$483,561 Carryover Jackpot in Rainbow 6 for Friday’s Program
Friday’s Jackpot Super High Five Carryover Stands at $459,622
Eight-Race Card Opens Final Weekend of Pimlico’s Preakness Meet
Russell, Toledo Top Standings as Preakness Meet Nears Closing Day
BALTIMORE – With the Preakness Meet heading into its final weekend at Pimlico Race Course, mandatory payouts have been scheduled in the 20-cent Rainbow 6, $1 Jackpot Super High Five and 50-cent Late Pick 5 wagers for Sunday’s closing day program.
Both the Rainbow 6 and Jackpot Super High Five carryover jackpots have been in six figures and climbing since Pimlico’s blockbuster Preakness Day program May 20, when National Treasure forged a narrow victory in the 148th Preakness Stakes (G1), Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown.
The Rainbow 6 has gone unsolved for 12 consecutive racing days, bringing the carryover jackpot to $483,561.81 for Friday’s eight-race program that begins at 12:25 p.m. The popular multi-race wager was last hit for a $364.74 mandatory payout May 7, on closing day of Laurel Park’s spring meet.
Introduced in Maryland April 2, 2015, on opening day of Pimlico’s spring meet, Maryland’s state-record Rainbow 6 carryover reached $1,435,080.75 over 27 consecutive racing programs before a mandatory payout of $31,028.08 to multiple ticketholders July 4, 2021.
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. However, on days when a mandatory payout is scheduled, the entire pool is shared by those holding tickets with the most winners.
Friday’s Rainbow 6 begins in Race 3, a maiden special weight for 3-year-old fillies sprinting six furlongs. Among the field of nine are Neatnik, a $360,000 son of Good Magic trained by Arnaud Delacour and entered to make his career debut, and How Sweet She Is, who fetched $210,000 as a 2-year-old in training last spring and adds blinkers after two seconds and a third in three tries for trainer Michael Trombetta.
Race 4 is a five-furlong turf sprint for fillies and mares 3 and up which have never won two races. An overflow field of 13 was entered including Sarah Nagle-trained Ballyhooly, third by two lengths in her 4-year-old debut May 12 over Gulfstream Park’s all-weather track; My Lady’s Aunt Ma, a 2 ¼-length maiden winner going the distance over a yielding course last June at Parx; and Sweet Beauty, a daughter of Maclean’s Music trying turf for the first time after running second or third in five consecutive races.
Major Houlihan, second to undefeated runaway winner Goodgirl Badhabits in an April 29 optional claiming allowance at Laurel Park; 2022 Maryland Juvenile Fillies runner-up Fast Tracked; and Ocean Gateway, who beat her elders in an off-the-turf maiden special weight April 30 at Aqueduct for trainer Christophe Clement, are among the contenders in Race 5, an optional claiming allowance for 3-year-old fillies going 1 1/8 miles.
Race 6 is an open allowance sprinting five furlongs on the turf that attracted 13 fillies and mares 3 and up including three also-eligibles and Tam Char, entered for main track only. Among the group are Chromeplated Heart, placed in seven straight starts for three different trainers in Maryland and Florida; last out winners Flirtatious Lass, Irish Valentine and Bosserati, the latter third in the 2022 Maryland Million Lassie; and multiple stakes-placed Island Philo and Skylar’s Sister.
Friday’s feature comes in Race 7, an open allowance for fillies and mares 3 and up sprinting six furlongs led by Moody Woman, a six-time winner that has placed in three stakes including the Feb. 18 Barbara Fritchie (G3); Golden Effect, a winner of two of her last three starts; Response Time, who had a two-race win streak snapped when eighth as the favorite in the March 18 Conniver at Laurel; 2021 Cheryl S. White Memorial winner Prodigy Doll; and 2022 Penn Ladies Dash winner Deco Strong.
Live action wraps up in Race 8 Friday, a six-furlong claimer for maidens ages 3, 4 and 5. Bar Down Express has run second in his two starts this year, beaten a length or less each time, including a half-length loss facing older horses May 13 at Pimlico. Inspired Irish ran fourth by less than a length in a 1 1/16-mile maiden claimer on the grass last out, also against elders. Money Room is winless in six tries since being claimed by trainer Kerry Hohlbein, who registered her first career winner May 25 at Pimlico.
The Jackpot Super High Five has gone unsolved for seven consecutive racing days, growing its carryover to $459,622.70 since last being hit for a $10,383.50 payout May 14 at Pimlico.
Launched April 1, on opening day of Laurel Park’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 finishers 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 finishers while 50 percent is carried over to the jackpot pool.
If there is no ticket with all five finishers in exact order, the entire pool will be carried over to the next day’s Jackpot Super High Five. Similar to the Rainbow 6, on days when a mandatory payout is scheduled the entire pool is shared by those holding tickets with the most winners.
Also on Sunday, the maximum wagering restriction will be removed on both the Rainbow 6 and Jackpot Super High Five wagers.
Russell, Toledo Top Standings as Preakness Meet Nears Closing Day
Brittany Russell and Jevian Toledo each hold commanding leads in their respective races for leading trainer and jockey at historic Pimlico Race Course’s Preakness Meet entering the final weekend.
Russell, 33, has 14 wins from 36 starters at the meet (39 percent) and ranks second with $530,470 in purse earnings trailing the $1.08 million of Hall of Famer Bob Baffert, largely from his record eighth Preakness Stakes (G1) victory with National Treasure. Anthony Farrior is second with five wins while Michael Trombetta and Hugh McMahon are next with four apiece.
It would be the fourth training title for Russell, who captured Laurel’s spring and fall stands and tied for the Preakness Meet lead last year. This year she finished second to Jamie Ness, 34-30, at Laurel winter and was fourth behind Kieron Magee (11) at Laurel spring with seven wins from 30 starters.
Russell has two horses, P J’s Rider and Bosserati, entered Friday and four horses in two races Saturday – 4-year-olds Surya and Silver Currency in an optional claiming allowance for fillies and mares 3 and up scheduled for 1 1/16 miles on the turf, and Childers and Dillinger in a maiden special weight for 3-year-olds sprinting six furlongs that wraps up the nine-race card.
Toledo, 28, is seeking his 11th overall riding title in Maryland and first this year after finishing third at Laurel winter with 39 wins and tied with Jeiron Barbosa for second at Laurel spring with 13, one behind apprentice Axel Concepcion. He ranks first with 15 wins from 61 mounts (25 percent).
The Puerto Rico native has been Maryland’s annual leading rider four times – 2015, 2017, 2021 and 2022. Last year Toledo won Laurel’s winter and summer stands and earned his first Pimlico title during the Preakness Meet. He has teamed with Russell for eight of his wins from 17 starters.
Brittany Russell’s husband, Sheldon Russell, is second in the rider standings with eight wins from 33 mounts, going six-for-17 for his wife. He is followed by Horacio Karamanos with seven wins and Victor Carrasco with six, while three riders each have five – Flavien Prat, Concepcion and Jorge Ruiz.
Toledo is named in four of eight races Friday and seven of nine Saturday. Russell has mounts in four races Friday.
Live racing in Maryland moves to Laurel Park for its 10-day summer meet which runs Friday, June 9 to Friday, June 30.