Rainbow 6 Jackpot Pool Guaranteed at $650,000

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Sonata Stable’s Lovely Luvy and Big Frank Stable and Mad Dog Racing Stable’s Sugar Fix loom as a powerful 1-2 punch for trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. in Saturday’s $65,000 Ginger Punch at Gulfstream Park.

The Ginger Punch, a 7 ½-furlong stakes for Florida-bred fillies and mares on turf, will headline a 10-race program.

Lovely Luvy and Sugar Fix finished 1-2, respectively, when they competed against each other in the Jan. 22 Sunshine Filly and Mare Turf at Gulfstream. Sugar Fix, a 5-year-old daughter of Treasure Beach, took the lead into the stretch of the mile-and-70-yard stakes that had been transferred to the Tapeta surface, only to be caught by Lovely Luvy, a 6-year-old daughter of He’s Had Enough.

“They’re two different horses in style. Sugar Fix is more forwardly placed with a good turn of foot,” Joseph said. “Lovely Luvy comes from behind. She’s kind of a one-paced filly.”

The long-range forecast leaves open the distinct possibility that the Ginger Punch could be transferred from turf to Tapeta.

“Sugar Fix is probably better on the grass, but she ran OK the last time [she ran on Tapeta],” Joseph said. ‘Lovely Luvy is a bit better in that aspect.”

Prior to her runner-up finish in the Sunshine Filly and Mare Turf, Sugar Fix captured the Claiming Crown Tiara on turf. Most recently she finished fourth in the Honey Fox (G3) and fifth in the Sand Springs while taking on open company.

Lovely Luvy, who was never a factor in the Honey Fox the last time she joined Sugar Fix in the starting gate, most recently finished fifth in an open optional claiming allowance.

Junior Alvarado has the call on Lovely Luvy, while Edwin Gonzalez has the mount on Sugar Fix.

Trainer Roger Laurin’s Demurely enters the Ginger Punch with a record of five starts on dirt. The 3-year-old daughter of Uncaptured, who finished fourth in a May 7 state-bred allowance in her 2022 debut, won her debut last year and came right back to finish second the the Florida Sire Stakes Desert Vixen. She closed out her 2021 campaign with a third-place finish in the Juvenile Fillies Sprint for Florida-breds, in which she closed strongly to miss by just a half-length.

Demurely is eligible to win a $35,000 win-only bonus offered to FTBOA Florida Sire Stakes-nominated horses with a Ginger Punch victory.

Arindel’s Key Biscayne, who finished third behind Lovely Luvy and Sugar Fix in the Sunshine Filly & Mare Turf, is also Florida Sire Stakes-nominated and is scheduled to make a run at the bonus.

Robert Amendola’s Una Luna, a 7-year-old daughter of Dunkirk who has finished first or second in 17 of 32 career starts on turf; Robert Cotran’s Tracy Ann’s Legacy, a 6-year-old daughter of Shackleford who has won 7 of 23 turf races; and J. R. R. F. Racing LLC’s Hardly Social, a 4-year-old daughter of Social Inclusion who is coming off a victory in the claiming ranks; and Imaginary Stables’ Passion Pluss, a 7-year-old daughter of Passion for Gold who beat weaker on Tapeta two races back, round out the field.

Rainbow 6 Jackpot Pool Guaranteed at $650,000

The 20-cent Rainbow 6 gross jackpot pool will be guaranteed at $650,000 for Thursday’s program at Gulfstream Park.

The popular multi-race wager has gone unsolved for 19 consecutive racing days since a lucky bettor hit for a $182,098 payoff April 28.

Thursday’s Rainbow 6 sequence will span Races 3-8, including a 1 1/16-mile optional claiming maiden race on turf for fillies and mares in Race 5.

Tamarindo, a 3-year-old daughter of Io Mischief, is scheduled to make her debut in a fulli field of 12, The Saffie Joseph Jr.-trained Florida-bred filly is a half-sister to Wild Mia, a multiple Grade 2 stakes winner with more than $300,000 in earnings.

In Race 2, e Five Racing Thoroughbreds’ Morgan’s Bluff, a daughter of More Than Ready, is scheduled to make her debut in a five-furlong maiden special weight race for 2-year-old fillies. The Joseph-trained Kentucky-bred filly is the first foal produced by homebred Florida Fuego, a multiple stakes-winning daughter of Kantharos who captured her June 24, 2017 debut at Gulfstream Park.

The Rainbow 6 jackpot is paid out when there is a single unique ticket sold with all six winners. On days when there is no unique ticket, 70 percent of that day’s pool goes back to those bettors holding tickets with the most winners, while 30 percent is carried over to the jackpot pool.