GP West: Eight Sunday Races, Noon First Post; After Historically High Rainbow 6 Bet

HRFLA Staff Report

Following a Saturday betting binge of $890,459 on its Rainbow 6,  the Gulfstream Park West meet will have a new pool for that bet on Sunday.

And, just as on Saturday, there will be no turf racing on Sunday for the GP West meet  which is run at Calder in Miami Gardens, Fla.

Sunday's card has eight races with first post of 12:00 p.m.

The Rainbow  6 will be on races three to eight, with the sequence scheduled to start at 1:00 p.m. for the 20 cents per-combination-only bet.

Because of wet conditions following recent days rains the first, third, fifth and seventh races have been moved to the dirt track that is listed as Fast.

 On Saturday, GP West had a highly-publicized mandatory payout of its Rainbow 6 jackpot/carryover--regardless of the number of tickets with all six winning horses.

Saturday's Rainbow 6 betting apparently was the second-largest for that bet in the seven-year history of the GP West meet, which is sponsored by Gulfstream Park and has 40 race days in October-November.

The GP West Rainbow 6 betting record is $3,615,196 set on Nov. 24, 2019, according to HorseRacingFLA's data base based on reviews of Equibase race charts.

That was closing day of the meet.  It had a mandatory jackpot payout on the Rainbow 6. 

That payout combines the entire coming-in carryover plus 80 percent of the day's Rainbow 6 bet (20 percent carryover). Gulfstream usually pays out that jackpot only on days when there is just one ticket with all six winning horses.

On non-mandatory days with multiple winning tickets, Gulfstream takes out 20 percent of the day's bet.  It then divides 56 percent among tickets with six winners and adds 24 percent to the carryover.

Last Nov. 24, the carryover had  grown to $1,094,464 over 39 days in which there were multiple tickets with all six Rainbow 6  winning horses.  There were 837 winning tickets, and each paid $4,765 on the 20 cent bet.

This Saturday, the coming-in carryover was $111,271 built up over eight days.

In its marketing, Gulfstream projected that the Rainbow 6 would draw about $500,000 in bets.

Bettors around the nation came close to $900,000, even though two Rainbow 6 races were moved from turf to a sloppy  dirt track following morning rain.

There were 60 winning tickets and each won $12,725.66 on a 20 cent bet.

Program numbers of winning horses were 1-1-2-4-7-8.

Gulfstream does not regularly provide break downs on where it handle comes from.

But it has long noted that the popularity of its year-round signal has been growing among Advance Deposit Wagering (ADW) bettors in recent years--and Saturday was apparently another example.

Spectators are not allowed at Calder during the current meet, and Gulfstream's plant  in Hallandale Beach has very limited wagering--in its north tent area and on some days by invitation in its Silks simulcasting area.