Muted Rainbow Pick 6 still handles $779K

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - The huge jackpot was gone but the Rainbow Six mandatory payout was still a popular item on Monday at Gulfstream Park, attracting in excess of $779,000 in handle despite beginning with a zero carryover.

Horseplayers around the country had been anxiously awaiting what they and Gulfstream management believed was going to be a record pool for a pick six type wager with the jackpot having survived since Jan. 10 and a mandatory payout scheduled for Monday’s Memorial day program. A prospective pool expected to exceed $15 million seemed likely, but those dreams were erased by horse owner and entrepreneur Dan Borislow, who won the entire jackpot of nearly $6.7 million the previous afternoon.

But that didn’t faze the faithful, many of whom had been handicapping the Rainbow Six sequence ever since entries were drawn last Thursday.

“I’d already done all the work, so I might as well play it,” said one fan after leaving the windows early afternoon with his Rainbow 6 ticket in hand.

Despite full or near full fields in all six races in the Rainbow Six sequence, the results were fairly form full until the nightcap. The early winners were Steel N Pack(3-1), Quinnkat (5-2), Joe’s Blazing Aaron(8-5), Hard Knocking Lady (6-1), and Cage Fighter(6-5). Longshot Kaluma, at 16-1, captured the finale, completing a winning combination worth $12,796.

“I’m thrilled with the day,” said Gulfstream Park’s president and general manager Tim Ritvo. “Obviously I was disappointed we didn’t get the opportunity to see a record breaking Rainbow Six pool. But we handled over $7.3 million, which was just two million less than they handled today at Belmont and far better than everyone else in the country except Santa Anita. We ran full fields and people bet on the card. I was pleasantly surprised in the Rainbow Six handle without the carryover. But we did a lot of marketing and people had obviously put a lot of work into handicapping the sequence. And the end result was a generous payoff for those who succeeded in hitting the Rainbow Six.”