Latch the Hatch in sharp form on mandatory Rainbow 6 payout day
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Latch the Hatch has thrived during spring each of the last two seasons. And although Sunday officially marks the first day of summer, it is likely Latch the Hatch will be favored to continue his recent hot streak when taking on six foes in the afternoon’s $70,000 main event at Gulfstream Park. The six-furlong allowance and optional-claiming race serves as the penultimate leg of a mandatory Rainbow 6 jackpot giveaway.
Although the carryover will be minimal going into the Rainbow 6 after being hit for $110,000 last Sunday, track officials are estimating a final pool in the vicinity of $500,000. The Rainbow 6 sequence, which begins in the fourth race, consists of two dirt races, including the feature, and four over the Tapeta track.
First post, as it will be for the remainder of the Royal Palm meeting, is 12:20 p.m. Eastern.
Latch the Hatch posted back-to-back one-sided victories during the spring of his 2025 campaign for trainer Joe Orseno. He orchestrated another two-race winning streak this spring before finishing second, beaten a neck following a stretch-long duel with ultimate winner Goldentown, under mid-level optional-claiming and allowance conditions in his most recent start May 24.
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Overall, Latch the Hatch, a 4-year-old son of Curlin’s Honor, has captured 5 of 14 lifetime starts while winning at distances ranging from six to seven furlongs.
“Maybe it’s the time of the year, you can see from his [Ragozin] numbers just how well he’s doing again right now,” Orseno said. “We freshened him up pretty much during the winter because he’d never really had a break. It looked like he needed his first race to get back in the groove of things and now he’s doing so well I was going to try him in a stakes if this race didn’t fill. I expect another big race out of him on Sunday.”
Practically Dark will be getting some significant class relief and appears strictly the one to fear while making the third start of his current form cycle for leading trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. Practically Dark exits a troubled fifth-place finish against considerably tougher optional-claiming and allowance competition four weeks earlier.
He will be very difficult to beat here if he runs back to his 2025 finale when he finished second, beaten less than a length by Chrome Ghost, who flattered the effort by returning to defeat even higher-priced optional claimers at Tampa Bay Downs less than six weeks later.
Adios Now owns the highest lifetime Beyer Speed Figure in the field, a 92, earned when narrowly defeated by To the Eastside under similar conditions two starts back. He definitely bounced off that performance when finishing a tiring and disappointing third, 4 3/4 lengths behind Latch the Hatch, as the 6-5 favorite when the pair met for the first time May 24.
Fourth and Central is the only 3-year-old in the lineup. He also is the only stakes winner in the field, having registered a gate-to-wire 1 3/4-length triumph in the Dr. Fager division of the Florida Sire Series late last summer. The lightly raced homebred son of Cajun Breeze has not started since and shows only three published works on his résumé prepping for his return. He would have to improve dramatically from a Beyer Speed Figure standpoint to keep pace with his older foes coming off the long layoff for trainer Michael Yates.
Es Aristocratico is yet another question mark in the lineup. He will be making his U.S. debut for trainer Jose D’Angelo off a series of works that includes a bullet five furlongs in 58.60 seconds over the Tapeta track on June 7. Es Aristocratico, who will race on Lasix for the first time in his North American bow, was stakes-placed against Group 2 and Group 3 competition in his native Argentina last season and earlier this winter. He has finished off the board just twice in 21 career outings.
Lethal Speed and Neshume, another getting considerable class relief, complete the field.
◗ While Taparino and Noble Prince figure to garner the most support in the opening leg of the Rainbow 6 sequence, key-race players might take a shot at a price with Spirit of the Law, who has been freshened since finishing a bit of a troubled and disappointing seventh when dropped into the same category for the first time in January. That has turned out to be key race from which the third- and eighth-place finishers Bobby Bob and Simo came back in their next starts to defeat the same caliber with winning Beyer Speed Figures of 71 and 69, respectively.
Spirit of the Law is trained by Kevin Palmer, who has registered three winners and eight in-the-money finishers from just 13 starts during the Royal Palm meet.
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