Trio of allowance races hold keys to Rainbow 6, pick five
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – A trio of allowances should make for some interesting multi-race wagering during the latter half of a 10-race Thursday card at Gulfstream Park.
The three allowances all are part of the 50-cent late pick five (races 6-10) and also the 20-cent Rainbow 6 (races 5-10). The Rainbow 6 jackpot had built for several weeks before it started fresh Sunday after twice being emptied over the weekend.
First post is 12:30 p.m. Eastern. A long-range forecast called for a 60 percent chance of rain in the local region, which stands to affect the status of races 4 and 9, both scheduled for the turf.
Race 6
Kentucky shipper Fire On Time gets leading jockey Luis Saez when she makes her first start at 4 as a 5-2 morning-line favorite against five other fillies and mares going a one-turn mile for a purse of $62,000. She comes off a half-length allowance win going a mile on Nov. 28 at Churchill Downs.
“She ran big back home, and we like her a lot,” trainer Dale Romans said. “Sometimes they’ll have a hard time making the transition down here, but she seems to have really done well in her training over this surface.”
Happy Constitution, returning to the allowance ranks after being tried by leading trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. in a Laurel Park stakes in November, is among the other top contenders, along with Hallawallah and Crumb Bun.
Race 8
All sorts of variables make this $61,000 allowance very difficult to gauge, including the fact Amount and Disc Jockey both are returning from lengthy layoffs. The field of nine older horses also will go a one-turn mile on the main track.
Amount, trained by Todd Pletcher, returns as a first-time gelding after having gone unraced for more than 10 months. Disc Jockey, trained by Joseph, has been away even longer, having last started in February 2020.
Tapit to the Wire, another Joseph trainee, is the 3-1 program favorite stretching out from a six-furlong debut score in late October.
Race 9
Pletcher will send out one of the heaviest favorites of the day in Mezcal, the 8-5 morning-line choice in this $61,000 race scheduled for 1 1/2 miles on turf. Mezcal, owned by Bobby Flay, has been competitive in slightly shorter grass races in New York and figures prominently on the stretchout with Irad Ortiz Jr. riding.
The Joseph-trained Champagne Ivy looks like the top threat to Mezcal as she makes her 4-year-old debut in this field of eight fillies and mares.