Mandatory Rainbow 6 carryover looms

MIAMI – May 25 was Black Sunday as far as Gulfstream Park management was concerned.

Sitting on a record $6 million carryover and one day shy of a mandatory payout on Monday that likely would have produced a final pool in the neighborhood of $15 million to $20 million, the Rainbow 6 was hit that Sunday by the late Dan Borislow, who turned a $15,206 investment into a $6,678,939 payoff.

The carryover isn’t quite in that league this time around, but Tim Ritvo, Gulfstream Park president and general manager, is holding his breath just the same Friday and Saturday. He is hoping that a Rainbow 6 carryover of $300,000 going into Friday becomes a pool of about $1.5 million on Sunday, the final day of the inaugural Gulfstream Park West meeting, when there will be a mandatory payout.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever get over losing that last one,” Ritvo said. “We were looking at possibly a $25 [million] to $30 million day total-handle-wise if the Rainbow 6 had survived one more day. There is just no telling what could have happened that day, but it sure would have been fun to have had the opportunity to find out.”

The Rainbow 6 sequence on closing day is not an easy one. It consists of four turf races and two main-track events, with an average field size of almost 12 horses per race. Five of the six races are for claiming horses. The ninth is an optional-claiming test at 1 1/16 miles that lured 13 horses, including one entered for the main track only.

The ninth race will mark the return of Mucho Mas Macho, who seeks his first victory since upsetting Gulfstream Park’s Grade 2 Fort Lauderdale at odds of 41-1 almost two years ago. Mucho Mas Macho has not started since finishing fourth under allowance conditions at Gulfstream in February.

Hobbs is another former stakes performer coming off an extended vacation and looking for the right spot to get back on the winning track. Hobbs has failed to hit the board in six starts since finishing second in Delaware Park’s With Anticipation Stakes in September 2013. He has not won since defeating allowance company at Monmouth Park earlier that spring. Trained by Kathy Mongeon, Hobbs turned in a sharp half-mile work in 46.13 seconds over the main track here Nov. 13.

Heiko, another stakes winner, may be the key horse on a lot of Rainbow 6 tickets Sunday. He comes off a second-place finish under similar conditions over this course 24 days earlier. Heiko, however, is at his best when on the lead, and he could have his work cut out for him after breaking from the outside post.

Rainbow 6 players also will have to decide what to do with Fixador in the feature. A two-time Group 1 winner in his native Brazil last year at 3, Fixador brings a five-race winning streak into his U.S. debut. But he will be making his first start in more than a year and his first for trainer Eduardo Caramori.