McErin appeals as pick six single

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The Rainbow 6 jackpot at Gulfstream Park continues to grow. And there could be no end in sight.

The Rainbow 6 carryover opens at a whopping $843,135 when racing resumes Wednesday after surviving for a 13th consecutive program Sunday when another $326,885 was added to the rapidly growing pool. Track officials said over the weekend they have not picked out any specific date, at the moment, for a mandatory payout. A disbursement of the entire Rainbow 6 jackpot, originally scheduled for last Sunday, was canceled due to a forecast for heavy rains that ultimately forced all the races to be taken off the turf that day.

The Rainbow 6 sequence will run from the fifth through the final event on Wednesday’s 10-race program and includes the afternoon’s headliner, a $51,000 allowance and optional claimer carded at five furlongs on the grass that goes as leg five. Turf racing is expected to resume Wednesday, with little chance of rain predicted for the local area early in the week.

Many Rainbow 6 players are likely to use trainer Jason Servis’s 4-year-old Trappe Shot gelding McErin as a single in the sequence. Servis has won with 17 of his first 40 starters during the current meet for a whopping 43 percent success rate. The trainer also is extremely potent in five-furlong turf sprints, having posted an excellent 34 percent win rate and an ROI of $2.15 over the past two years.

McErin comes into the race off a brief freshening, having been idle since splitting a pair of next-out winners, Outrageous Bet and Fixed Point, to finish second in a $50,000 starter allowance decided at six furlongs over a yielding course at Belmont Park nearly four months earlier. McErin set all the pace before being run down at the end by Outrageous Bet, who flattered the effort when returning to win a first-level allowance race for New York-breds in his next start.

McErin will break from the rail and is expected to again show the way under regular rider Irad Ortiz Jr.

Among the most logical alternatives to the likely favorite are No Regrets and Gran Saman.

No Regrets finished fifth, less than three lengths behind McErin, when the pair met at Belmont on Oct. 5, and he, too, has been given a break ever since. Trained by Tom Albertrani, No Regrets had to steady from tight quarters along the rail while prompting the early pace in his last start. He then failed to kick on after finding clearance inside turning for home.

No Regrets may appreciate the slight turnback in distance Wednesday, while also reuniting with leading rider Luis Saez, who guided him to a second-place finish against mid-level conditioned claimers last June at Belmont.

Trainer Steve Klesaris has entered both Gran Saman and Blackjack Baby.

Gran Saman finished a wide-running fourth, beaten less than a length, in his 2018 finale last November at Gulfstream Park West and should benefit from the switch to 2017 Eclipse Award-winning rider Jose Ortiz. Blackjack Baby has finished fourth and second, respectively, under similar conditions here in his last two starts.