A Maryland state record carryover jackpot approaching $1 million in the 20-cent Rainbow 6 will greet bettors as live racing returns to historic Pimlico Race Course Friday.
Post time for the first of eight races is 12:40 p.m.
There were no unique winners of the Rainbow 6 on the last live program June 6, when the total pool topped $1 million for the second time in four race days. Despite two horses live to take down the jackpot heading into the finale, the popular multi-race wager saw its carryover jackpot grow to $974,564.10.
The Rainbow 6 jackpot is paid out only when there is a single unique ticket sold with all six winners. On days when there is no unique ticket, 60 percent of that day's pool goes back to those bettors holding tickets with the most winners while 40 percent is carried over to the jackpot pool.
Introduced in Maryland April 2, 2015 on opening day of Pimlico's spring meet, the Rainbow 6 had its previous state record carryover reach $345,898.33 spanning 31 racing programs before being solved by one lucky bettor for a life-changing $399,545.94 payout April 15, 2018 at Laurel Park. The winning ticket was purchased through Maine off-track betting.
Friday's Rainbow 6 begins in Race 3, a starter allowance for 3-year-olds and up going 1 1/16 miles on the main track where 9-5 program favorite Souper Catch will go after his fourth consecutive victory for trainer Tim Kreiser.
Race 4 is an entry-level allowance for 3-year-olds and up sprinting five furlongs on the grass that drew a field of nine including recent maiden winner Little Bold Bandit, a full brother to 11-time stakes winner Anna's Bandit, and 6-year-old gelding Forced, narrowly beaten last out when third in in his turf debut and second start off a 508-day layoff.
An overflow field of 14 was entered in Race 6, a 1 1/16-mile grass allowance for Maryland-bred/sired 3-year-olds and up including March 13 Private Terms winner Shackled Love for main track only. Mike Trombetta-trained Broker's Reward, a two-time winner on turf, is the morning-line favorite from Post 1.
The feature comes in Race 7, an optional claiming allowance for fillies and mares 3 and up sprinting six furlongs on the main track. The well-balanced field of six is led by Hydra, a 5-year-old mare with three wins and two seconds from five starts this year entered for the $35,000 tag.
A special Memorial Day weekend schedule of live racing continues Saturday with the Maryland state record jackpot carryover having grown to $747,098.73 in the 20-cent Rainbow 6 after going unsolved Friday at historic Pimlico Race Course.
No horses were live to take down the jackpot heading into Friday's ninth-race finale, won by My Man Pots N Pans ($9.60). A total of $119,522 was bet into the popular multi-race wager, which began with a carryover of $708,857.82 from the last live program May 23. Multiple tickets with all six winners each returned $2,493.96.
The Rainbow 6 jackpot is paid out only when there is a single unique ticket sold with all six winners. On days when there is no unique ticket, 60 percent of that day's pool goes back to those bettors holding tickets with the most winners while 40 percent is carried over to the jackpot pool.
Introduced in Maryland April 2, 2015 on opening day of Pimlico's spring meet, the Rainbow 6 had its previous state record carryover reach $345,898.33 spanning 31 racing programs before being solved by one lucky bettor for a life-changing $399,545.94 payout April 15, 2018 at Laurel Park. The winning ticket was purchased through Maine off-track betting.
Post time for Saturday's nine-race program is 12:40 p.m. The Rainbow 6 begins in Race 4, a six-furlong claimer for 3-year-olds and up which have never won three races, or 3-year-olds. The feature comes in Race 8, a 1 1/16-mile allowance for Maryland-bred/sired 3-year-olds and up, where Artistic Reason – a half-brother to 2020 Runhappy Barbara Fritchie (G3) winner Majestic Reason – is set to make his 4-year-old debut off more than a nine-month layoff. Among the competition are four six-figure earners with a combined 69 starts as well as last-out stakes-placed Doubleoseven.
Saturday's card also includes a maiden special weight in Race 3 for fillies and mares age 3, 4 or 5 sprinting five furlongs on the turf. The narrow 4-1 program favorite is R. Larry Johnson's In Vain, a 3-year-old Maryland homebred daughter of Congrats that has ran third in three consecutive races over the winter at Gulfstream Park but is unraced since March 21.
The 50-cent Late Pick 5 Friday began with a carryover of $115,038.40 from May 23 and saw another $759,025 wagered. Tickets with all five winners were each worth $3,849.25.
