One lucky/sagacious – depending on your perspective – bettor solved Gulfstream Park’s 20-cent Rainbow 6 Friday for more than $1.2 million courtesy of one of the longest shots in the field: Canelo.
The 4-year-old gelding was making only his second career start in Friday’s 10th race, coming off a Dec. 23 fifth in a Gulfstream Park maiden optional claimer. Going off at 32.60/1, Canelo wired the field by 3 ¾ lengths.
While that paid $67.20 on a $2 win wager, it completed a wild Rainbow 6 for that lone winning bettor. One that paid $1,200,305.88 for that sole winning ticket, which cost its lucky holder $1,080. The bet was made on the TwinSpires ADW.
That completed a puzzle-solving sequence that started in Gulfstream Park’s fifth race with Souper Legacy ($4.60). American Starlet ($9.20) followed in the sixth. Things got interesting in the seventh when 11.50/1 Bahamian Rhapsody ($25) captured the seventh, followed by 14.40/1 Family Time ($30.80) in the eighth. Bahamian Rhapsody finished 12th with a 35 Equibase Speed Figure in her previous race, before clocking a 71 Equibase Friday.
Rainbow 6 went unsolved for 17 consecutive days
Collaborate ($7.60) won the ninth, setting up Canelo’s improbable score in the finale.
Gulfstream Park’s Rainbow 6 hadn’t been hit for 17 consecutive race days. A bettor last cracked it Dec. 11 for $407,067.66. Horseplayers shoveled $348,367 into the pool Friday, pushing the gross jackpot pool to $1.3 million.
Interestingly, the bettor solved the Rainbow 6 one day before its mandatory payout day. That mandatory payout day holds for today’s 11-race card, but with a guaranteed gross jackpot pool of $250,000.
Today’s payout a bit more modest
Being a jackpot-style bet, the Rainbow 6 pays out fully when there is a single unique ticket featuring all six winners. On days without a lone winning ticket, 70% of the day’s pool is paid out to horseplayers holding the most winners. The remaining 30% goes back into the jackpot pool.
With Saturday being a mandatory payout day, the entire pool is paid out to bettors holding the most winners on their tickets.