Italian jockey Murgia makes his mark

If you hadn’t heard of Antioco Murgia, the Italian jockey who won the fifth race Saturday aboard Kutuzov for trainer Gennadi Dorochenko, well, you might hear more of him in the future.

“He is very honest, hard-working, and tries hard,” said Dorochenko, who has more than 75 horses in training and has been known to give mounts to a wide variety of lesser-known jockeys. “If he keeps winning for me, sure, he will ride more.”

Murgia’s record this year is 12 for 129, with a positive ROI of $2.03.

[Gulfstream Park: Get PPs, watch Thursday’s card live]

** Gulfstream continues to “seed” its popular 20-cent Rainbow six wager whenever the jackpot is hit, which occurred Friday when one winner took down a windfall of $73,760.

The jackpot remains $50,000 for the 10-race Thursday card after a total of $71,056 was bet Saturday and Sunday. First post is 1:15 p.m. Eastern, with the Rainbow starting with race 5 (post 3:21 p.m.).

** Mike Petro has been hired as the main trainer of the Frank Calabrese stable at Gulfstream, it was announced Tuesday.

Calabrese, one of the perennial owners on the Florida circuit after years of dominating in Chicago, has changed trainers with great frequency throughout his tenure as an owner. His latest trainer was Rasharn Creque, who was hired in April after Kirk Ziadie was fired.