There will also be a carryover of $9,245.87 in the $1 Super Hi-5 for Saturday's opener.
Following Saturday, Pimlico will host live race cards Sunday, May 30 and a special Memorial Day holiday program Monday, May 31.
Thursday's Maryland Racing Commission (MRC) meeting figured to provide an update on the massive main track base and cushion repair project that has kept Laurel Park dark since Apr. 10 and caused the entire backstretch community to relocate to either Pimlico Race Course, the Timonium fairgrounds, or private stabling.
But beyond noting that all horses had been moved out of the Laurel backstretch as of May 26 and thanking horsemen for their cooperation, Sal Sinatra, the president of the Maryland Jockey Club (MJC), which owns Laurel and Pimlico, only reported to the commission when asked to give an update that “I'm anxious and hopeful that by July 1 it does get done.”
Sinatra then added, “Weather permitting.”
The brevity of that update stands in stark contrast to the extensive grilling that executives from the MJC-and its parent company, The Stronach Group (TSG)-faced at last month's MRC meeting, when commissioners told track management it should have had the foresight to identify and remedy the difficulties earlier, and that the spiraling multi-million-dollar project represented “an accumulation of bad decisions over time.”
Sinatra mentioned several times during the May 27 meeting that that he is not directly involved in the track reconstruction project. But no other MJC or TSG executives were made available to explain the work in detail to commissioners.
Thursday's meeting was held at Pimlico, which has been given commission approval to host the Laurel race dates through June 30.
One commissioner (it was unclear who on the audio stream because he did not identify himself) took umbrage with the MJC providing such a sparse report. He asked Sinatra about details such as a firm timeline for moving forward with the work, or contingency plans for what might happen if the project falls behind.
“I hear you. I'm hopeful,” Sinatra replied. “Again, I'm kind of removed from that project.”
The commissioner shot back: “I understand. That's why I'm asking that you go back to your organization [to find out] some kind of timeline, a critical path of what's got to happen by certain days for the next thing to happen [to] get this thing done in 30 days. I understand you're not involved. But I was hoping that we would get an update on [a project that is] so critical to Maryland racing.”
Sinatra said he would relay the message to his fellow MJC and TSG executives and get back to the commission. He agreed that the project was crucial to everyone involved, noting that agreements for Timonium stabling and putting up backstretch workers in hotels are “predicated on like June 30 to July 5. I mean, we're going to be up against it if we go past” what is already a tight timeline, he said.
Commissioner Michael Algeo then stepped in and suggested that someone from Sinatra's team get in touch with the commission on the Tuesday after this upcoming holiday weekend to set up a time when the MJC and TSG can provide a more detailed update to the board.
Maryland-based jockey Xavier Perez is closing in on his 1,000th career victory, not that the popular and personable rider needs a reminder.
“I've been counting,” Perez, 33, said. “I told my wife, 'Look I'm getting close. It's coming. It's coming.' She was like, 'Don't start thinking about it.' So I said, 'I'm superstitious and I'm going to count it because I've been counting since I had 50 left and it's been working out for me.”
According to Equibase statistics, the count stands at 995 wins with mounts in four of nine races when live action returns to historic Pimlico Race Course Friday to kick off a Memorial Day weekend program that includes a special holiday card Monday, May 31. Perez also had one mount in Delaware Park's 10th race finale Wednesday.
Perez would be the second jockey to reach 1,000 wins in Maryland this year, following Carol Cedeno Jan. 2 at Laurel Park. Perez and Cedeno grew up together in Puerto Rico and were classmates at the country's famed Escuela Vocacional Hipica, graduating in 2006 and beginning their professional careers in 2007.
“We are childhood friends. It meant a lot to me that she got that milestone, and now that I'm getting close to it I'm getting anxious. I just want to do it,” Perez said. “A thousand wins is a big milestone. It means a lot for every rider in the country and the world.”
Perez rode the winter and spring of 2007 in Puerto Rico before coming to the U.S. that summer, registering his first career winner aboard Danger Quest Aug. 25, 2007 at Charles Town, where another former classmate, Arnaldo Bocachica, had urged him to start.
“He is one of my best friends and he contacted me when I started riding. He told me he was talking to his agent and was telling him about me,” Perez said. “He said I didn't have to bring anything, just my tack. I had a place to stay and a fresh start. That meant a lot. I'm blessed that he's in my life. He's been an amazing brother and amazing friend to me.”
