HALLANDALE BEACH - The mandatory payout of the 20-cent Rainbow 6 pool Sunday at Gulfstream Park yielded $1,804,431 payoffs to three bettors holding tickets with all six winners.

    Unsolved for 20 consecutive programs following a mandatory payout, the pool stood at $921,255 heading into Sunday’s wagering. A total of $5,615,409 was bet into the popular multi-race wager Sunday to increase the pool to $6,536,665.

    The winning combination was 5 (Tidal Force - $7), 11 (Break Out - $19.40), 9 (Bird Wildcat - $24.40), 10 (Spirit Animal - $22.60), 11 (Bring Theband Home - $20.20), 7 (Sweet Mimi - $52.50) in the six-race sequence that spanned Races 6-11.

    On mandatory payout days, the entire Rainbow 6 jackpot pool is paid out to the bettor or bettors with the most winners in the wager’s six-race sequence. The carryover jackpot is usually only 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 usually goes back to those bettors holding tickets with the most winner, while 30 percent is carried over to the jackpot pool.

The 20-cent Rainbow 6 will start anew on Wednesday’s program.

                        Spirit Animal Holds on to win Sunday’s City of Light Handicap  

    TEC Racing’s Spirit Animal ($22.60) got the jump on Conglomerate heading into the stretch and held on to win by the slimmest of noses over the favored high-weight in the $75,000 City of Light Handicap.

    The Martin Drexler-trained 8-year-old gelding made the scale of weights for the 1 1/8-mile starter handicap work to his advantage. Spirit Animal carried 121 pounds, six fewer than Conglomerate, in the 1 1/8-mile starter handicap on Tapeta,

    Spirit Animal, who was claimed for $10,000 last February at Gulfstream, settled in fifth behind a solid pace set by long shot The Best Distance before advancing on the far turn under Edwin Gonzalez. The Drexler trainee was taken four-wide leaving the turn into the stretch, one path inside an approaching Conglomerate. Fly the W, carrying 125 pounds after winning six of his last eight starts, kicked to the lead in mid-stretch after stalking the pace but was unable to hold off Spirit Animal, who was just able to hold off Conglomerate at the wire.

    “He’s just all heart. This horse is all heart,” Drexler said. “I played around with ideas of running him shorter or putting him on turf, and this race kept sat there and just sat there, and I said, ‘You know what? Conglomerate is in there, Fly the W is in there. If he can beat these horses, he’ll be doing well.’

    Spirit Animal, who had been first or second in his last five starts at Woodbine, ran 1 1/8 miles in 1:48.03 to edge Conglomerate. Fly the W finished third.

Who’s Hot: Jockey Edwin Gonzalez rode both ends of a $419 Daily Double aboard Crystal Quest ($38.60) in Race 1 and Flower Mound ($17.40) in Race 2. He came back to capture the City of Light Handicap aboard Spirit Animal.

    Trainer Michael Trombetta had bookend winners, scoring with Crystal Quest ($38.60) in Race 1 and Sweet Mimi ($52.20) in Race 11.

 Oisin Murphy doubled aboard On the Nile ($17.80) in Race 5 and Break Out ($19.40) in Race 7. Trainer Martin Drexler also notched a win with Ninetyfour Express ($10) in Race 3. Hall of Famer Javier Castellano, who was aboard Ninetyfour Express, went on to capture Race 11 with Bring Theband Home ($20.20). comments powered by Disqus