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Gulfstream: Friday’s Rainbow 6 Guaranteed At $900,000, Mandatory Payout Sunday

A mandatory payout of the 20-cent Rainbow 6 pool is scheduled for Sunday's closing-day program of the Spring/Summer Meet at Gulfstream Park.

The popular multi-race program went unsolved for the 13th consecutive racing day Thursday, when multiple tickets with all six winners were each worth $2,967.68. The carryover jackpot pool grew to $636,676.56. However, there will be a jackpot pool guarantee of $900,000 for Friday's Rainbow 6.

The Rainbow 6 carryover jackpot is usually 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 usually goes back to those bettors holding tickets with the most winners, while 30 percent is carried over to the jackpot pool. However, on mandatory-payout days, the entire pool is paid out to the bettor or bettors with the most winners in the six-race sequence.

Should the Rainbow 6 go unsolved Friday and Saturday, the pool is expected to build into the millions.

Friday's Rainbow 6 sequence will span Races 4-9, including a second-level optional claiming allowance featuring Tatweej's quest for three wins in a row.

Trained by Todd Pletcher, the late-developing 4-year-old, who brought a bid of $2.5 million at the 2017 Keeneland September sale, has scored dominating back-to-back victories at Friday's distance of a mile. The son of Tapit, who finished third in his June 21 debut at Gulfstream, broke his maiden in front-running style by 3 ¾ lengths July 25. The Kentucky-bred colt, who is out of Grade 1-stakes winner Tiz Miz Sue, came right back to score by 2 ½ lengths Aug. 22. Edgard Zayas has the return mount Friday, when Tatweej will take on five rivals, including Brewmeister, who will also be seeking his third straight victory at Gulfstream.

Formerly trained by Chad Brown, Brewmeister finished third June 13 in his first start for Lisa Lewis, before graduating at 6 ½ furlongs July 4 and coming right back to rally from far back to score by a half-length. Ron Allen Jr. has the return call on the 3-year-old gelded son of Point of Entry.

Saturday's Rainbow 6 sequence will be highlighted by six juvenile stakes, including the $400,000 In Reality and the $400,000 My Dear Girl, the final legs of the FTBOA Florida Sire Stakes series for 2-year-olds sired by accredited stallions standing in Florida.

The $150,000 FSS Wildcat Heir, a mile stakes for 3-year-olds and up, will kick off the sequence in Race 6, followed by the $75,000 Hollywood Beach, a five-furlong turf sprint; the My Dear Girl, the 1 1/16-mile final for fillies; the $75,000 Armed Forces, a mile turf stakes; the In Reality, the 1 1/16-mile open-division final; and the $75,000 Our Dear Peggy, a mile turf race for fillies.

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Santa Anita’s Autumn Meet Wagering Menu To Include New Golden Hour Late Pick 4

Santa Anita's much anticipated Autumn meet, which opens this Friday, will offer a comprehensive betting menu including the new $1 Golden Hour Late Pick 4. The wager, which features a low 15% takeout popular with players, links the last two races from Santa Anita and the last two races from Golden Gate Fields each racing day. It complements the popular $5 Golden Hour Double, which premiered earlier this year during Santa Anita's winter-spring season.

While Santa Anita remains closed to the public due to Los Angeles County's COVID-19 restrictions, fans can watch the live races streaming in HD free of charge on santaanita.com. There are several on-line wagering options available, including 1stBet.com, Santa Anita's official wagering platform, which can be downloaded for free at the App Store. All of Santa Anita's races also will be shown live on TVG.

The heart of Santa Anita's player friendly program belongs to the early Pick 5, linking the first five races offered each day. At 14%, the popular wager features one of the lowest takeout rates in the country on a multi-race wager. Bookending the card is a late Pick 5, featuring the last five races each day.

Santa Anita's 20 cent Rainbow Pick Six Jackpot returns, consisting of the final six races on each day's program. The 20 cent Rainbow Pick Six has developed a following as it has the propensity to grow into a massive jackpot pool of millions of dollars, paid out only to a single ticket with all six winners.

