our review of Equibase charts shows that total handle for Gulfstream's ten races was approximately $5.9 million this past Sunday. 

That is about 15 percent more than the $5.1 million that Gulfstream reported for Sept. 22, 2019--the comparable Sunday  last year.

Both days had ten races, with similar cards and no stakes races.  Conditions were Fast and Firm on both days.

One difference is that Gulfstream last September was open for spectators and live wagering. This year, due  to the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been closed to spectators and has not had live wagering since late March.

Our examination of Equibase charts indicates that Gulfstream is among tracks where handle has been higher on many dates this year than on comparable days in 2019.

While precise numbers are not always available, increases in Advance Deposit Wagering (ADW) have in many cases more than made up for the loss of live handle.

But it should be noted that the absence of spectators and live betting takes away projected revenues on program sales, concessions and group events at Gulfstream and at other tracks.

In addition, a track's share of takeout is higher on bets made on-track than on bets made on ADWs and at simulcast locations such as other tracks.

Starting later this week, we will have additional details on recent wagering at Gulfstream and at other tracks.