HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The final mandatory payout of the Rainbow 6 pool for the 2023-24 Gulfstream Park Championship meet will take place on the final day of the session, Easter Sunday, with a challenging sequence that includes four races on the turf and a pair over the main track.

A carryover somewhere in the vicinity of $800,000 is expected if the popular gimmick is not hit on Friday or Saturday with a pool of approximately $5 million likely up for grabs after the last 20-cent wagers are in the machines.

Race 6

INDIANTOWN, Fla. – Hard to Justify, the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf winner, is being pointed to the Grade 2, $600,000 Edgewood at Churchill Downs on the May 3 Kentucky Oaks undercard. On Friday at Payson Park, Hard to Justify worked a half-mile in 48.98 seconds over the main track. It was her fifth work since getting started just a hair late following a freshening.

“She’s training great, she’s taken another step forward, a little stronger this year,” Brown said. “She’s training like an older horse, really.”

INDIANTOWN, Fla. – Trainer Chad Brown said Tuscan Gold, third in the March 24 Louisiana Derby, will be pointed to the Preakness on May 18, trainer Chad Brown.

Tuscan Gold, who won his first two starts, did not have the smoothest of trips when third, beaten 1 3/4 lengths by Catching Freedom in the Louisiana Derby. He earned only 25 qualifying points to the May 4 Kentucky Derby, unlikely to be enough to get into the Derby field.

INDIANTOWN, Fla. – Deterministic, the Grade 3 Gotham winner, completed preparations for next Saturday’s Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct by working five furlongs in 1:01.48 Friday morning at Payson Park, a training center about 90 minutes north of Gulfstream Park.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Christophe Clement hopes the end of Gulfstream Park’s winter meet is just the beginning of a big year for the 4-year-old Far Bridge.

Far Bridge, who had a highly successful 3-year-old season while splitting time between Clement and trainer Todd Pletcher, is back with Clement and returns from a seven-month layoff in a high-class, multi-conditioned allowance race scheduled for 1 1/16 miles on turf on closing day of the winter meet.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas believes there’s more where that came from when it comes to Lemon Muffin.

The talented 3-year-old filly will start as a top contender in the Grade 2, $750,000 Fantasy on Saturday at Oaklawn Park after winning her maiden in last month’s local prep, the Grade 3, $250,000 Honeybee.

“You ain’t seen muffin yet,” quipped Lukas.

In June 2023, Auguste Rodin won the Derby at Epsom. In September he won the Group 1 Irish Champion Stakes, and in November he captured the Breeders’ Cup Turf. All that, and Auguste Rodin has his work cut out for him in the Sheema Classic on Saturday at Meydan Racecourse.

Auguste Rodin makes his 4-year-old debut facing 11 rivals in the Group 1, $6 million Sheema Classic, a 1 1/2-mile grass race. Spirit Dancer and Point Lonsdale haven’t found success at the top level, but the other eight entrants are Group 1 winners.

Maybe Forever Young was a gritty winner over a distance short of his best last month in the Saudi Derby. Or maybe the fact he fought tooth and nail to best New Jersey-bred Book’em Dannno signaled that the colt’s Kentucky Derby chances are more hype than hope. If Forever Young really is a Derby horse, he should handle the 10 horses he faces Saturday at Meydan Racecourse in the Group 2, $1 million U.A.E. Derby.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The Great Britain-bred Kertez and the Kentucky-bred Tawny Port appear to give trainer Christophe Clement a solid one-two combination in Saturday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Pan American Stakes scheduled for 1 1/2 miles on turf at Gulfstream Park.

Kertez, a 6-year-old by the Group 3-winning sire Intello, will be making his first start in the United States after being purchased out of the Arqana sale by Clement on behalf of Michael Dubb, Morris Bailey, and West Point Thoroughbreds.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Timberlake, Muth, and Mystik Dan will take the most money in the Grade 1, $1.5 million Arkansas Derby on Saturday at Oaklawn Park, but anything can happen when 10 young horses come together to race farther than ever before against the backdrop of an ontrack crowd that could exceed 60,000.

It’s those variables – plus the task of judging young talent – that make the 1 1/8-mile Kentucky Derby points race (100-50-25-15-10) a more complex handicapping exercise than first glance.