HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Sunday is the final day of the Sunshine meet at Gulfstream Park, which not only means the opening of the 2024-25 Championship session is right around the corner, on Thanksgiving Day, but that bettors will also have another opportunity at a mandatory Rainbow 6 payout. The pool will begin with a carryover just north of $200,000, if the popular gimmick is not hit on Friday or Saturday, and which should grow above the $2 million mark by the time the final ticket is punched.
The Rainbow 6 sequence begins in the sixth race on the 11-race card, includes four races over the Tapeta surface, two others on dirt, and has its penultimate leg the afternoon’s main event, the $75,000 Nicole’s Dream, an overnight handicap for fillies and mares to be decided at 5 1/2 furlongs on Tapeta.
Race 6: Imonra would have been a likely single in this one for many but she will scratch, trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. opting to ship her to Kentucky to compete in the Grade 3 Chilukki on Saturday at Churchill Downs. The key scratch will leave Olivia Darling as the odds-on favorite and potential single to kick off the sequence, as she is strictly the class of the field, having won the Grade 2 Inside Information and placing in two graded stakes here last winter. However, Olivia Darling has raced only twice in the last eight months, with two poor performances. Those skeptical of her current form might want to also include the multiple stakes-placed Dream Concept and Unsolved Mystery on at least some saver tickets, just in case.
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Race 7: Things start getting a little dicey with this near full field of mid-level claimers over the Tapeta course. Mobay Princess, Alcohol, and Escape Room finished less than a length apart under similar conditions last month on the turf and are hard to separate switching surfaces today. The former arguably was the best of that trio in their last encounter, turning in a very game effort on the front end much of the way. Those looking to go outside the box and away from the three logical players might take a look at the speedy Momma Kim, who owns an easy win over this surface and can be dangerous if able to relax long enough on the front end.
Race 8: Bottom-level conditioned claimers, always an unpredictable bunch, battle in the third leg. Whateverwilbewilbe plunges down the class ladder, turns back to his preferred distance, and gets Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard to sweeten the deal. The 3-year-old gelding won’t be much of a price and will be forward from the rail. Fenwick would be the most likely back up to the odds-on favorite, getting some class relief of his own and reuniting with his favorite jockey, Emisael Jaramillo, after being over-matched last time at Keeneland.
Race 9: A pretty talented group with K. C. Chief obviously hard to ignore in his current form. K. C. Chief rattled off four well-graded wins in succession over the Tapeta before dropping a close decision to five-time stakes winner Forever Souper last out in the Presque Isle Mile. K. C. Chief was given ample time to recuperate from that effort and looks loose on the front end once again, unless Read On goes on a suicide mission from the rail. Boppy O is the biggest question mark in the lineup, trying this surface for the first time. A stakes winner at 3, he comes off what looks like a much-needed try on turf here last month and wasn’t badly beaten himself by stablemate Forever Souper when pair met last winter in the Sunshine Turf. Yamato came off a year-long layoff with a pretty good third-place effort in the off-turf Japan Turf Cup at Laurel and he’s just as good over the synthetic as grass.
Race 10: The main event has a lot of options, but Queen Olly is on a roll and giving every indication she’s maintaining top form off that Nov. 9 work. Time Passage is a horse for the course and back in the familiar hands of trainer Eddie Plesa Jr.
Race 11: Rock d’Oro is a big question mark shipping over from Britain. Now with trainer Jorge Delgado, the Kentucky-bred was not badly beaten by subsequent Group 2 winner Bay City Roller in his debut and looked sharp working over the main track here earlier this week. Midnight Vengeance lost all chance when knocked back and briefly out of contact with the field after the break in his career bow. A big improvement is expected if he takes to the surface change. No More War is facing a tough task debuting around two turns but has been working well on Tapeta.
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