Friday’s Rainbow 6 Gross Jackpot Pool Guaranteed at $250,000

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Riding Pretty put jockey Paco Lopez in Gulfstream Park’s winner’s circle following Thursday’s Race 6 feature.

Lopez made a pretty sharp decision at the top of the stretch by deftly angling Riding Pretty to the rail, where the Holly Crest Farm homebred found herself all by herself as others in the field of 11 3-year-old fillies fought tooth and nail with each other several paths out. Riding Pretty surged from sixth at the top of the stretch to capture the 7 ½-furlong optional claiming allowance on turf by a neck.

Trained by Eddie Owens Jr., Riding Pretty ($26) raced in mid-pack between horses on the backstretch behind Agua Dulce’s half-mile fractions of 23.71 and 47.39 and had nowhere to go at the top of the stretch, where Lopez’s snap decision proved the key to victory in a stakes-quality field.

“I was scared she was going to get stuck outside going into the first turn because of the [No. 9] post position, but he got her over,” Owens said. “She got in a little trouble on the backside, but when he got her in the clear, she ran pretty good.”

The New Jersey-bred daughter of Jack Milton, who ran 7 ½ furlongs on turf in 1:28.73, had previously finished second by a neck in a Dec. 16 optional claiming allowance at Gulfstream following a bumping start.

“She’s got a big future in front of her,” Owens said.

Rainbow 6 Gross Jackpot Pool Guaranteed at $250,000

The Rainbow 6 went unsolved at Gulfstream Park Thursday for the fifth racing day in a row following a single-ticket jackpot hit for $533,783.63.

Friday’s Rainbow 6 gross jackpot pool will be guaranteed at $250,000.

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.

Friday’s Rainbow 6 sequence will span Races 4-9, highlighted by an $88,000 optional claiming allowance for older horses at a mile on turf in Race 7. Chad Brown-trained Mouillage, a French import who finished a close second in the Canadian Turf (G3) at Gulfstream in her U.S. debut March 5, will seek her first stateside win as the 9-5 morning-line favorite. In Race 8, an $86,000 allowance for older horses going 6 ½ furlongs, George Weaver-trained Nitrous Channel, a son of Nyquist who finished second Dec. 17 at Gulfstream while coming off a nine-month layoff since his second-place finish in the Hutcheson, is rated as the 6-5 morning-line favorite.

Who’s Hot:  Irad Ortiz Jr. doubled Thursday aboard Pouncival ($4.60) in Race 4 and Best Defense ($6.20) in Race 9.