Racing Returns Friday with $315,625 Rainbow 6 Carryover
Jackpot Super High Five Carryover of $258,786 in Race 6
BALTIMORE – Live racing resumes Friday to open the final weekend of the Preakness Meet at historic Pimlico Race Course with six-figure carryovers in the 20-cent Rainbow 6 and $1 Jackpot Super High Five wagers.
Post time for the first of eight races is 12:25 p.m.
The all-stakes Rainbow 6 anchored by Seize the Grey’s front-running upset victory in the 149th Preakness Stakes (G1), Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown, went unsolved during the last live race day May 18, resulting in a carryover of $315,625.44. The Rainbow 6 was last solved for a $3,240.38 payout May 10.
Friday’s sequence spans Races 3-8 and kicks off with a 1 1/16-mile claiming event for 3-year-old fillies or fillies and mares 3 and up which have never won three races. Favored at 8-5 on the morning line is Mi Patria Racing’s Florida-bred Mo Tough, who will be making her eighth start of 2024 and second in eight days after finishing a troubled fifth in an off-the-turf 1 1/16-mile starter optional claimer May 16 at Pimlico.
Race 4 is a wide-open claimer for maidens ages 3, 4 and 5 scheduled for one mile on the grass, which attracted an overflow field of 16. Bred in Maryland by R. Larry Johnson, who co-owns the 3-year-old gelding with R.D.M. Racing, Come Rain Or Shine has raced four times with two seconds and a third. Most recently, the son of 2016 Florida Derby (G1) and Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Nyquist was runner-up after setting the pace in an April 20 maiden special weight at the distance on the Laurel Park turf, beaten a length while facing older horses.
Eight 3-year-olds were entered for a six-furlong claiming event in Race 5 where Robert Derr’s One Way Farrior is the 9-5 program favorite. Bred in West Virginia and trained by Pimlico-based Kieron Magee, the Race Day gelding has been third or better in four of five starts this year and nine of 12 lifetime. In for $20,000 May 5 at Laurel, he was second by 1 ½ lengths as the favorite after rallying from next-to-last in a similar spot. Dance for Green exits a front-running 7 ¼-length victory sprinting 5 ½ furlongs May 2 at Laurel.
Race 6 features the Jackpot Super High Five, which begins with a carryover of $258,786.43 from the Preakness Day program. It has yet to be hit during the Preakness Meet, which began May 9, and was last cashed for a mandatory payout of $251.50 on May 5, closing day of Laurel Park’s spring meet.
Launched April 1, 2023 on opening day of Laurel’s spring meet, the Jackpot Super High Five takes place in Race 6 every live race day. In the Jackpot Super High 5, the jackpot is paid out when there is a single unique ticket sold with each of the first five winners in exact order. On days when there is no unique ticket, 50 percent of that day’s pool goes back to those bettors holding tickets with all five winners while 50 percent is carried over to the jackpot pool.
If there is no ticket will all five finishers in exact order, the entire pool will be carried over to the next day’s Jackpot Super High Five.
In Race 6, a starter optional claimer scheduled for 1 1/16 miles on the grass, an overflow field of 16 was entered led by multiple stakes-placed Workin On a Dream; Gambling Tzar, seeking a third straight win; six-time winners Jackie A, Speak Unity and Shofar; and Two by Two, back in the barn of trainer Jamie Ness for whom the 7-year-old won three times in five starts last spring and summer including a 1 1/16-mile optional claiming allowance on the grass June 2 in his only previous try at Pimlico.
D C Racing’s Uncaptured Storm chases a fourth straight win in Race 7, a starter optional claimer for 3-year-olds and up, and third in a row since being claimed by trainer Jonathan Maldonado. Most recently the 4-year-old gelding rallied for a three-quarter-length triumph at the course and distance May 11. Cloud Music enters on a two-race win streak, claimed out of his last April 26, also at 1 1/16 miles, by trainer Mike Gorham. The 7-year-old Shivaree, a stakes winner at 2, 3 and 4, seeks his first win since December 2021.
Friday’s Rainbow 6 wraps up in Race 8, a claiming event for 3-year-olds or 3-year-olds and up which have never won three races scheduled for five furlongs on the grass. Abuelo Paps is entered to try turf for just the second time in his 45th career start and first in four years out of a runner-up finish sprinting six furlongs April 12 at Laurel. Switzer looks to get back on the grass after running sixth in a similar spot May 5 that was rained onto a sloppy Laurel main track. It was his first start since being beaten a head in an open 5 ½-furlong turf allowance sprint in mid-November at Laurel.
The Rainbow 6 jackpot is paid out only when there is a single unique ticket sold with all six winners. On days when there is no unique ticket, 60 percent of that day’s pool goes back to those bettors holding tickets with the most winners while 40 percent is carried over to the jackpot pool.
Introduced in Maryland April 2, 2015, on opening day of Pimlico’s spring meet, the Rainbow 6 reached a state-record carryover of $1,435,080.75 over 27 consecutive racing programs before a mandatory payout of $31,028.08 to multiple ticketholders July 4, 2021.
Mandatory payouts in the Rainbow 6, Jackpot Super High Five and 50-cent Late Pick 5 wagers are scheduled for closing day of the Preakness Meet, a special nine-race Memorial Day holiday program Monday, May 27.
Entering Friday’s program Brittany Russell leads all trainers with seven wins from 29 starters, three ahead of a four-way tie for second. Her husband, Sheldon Russell, and Jaime Rodriguez are tied atop the jockey standings with eight wins apiece.