All bets, including the Rainbow Pick Six Jackpot, have mandatory payouts on closing day, Oct. 25.

Friday's opener, which was delayed a week due to the impact of the Bobcat Fire on the surrounding community, features the return of Santa Anita's inclusion in The Stronach Five, offering a weekly guaranteed pool of $100,000. Contested each Friday, The Stronach Five consists of a series of races from Santa Anita, Gulfstream Park, Laurel Park and Golden Gate Fields, all running in quick succession. The $1 minimum, The Stronach Five is highlighted by an industry low 12% takeout.

Santa Anita's betting menu is rounded out by numerous wagering opportunities that players have come to expect from The Great Race Place, including $2 Win, Place and Show wagering featuring the lowest takeout of any major racetrack in North America, plus $1 Exactas, $2 rolling Daily Doubles, 50 cent rolling Pick 3s, early and late 50 cent Pick 4s, early and late 50 cent Pick 5s, the $1 Super High 5 and 10 cent Superfectas on all races with a minimum of six runners.

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‘Weekend Warrior’ Andy Muhlada Tops Inaugural Kentucky Downs Turf Handicapping Challenge

Andy Muhlada calls himself a “weekend warrior” when it comes to horse-racing handicapping tournaments, working in contest play around his full-time job in Cincinnati. But the 53-year-old from Lawrenceburg, Ind., proved a weekday wonder when it came to the inaugural Kentucky Downs Turf Handicapping Challenge presented by Daily Racing Form this past Tuesday and Wednesday.

The 53-year-old Muhlada, a self-employed manufacturers' rep working with architects in high-end construction, earned the track's title of National Turf Handicapping Champion with a final combined bankroll of $9,211 for the two, separate live-money tournaments. That included the $7,354 Muhlada finished with to top Wednesday's competition.

Muhlada's two-day score comfortably beat out runner-up Robert Swickard, a retired firefighter from Commerce Township, Mich., who accrued $7,965.60, including winning Tuesday's tournament.

“I'm the classic weekend warrior type of guy on these contests,” said Muhlada, whose victory was made possible by hitting big exactas on the final two races of the RUNHAPPY Meet at Kentucky Downs. “… It's bizarre how it just flowed and worked perfect. There were eight reasons I could have been derailed. Sometimes it's just your day.”

As the overall winner, Muhlada earned $15,000, a seat in the 2020 Breeders' Cup Betting Challenge (BCBC) worth $10,000 and all the fame that comes with being anointed National Turf Handicapping Champ. In addition, he won $7,312 in prize money and a prize package to the 2021 National Horseplayers Championship (NHC) in Las Vegas as the winner of Wednesday's tournament. And, of course, he kept his Wednesday bankroll, plus the $1,857 he made Tuesday.

Muhlada called the victory a “mental breakthrough.” He now has qualified for the NHC four times and will be in his first BCBC.

“I'm always in these tournaments, and I'm always top 10, top 20 percent. I hold my own, do pretty well,” he said. “But I'd never won a major contest. I've come in third and gone to Vegas. Come in second and won money, but never like, 'I'm it. I'm the winner.' I stamped myself that I belong with these guys. That's how I feel now.”

There were Hall of Fame horseplayers, past NHC and NHC Tour winners among the 182 entries in Tuesday's tournament and 173 Wednesday. The tournament, overseen by Monmouth Park's Brian Skirka, was conducted online through TVG and Xpressbet.

Starting with a $500 bankroll Tuesday (from entrants' $1,000 buy-in) and a $300 bankroll Wednesday (from the $600 buy-in), participants had to wager $50 or more on at least 10 races from Kentucky Downs on Tuesday and on at least six races Wednesday. Contestants could bet win, place, show and exactas.

But at first it didn't look like Muhlada was even going to be able to play.

