The 20-cent Rainbow 6 jackpot pool will be guaranteed at $450,000 Sunday at Gulfstream Park in Hallendale Beach, Fla.
The popular multi-race wager went unsolved Saturday for the eighth racing day since a lucky ticketholder broke the jackpot for a $400,000 payoff. Multiple tickets with all six winners were each worth $1,840.18 Saturday.
The jackpot pool is only paid out when there is a single unique ticket sold with all six winners. On days when there is no unique ticket, 70 percent of that day's pool goes back to those bettors holding tickets with the most winners, while 30 percent is carried over to the jackpot pool.
Sunday's Rainbow 6 Sequence will span Races 5-10.
There will be a Super Hi-5 carryover of $6,443.92 heading into Sunday's program.
Pedigree Partners LLC's Shifty She seized control at the start of Saturday's $75,000 Ginger Punch Stakes at Gulfstream Park in Hallendale Beach, Fla. and held on tenaciously to capture the 1 1/16-mile turf stakes for Florida-bred fillies and mares.
The 5-year-old daughter of Gone Astray collected a $25,000 win-only bonus available to FTBOA Florida Sires Stakes-nominated starters in addition to the $45,105 winner's share of the purse.
While capturing her second consecutive stakes and winning her fifth race in her last six starts, the 4-5 favorite set a pressured pace while posting quarter-mile fractions of :23.77, :47.15, 1:10.09, and 1:33.93 on her way to a final clocking of 1:40.13.
“She loves to win. She definitely has the will to win,” trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. said. “You can see that. If you look at her record, even before we got her. You can't teach that.”
Despite the race-long pressure, she had more than enough energy in reserve to hold off the late rally of Sun Summers by a half-length under Edwin Gonzalez, who earlier in the day notched his 1,500th career win.
“This is a nice filly. She doesn't have a problem going to the front or staying in the middle of the pace. I let her settle on the lead today and she went nice and easy. She likes to fight,” Gonzalez said.
After finishing fourth in her career debut, Shifty She won three straight races, including an open allowance at Gulfstream in December 2019, before going to the sidelines for 16 months. Transferred to Joseph following her hiatus, she set a pressured pace before weakening to finish fourth in her April 9 return to action. Chris Pallas and George Klein's homebred mare came back to capture the May 15 Powder Break, defeating open company while rallying from just off the pace.
“You can't train that. She always finds a bit more. She knows where the wire is. Even in the race off the layoff when she got beat, she dueled the whole way and still hung in there,” Joseph said. “I think after this we'll try to find a graded stakes somewhere and at least give her a chance to win a graded stakes.”
The Joseph-trained Lovely Luvy rallied from far back to finish third, three-quarters of a length behind Sun Summers.
Hefty carryovers in the Pick 4, Pick 5 and Jersey Shore Pick 6 await bettors for the 11-race card at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, N.J. on Sunday after a succession of longshots dominated the final six races on Saturday's card.
Thanks in large part to Informative's stunning victory at odds of 79-1 in the featured Grade 3 Salvator Mile, there will be a carryover of $90,932 for the early Pick 4, a carryover of $67,939 for the early Pick 5 and a carryover of $29,974 for the Jersey Shore Pick 6.
The carryover for the Pick 5 sequence begins with Sunday's first race, with the Pick 4 carryover starting in the second race.
Monmouth Park handled a meet-best $6,180,159 from all sources for Saturday's 13-race card.
The Jersey Shore Pick 6 returned $12,384 for five of six winners for the 20-cent base bet on Saturday. The sequence started in the eighth race with Binkster ($9.80) and continued with Eagerly ($13.60) in the ninth race, Informative ($161.60) in the 10th race, Fifty Sheas ofgrey ($25.40) in the 11th race, U Know I B Lion ($30.60) in the 12th race and Pugilist ($12.40) in the 13th race.
Sunday's Pick 6 starts with race six.
The 50-cent Pick 5 on the final five races Saturday returned $4,529 for four of five winners.
The 50-cent Pick 4 Paid $325 for three of four winners.
Jose Ferrer rode three of the winners during Saturday's Pick 6 sequence (Informative, U Know I B Lion, and Pugilist) and had four winners overall on the card.
First race post time Sunday is 12:15 p.m. with the TVG.com Pegasus Stakes, featuring Kentucky Derby runner-up Mandaloun, serving as the feature race.
With the Maryland state record 20-cent Rainbow 6 carryover jackpot having surpassed the $1 million mark for Sunday, Maryland Jockey Club host and analyst Naomi Tukker and WBAL-TV sports anchor and reporter Pete Gilbert weighed in with ways to take down the life-changing prize at Pimlico racetrack in Baltimore, Md.
Tukker's “must use” horse in the sequence comes in the Race 5 opener with Richard Sillaman-trained Live and Let Liv. The 3-year-old filly has been worse than third just once from eight career starts, five of them wins, and “ran a career-best 45 days ago at this level, so plenty of time for her to get re-energized and ready to go.”
Race 6, the $75,000 Ben's Cat for Maryland-bred/sired 3-year-olds and up sprinting five furlongs on the turf, is where Tucker's price play comes with 2020 Maryland Million Turf runner-up Cannon's Roar (8-1). “I love that he had a breeze from the gate coming into this, and he has held his own sprinting on the turf.”
Constructed at a cost of $86.40, Gilbert's Rainbow 6 ticket utilizes at least two horses in each leg of the sequence, spreading out to four – undefeated 8-5 favorite Chub Wagon and fellow multiple stakes winners Hello Beautiful, Dontletsweetfoolya and Anna's Bandit – in the $100,000 Shine Again (Race 9).
Gilbert used Matta (9-2) and So Street (4-1) in the $75,000 Ben's Cat (Race 6); Pixelate (3-1), Argonne (8-1) and Midnight Tea Time (8-1) in the $100,000 Prince George's County (Race 8); and long shots Door Buster (30-1) and Proper Attire (20-1) and Malibu Beauty (7-2) in the $100,000 Stormy Blues, the latter entered for main track only.
In non-stakes races, Gilbert used recent Pimlico maiden special weight winner Blushable (8-1); Live and Let Liv (2-1), a five-time winner from eight starts; and Six Pack Sara (8-1), on a two-race win streak, in the opening sequence (Race 5), an optional claiming allowance for 3-year-old fillies sprinting six furlongs.
Race 7 is a six-furlong claiming sprint for maidens 3, 4 and 5 years old where Gilbert has both Snow Job (5-1), unraced since Dec. 9 and trying dirt for the first time after six grass starts, and Harbor Crossing (9-2), a second-time starter from trainer Hugh McMahon.
