Rainbow 6 pool could reach $2 million on mandatory payout day
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HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Weather could prove the key to Sunday’s 10-race program at Gulfstream Park, which features a mandatory payout of the Rainbow 6 pool.
The sequence includes four turf races highlighted by an $87,000 allowance/optional $125,000 claiming race on the grass that goes as the penultimate leg of the sequence. Management is predicting a potential final pool of approximately $2 million assuming the popular gimmick is not hit Friday or Saturday.
Heavy showers forced turf racing to be canceled here Friday and the forecast wasn’t much better moving forward, with a 50 to 60 percent chance of more precipitation over the weekend. This leaves handicappers in a bit of a holding pattern when it comes to their Rainbow 6 selections while facing the strong possibility that the majority of those races could be decided over the synthetic track.
The main event lured a field of eight older fillies and mares to go 7 1/2 furlongs if the race stays on the turf, or a mile and 70 yards if switched to the Tapeta. The lineup includes several stakes winners looking to regain their top form, including Malleymoo, Libban, Afrodita, and Riding Pretty.
Malleymoo has gone winless in 10 starts since upsetting the Penn Oaks at Penn National in June 2023. She had a series of six straight in-the-money finishes snapped here in her last start when she ended up a tiring fifth while switching to the synthetic track off a number of solid efforts on grass that included a second-place finish in the Forever Together Stakes last fall at Aqueduct.
Libban also has gone a long time between wins, with her most recent tally coming in the Wasted Tears Stakes on the turf at Lone Star during the summer of 2024. Libban returned from a one-year hiatus on Feb. 15 to finish a distant fourth going 6 1/2 furlongs over the main track. She was dropping into allowance and optional-claiming company off a steady diet of graded stakes tries following her big effort in the Wasted Tears.
Afrodita was a Group 1 winner over a muddy surface last summer in Mexico but has finished off the board in three subsequent starts since coming to the U.S. Two of those races came on turf, the third over the Tapeta track.
Riding Pretty is a versatile sort who has registered five of her seven career wins on dirt but did capture the restricted Jersey Girl Handicap by 3 1/4 lengths over the Monmouth Park turf early last summer.
Both Shifty and Minty would likely benefit if the race is moved to Tapeta. Shifty has hit the board in six of seven starts over the synthetic strip at Woodbine, winning once. Minty captured her only Tapeta outing in wire-to-wire fashion on opening weekend of the 2025-26 Championship meet.
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