He had a conflict and couldn't play last Sunday when the first of the two tournaments was supposed to take place. He also was committed to a heavy work schedule on Wednesday afternoon. Players had to compete both days to win the overall prize.

“I thought, 'OK, I'm just going to miss it. No big deal,'” Muhlada said. “When it rained out the Sunday and went to Tuesday, Tuesday was perfect. I literally signed up just for Tuesday, and if I did well enough I was going to decide what to do on Wednesday. I called Brian and he was awesome. He got me in literally an hour and a half before the tournament started on Tuesday and I did well enough that I played on Wednesday.

“But I was in a Zoom meeting from like 2 until 5, with the races on a side screen. Then it left me with a lot of work left to do. I got off the Zoom call with four races left. I didn't really like the race coming up, the seventh race. I didn't have any strong feelings. So I just took a walk to clear my head. I kind of put the plan together as to what I had to do in the eighth, the ninth and the 10th races to get to a money goal I needed to get to.”

Muhlada said he blew in the eighth race and was down to his last $100 with two races left Tuesday. His ninth-race bets included a $10 box on the 8-5 exacta in the Franklin-Simpson Stakes won by 9-1 Guildsman by a neck over 21-1 shot Island Commish.

“There were five horses in the ninth race I identified as live long shots,” he said. “I settled in aggressively on the 5, Island Commish. If he wins, I do even better because I had money to win on him. I started to get less comfortable with the horse as his odds kept going up. But I said, 'I can't just give up on it. I think he's sitting on a good race.' The 8 was the horse I liked the best. I settled in on the 5 and built tickets around him. All that did was give me enough money to have a shot at the last race to win it.”

The 8-5 exacta paid $364 for $2, propelling Muhlada into fourth. (Had the fast-flying 47-1 shot Souper Dormy, another neck back in third, won or split his exacta, we wouldn't be telling this story.)

Muhlada had a $60 exacta box on No. 4 Chop Chop Charlie (an 8-1 shot) and No. 3 Zanesville (7-1) in the meet's final race and also used some combinations with favored Peekacho. “Then at the end, just for security, I put another $100 to win on the 3,” he said. “If the 3 wins but my favorite horse of the day, the 4, isn't there, I cash but we're not talking. Them running 1-2 was the difference.”

The $2 exacta paid $169.80 and Zanesville paid $17 to win.

“The last two races I had live shots that I liked,” Muhlada said. “The ironic thing was they both ran second and I paired them with the right horse to exacta-box my way to a nice day…. I just got lucky playing the whole thing because it fell into my lap when Sunday got canceled.”

Muhlada said he went to the races at Kentucky Downs for the first time last year with his horse-racing buddies.

“It was like 'Wow! How come we haven't been here before?'” he said, saying COVID wrecked plans for a return this year. “Fell in love with it. The course, everything about it was dynamite.”

Muhlada does not consider turf handicapping one of his strengths. But he really likes live-money tournaments because they require not only picking winners but money management. Not surprisingly, he said he loved the format of the Kentucky Downs Turf Handicapping Challenge.

“I enjoy the mental aspect, the mental chess game of trying to figure it out,” he said. “You don't have to be perfect; you just got to be better than the rest of the people.”

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NYRA Partners With Woodbine, Monmouth For Cross Country Pick 5 On Saturday

The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) will host the first Cross Country Pick 5 of the Belmont Park fall meet on Saturday, teaming with Monmouth Park and Woodbine Racetrack, which will be hosting its lucrative Woodbine Mile Day card.

Live coverage will be available with America's Day at the Races on FOX Sports and MSG Networks. Free Equibase past performances for the Cross Country Pick 5 sequence are now available for download at https://www.nyra.com/belmont/racing/cross-country-wagers.

