Three allowance races won’t make things easy for bettors venturing to try the Rainbow 6 at Gulfstream Park on Sunday. With a mandatory payout and expected pool of $750,000, the wager is sure to attract its fair share of attention, but narrowing things down between classy contenders will be key.

Starting with the fourth race on the Sunday card, the Rainbow 6 will feature two first-level turf allowances, a featured allowance on dirt in the eighth, two claiming races, and a maiden-claiming event to end the day. Each field includes at least seven horses.

From her first workout in early March, the 2-year-old Quarter Horse filly Contentious has been a source of hype at Los Alamitos.

So far, the attention has been warranted. Unbeaten in two starts, Contentious is the fastest qualifier for Sunday’s $254,400 Robert Adair Kindergarten Futurity at 300 yards and is expected to be favored in a field of 10.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – It will be Take 2 for Go Kart Mozart at Woodbine when the Robert Tiller-trained 4-year-old hits the track for the second time in a week in Sunday’s featured conditioned allowance/optional claimer at six furlongs.

Go Kart Mozart was feeling a little too good before last Sunday’s Thorncliffe Stakes. He got loose shortly after the post parade and was scratched after unseating jockey Sofia Vives.

Trainer Michael Puhich was hospitalized with a faulty liver on Sept. 21, 2024, when his world got even worse.

One of his grooms called Puhich at the hospital to tell him that Background, a 7-year-old barn favorite who mounted a furious rally in deep stretch to win the 2021 Longacres Mile at Emerald Downs, had been claimed for $32,000 by Steve Asmussen.

“It was heartbreaking,” recalled Puhich. “He was my buddy. It was like losing one of your kids.”

ARCADIA, Calif. – Even without ace turf sprinter Motorious, trainer Phil D’Amato holds a strong hand Sunday in the $100,000 Siren Lure Stakes at Santa Anita.

Stakes winner Unconquerable Keen and stakes-placed Sorrento Sky give D’Amato a one-two punch in the Siren Lure, a six-furlong turf sprint that attracted a surprisingly large field of 10 plus one also-eligible.

It’s quite possible that in order to be successful again, Napoleon Solo will have to be turned back in distance. After all, he went 2 for 2 in races contested around one turn as a 2-year-old, including an electric performance winning the Grade 1 Champagne, a one-turn mile race, at Aqueduct last fall.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Saffie Joseph Jr. is going deep into his roster of female dirt stakes horses to take a run at winning Saturday’s Grade 2 Ruffian at Aqueduct.

While Joseph’s quartet of 2026 dual stakes-winning fillies and mares – Claret Beret, Grammy Girl, Haulin Ice, and R Disaster – will be in their stalls, the trio of Eunomia, Dazzling Move, and Ultimate Authority comprise 43 percent of the seven-horse field for the one-mile Ruffian.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The potential of a wet track and the likelihood of a fast pace could give Full Moon Madness the edge over One Nine Hundred when those two meet again in Saturday’s Grade 3, $175,000 John Nerud Stakes at Aqueduct.

Full Moon Madness and One Nine Hundred faced each other in the Grade 3 Tom Fool on Feb. 28 where Full Moon Madness was beaten a nose by Bold Journey but finished second by three-quarters of a length over One Nine Hundred, the 2-5 favorite in that six-furlong race.

Monmouth Park will kick off its 2026 live racing season with an eight-race card Saturday, and Kelly Breen could not be more prepared to return to his home track. The New Jersey-based trainer, who turns 57 later this month, has been limited since undergoing neck fusion surgery in 2023, but he said he’s “energetically optimistic” about the upcoming season.

The long and short of it is this: Last Saturday was all about the classic distance, 1 1/4 miles on dirt, and this Saturday belongs to turf sprinters.

Senorita

A computer now generates the Santa Anita morning line, albeit with human input tweaking the margins. Sorry, computer – you goofed in the Senorita. No way Mo’ Em Down comes up as short as the 5-2 second choice as the line forecasts.