The Rainbow 6 carryover will be $2,273,704 at Gulfstream Park on Friday.
First post for the 11-race Friday card is 12:35 p.m. The Rainbow 6 is on races six to eleven.
The carryover keeps growing because Thursday was the 36th consecutive day without just one "jackpot" ticket that had the winners of all six races in the Rainbow 6.
On Thursday there were multiple tickets with all six winners, and each was paid $1,842.96. By our calculation there were 120 such tickets.
The payoff was on a day on low-odds winners--indicating that with the large pools there can be good-sized returns even if you are not the sole winner.
Gulfstream went into the day with a $2,178,642 carryover. Bettors added $396,158.
Under its rule for multi-winner days, there was a 20 percent takeout. Of the day's bet, 56 percent was divided among winning tickets.
The remaining 24 percent, approximately $95,000, was added to the carryover--growing it to $2,273,704. That is among the half-dozen highest in the six-year history of the bet.
The Rainbow 6 is a 20-cent per combination only bet. with multiple horses permitted in each race. For example, a ticket with two horses in each race has 64 combinations and costs $12.80.
On Thursday there were 57 runners in the Rainbow 6 races. None of the winners was higher than 7-1, and three winners were favorites.
All-sources handle for the 11 races was $8,674,320.
Gulfstream pays out the full Rainbow 6 pool of the day’s bets (minus the 20 percent
takeout) plus the carryover only on days when there is just one ticket with all
six winners.
On other days Gulfstream divides 56 percent of the day’s bets among
those bettors holding tickets with the most winners and adds 24 percent to the
carryover.
The most recent day with a single Rainbow 6 winner was Jan. 13, when it was hit for $76,799.38. The largest payout of the current championship meet was $262,634.84 on Jan. 7.
-- Jim Freer