A full field of maiden 2-year-old fillies will start the action with Belmont's Race 7 at 4:08 p.m. Eastern. Stone Town, trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott, ran twice during the just-concluded summer meet at Saratoga Race Course, including a second on debut on July 19. The daughter of Tapizar was a $130,000 purchase at the 2019 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. Other contenders in the one-mile turf contest include the French-bred Frankel At Ascot, who was purchased for nearly $600,000 in 2019 and is now owned by Gary Barber. The daughter of Frankel, trained by Hall of Famer Mark Casse, made her debut at Belmont on July 9, running third. The Irish-bred Amortization, conditioned by Chad Brown, will make her first career start in a field that has 12 entrants and four also-eligibles, while Brynbella will go for trainer Todd Pletcher.

International flavor – and the first stakes on the card – will be added to the wager with Race 7 from Woodbine at 4:27 p.m. for 3-year-olds and up. A field of 10 will contest in the Grade 3, $125,000 Singspiel going 1 1/4 miles on the turf. Tiz a Slam will look to repeat after capturing last year's edition en route to a 2019 that saw the son of Tiznow win three straight stakes, starting with the Grade 3 Louisville at Churchill Downs. After winning the Singspiel, Tiz a Slam won again at Woodbine next out, taking the Grade 2 Nijinsky. Trained by Roger Attfield, Tiz a Slam has six graded stakes wins on his ledger and will be looking to become a winner at that class as a 3, 4, 5 and now 6 year old.

Monmouth will host the third leg with a 1 3/8-mile turf route in Race 10 at 4:41 p.m. A full field of 12, with two also-eligibles on the docket, will compete in a starter handicap for 3-year-olds and up. He Will, trained by Hall of Famer Jerry Hollendorfer, won at Monmouth on July 18 and followed with a runner-up effort at the same track on August 22 last out. Duc de Calas, conditioned by Christophe Clement, will be making his first start since March at Gulfstream Park, where he ran second against allowance company. After not racing in 2019, Duc de Calas ran out of the money in his first two starts this year before hitting the board last out.

A seven-furlong turf sprint will mark the return to Belmont for the fourth race in the wager in Race 9 at 5:14 p.m. Ten New York-bred 3-year-old and up contenders, and three main-track only entrant, will vie for supremacy. Noble Emotion, trained by Jonathan Thomas, has won two of his last three starts, including last out against allowance company on August 21 at Saratoga that marked his 2020 debut and first race off a 10-month layoff. The Clement-trained Maxwell Esquire has finished on the board in four of his last five starts.

The Grade 1, $1 million Woodbine Mile will conclude the wager in Race 9 at 5:39 p.m. War of Will, the 2019 Grade 1 Preakness winner for Casse, will now look to win a second Grade 1 on turf in addition to his victory in an American Classic. The Woodbine Mile, a “Win and You're In” qualifier for the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Mile in November at Keeneland, will also see Casse send out March to the Arch, who is coming off a 2 1/4-length score in the Grade 2 King Edward at Woodbine on August 15. Starship Jubilee, the defending Canadian Horse of the Year, ran fourth last out in the prestigious Grade 1 Diana at Saratoga. The 7-year-old mare will look to best males, and she takes on that class in a stakes for the first time since running sixth in the 2017 Grade 2 Sky Classic. Starship Jubilee, trained by Kevin Attard and bred in Florida, is 18-5-3 in 37 career starts with earnings of more than $1.6 million.

The minimum bet for the multi-track, multi-race wager is 50 cents. Wagering on the Cross Country Pick 5 is also available on ADW platforms and at simulcast facilities across the country. Every week will feature a mandatory payout of the net pool.

The Cross Country Pick 5 will continue each Saturday throughout the year. For more information, visit NYRABets.com.

Cross Country Pick 5 – Saturday, September 19:
Leg 1 – Belmont, Race 7: (4:08 p.m.)
Leg 2 – Woodbine, Race 7: G3 Singspiel (4:27 p.m.)
Leg 3 – Monmouth, Race 10: (4:41 p.m.)
Leg 4 – Belmont, Race 9: (5:14 p.m.)
Leg 5 – Woodbine, Race 9: G1 Woodbine Mile (5:39 p.m.)

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