Turf will be a major focus in mandatory-payout Rainbow 6

Saturday’s 11-race program at Gulfstream Park is a very good one for this time of the season, featuring a pair of overnight handicaps and a trio of solid allowance races – the perfect time to offer fans another mandatory payout of the Rainbow 6. The bet figures to offer a carryover in the neighborhood of $400,000 and a final pool somewhere in the vicinity of $3.5 million to $4 million if not solved by single winning ticket either Thursday or Friday.

The turf course will play a big role in determining the outcome of the challenging sequence, which begins in the sixth race. Four of the six races in Rainbow 6 will be decided on the grass, weather permitting.

Race 6

This allowance/optional claimer over 1 1/16 miles on turf is a tough one to kick things off.

It might be hard to stay alive right off the bat without spreading at least three or four deep, beginning with Nate the Great and OK Boomer. O Captain, who puts blinkers back on, also is hard to ignore along with the likely loose-on-the-lead Spy Hunter.

Race 7

This starter/optional claimer over 1 1/16 miles on Tapeta might be ripe for a single, with the remarkably consistent synthetic specialist Fly the W the logical choice in a field loaded with speed. The fact he has been a beaten favorite in each of his last two starts, however, may warrant a couple of savers that could include the much-improved Pound Green, who also should benefit from the projected pace scenario, and Tiz Romantic, who finished just a neck back of Fly the W in their previous meeting, albeit while having the benefit of setting an uncontested pace that day.

:: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match + FREE All Access PPs! Join DRF Bets.

Race 8

There are plenty of options to wade through in this near full field of turf specialists in a one-mile allowance/optional claimer. J P Hellish and Burnin Turf are two of the most logical after finishing first and second, just a neck apart, under similar conditions March 21. A trio of sidelined horses making their 2024 debuts muddles the mix, a group that features He’spuregold, Like the King, and Determinedly. Determinedly looked terrific posting a bullet work over the Tapeta here April 13.

Race 9

On paper, it’s hard to ignore Beth’s Dream in the first of the afternoon’s two overnight handicaps, this one for fillies and mares at a mile over the main track. The stakes-winning mare returned from a seven-month layoff to turn in a very game performance winning a high-priced optional-claiming and allowance test here last month with a near career-best 94 Beyer Speed Figure, but can she duplicate that performance coming back in five weeks in a field with plenty of other speed? Perhaps the most likely alternative to the favorite is Libban, who stretches back to her preferred distance for leading trainer Saffie Joseph Jr.

Race 10

Rounding up the usual suspects for this handicap at five furlongs on turf, the pace is almost certain to be a frenetic one, with speed, speed, and more speed signed on from top to bottom. That should set things up once again for Xy Speed, the 8-year-old veteran coming off a career-best performance winning a high-level optional-claiming/allowance dash over this course a month earlier. The main caveat: Relying on a deep closer in a bulky field sprinting on the grass is always a risky proposition. Smithwick’s Spice may be a viable alternative, coming in with four wins from six starts at the distance. He is perhaps capable of working out some kind of stalking trip to run down the tiring speed turning back from two turns.

Race 11

Those still fortunate to be alive in the sequence will likely want to have a nice spread in what is oftentimes a very unpredictable category dealing with 3-year-old maidens going a mile on the grass. I See You Lookin, Typhoon Fury, and Hangin in There are already proven commodities and very competitive over the surface, while both Kid Cairo and Its Bourbon Thirty are coming off promising efforts making their career debuts on Tapeta. Idoneo could deserve a look at a price, having run into the mighty Mindframe at first asking only to back up badly in his career bow. Perhaps a switch to turf will help this one wake up in the finale.

Good luck!

:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.