Represented by agent J.D. Brown, Perez rode 3 ½ years at Charles Town – winning the $500,000 West Virginia Breeders' Cup Classic in 2010 with 57-1 long shot Sea Rescue – before moving to Maryland at the start of 2011. That fall, he won a total of 32 races for 20 different trainers at Laurel with an average win mutuel of $14.75.
The first big horse of Perez's career was Susan Wantz's Dance to Bristol, trained by Ollie Figgins III. During the winter, spring and summer of 2013 they won seven consecutive races including the Skipat at Pimlico, Bed o'Roses (G3) at Belmont Park, and Honorable Miss (G2) and Ballerina (G1) at Saratoga – the jockey's first graded triumphs. They would end the year finishing sixth in the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1) at Santa Anita.
Perez's most memorable ride came earlier that year, gaining national attention for a mid-April trip aboard Spicer Cub that saw the gelding blow Pimlico's far turn while on the lead, then bolt suddenly to the outside fence and around the parked starting gate before making a mad dash to the wire and finishing second by a nose. Perez lost both his irons in the process.
“That pushed me to have the campaign that I had. After Spicer Cub, a lot of trainers and owners were asking for me, and me and my agent were really busy. We were going to New York, Monmouth Park, Philadelphia, Colonial Downs, Charles Town. We were riding everywhere on the East Coast. It was a great year,” Perez said. “Still people talk about it. It makes me feel good. I got famous for something that was crazy. It was a jump start for me.”
Perez finished 2013 with 133 wins and $3.8 million in purse earnings, both of which remain career highs. He won his last graded-stakes with Bandbox in the 2014 General George (G3) at Laurel, and in recent years has been part of a formidable team with trainer John 'Jerry' Robb that has put him aboard multiple stakes winners Anna's Bandit and Street Lute as well as Anna's Bandit's 2-year-old half-sister, Bandits Warrior, a debut winner May 23 at Pimlico.
Street Lute has raced 10 times with seven wins, six in stakes, and Perez has been aboard for each of her last seven races including five of her stakes victories. Anna's Bandit owns 17 wins from 36 starts and Perez has accounted for 14 of her wins and 10 of her 11 stakes triumphs, riding in 30 of her last 31 races.
“Dance to Bristol was a special horse to me because it gave me my first graded races,” Perez said. “I didn't have the chance to get on her in the morning like I do with these three mares. I'm there at 5:30 in the morning with Jerry's horses. I take my time with Anna. I take my time with Street Lute. I take my time with Bandits Warrior, and it's paying off. It means so much to me to get the chance to ride such amazing animals.”
Perez had 58 wins in Maryland in a coronavirus pandemic-shortened 2020, 41 of them in 157 starts (26 percent) for Robb – the most of any jockey-trainer combination on the year – including Robb's 2,000th career victory with Stroll Smokin at Laurel. This year they are 19-for-63 (30 percent) together at Laurel and Pimlico.
“He's at the barn every morning, he's getting on them, he knows the horses. I think that means a lot, especially with young horses,” Robb said. “He gets on all the horses. He doesn't get on them all every day, but he gets on all of them at one time or another and he knows them. I think that plays a big role in it.”
Other top horses for Perez have included multiple stakes winners Sensible Lady and Talk Show Man and 2015 Maryland Million Distaff winner Lionhearted Lady. Perez's mounts have earned more than $25.6 million in purses.
“It would mean so much if I get to do it in Maryland, because the people in Maryland have been so great to me,” Perez said. “I have to say thanks to all the trainers that have supported me, riding me the 11 wonderful years I've been in Maryland. My agent has always been right there with me keeping me on the right path. He knows me well. Jerry and the whole team, they've been so amazing to me. They are like family to me. Me and my wife are so blessed and thankful to have such great people around us. I hope it stays like that for a while.”
Perez credits his wife, Jessica, for helping his maturity on and off the track. They met in 2009 when she was ponying the horse he was riding to the starting gate at Colonial Downs and have been together since.
“Thank God I have my wife beside me, 24-7. She's always supported me and she never lets me get too down when I have bad days,” Perez said. “It's been a great journey. There's been ups and downs, but there's been more ups than downs and I'm just grateful for that.”
