Rominski Rolls in Stakes-Quality Allowance Feature Saturday
LAUREL, MD – Unsolved for a seventh straight racing day Saturday, the 20-cent Rainbow 6 saw its carryover jackpot jump to $363,540.61 for Sunday’s nine-race program at historic Pimlico Race Course.
Post time is 12:25 p.m.
Pure Realization, sent off at 35-1, was the lone horse alive to take down the jackpot entering Saturday’s 10th-race finale, but ran fourth behind Rudy Rudy Rudy ($5.40). A total of $64,254 was added to the Rainbow 6, which began with a carryover of $342,979.46 from Friday. Multiple tickets were sold with all six winners, each returning $7,710.42.
The Rainbow 6 was last solved for a $3,240.38 payout May 10, Day 2 of Pimlico’s 11-day Preakness Meet. The carryover 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.
Introduced in Maryland April 2, 2015 on opening day of Pimlico’s spring meet, the Rainbow 6’s state-record 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.
Sunday’s Rainbow 6 sequence spans Races 4-9, kicked off by a claiming event for 3-year-olds and up which have never won two races scheduled for five furlongs on the grass. Evenly Divided runs first off a Feb. 24 claim for trainer Anthony Farrior, who has a 24 percent success rate with such moves. Better Luck beat older horses in a 5 ½-furlong maiden claimer on Gulfstream Park’s Tapeta course March 29. Shape Note graduated first time out in a turf maiden special weight last summer in the Midwest.
Horses 3 and up which have never won two races will sprint six furlongs on the main track in Race 5 where Freeze the Fire, by Friesan Fire, is favored at 7-5 on the morning line having been third or better in six of 10 career starts including four seconds. The 4-year-old gelding’s lone win came in debut over the course and distance last June. The Big Enchilada was second as the favorite in an off-the-turf claimer last out May 4 at Laurel for Pimlico-based trainer Kieron Magee, who entering Saturday’s card had been worse than third just twice with 13 starters at the meet.
Race 6 is a claiming event for maidens ages 3, 4 and 5 scheduled for one mile on the grass which attracted an overflow field of 16 including Ascribe for main track only. Meet-leading trainer Brittany Russell sends out 3-year-old homebred gelding Cold Plunge, a first-time starter by Point of Entry. Pietrelcina moves to trainer Danielle Hodson’s barn and gets blinkers removed for her 4-year-old debut, having run second and third in two-turn races on the Pimlico turf last year. Longbranch Lou, second in both his starts this year, is favored to give newly solo trainer Nolan Ramsey his first win in Maryland.
Sophomores will go 1 1/16 miles in Race 7, a claiming event where Brysons Option looks to snap a four-race losing streak in his Pimlico debut for trainer Jamie Ness, who also sends out Virginia-bred Surfboard. Drawing the rail is Not Thistimerandy, a winner of two of his last four starts that ran fourth by less than three lengths in a 1 1/16-mile claimer May 11 at Pimlico. Second in that race, beaten a length, was Tubtimsiam, who returns for trainer Jose Corrales, a winner of two races Friday.
Race 8 is a six-furlong claiming sprint for 3-year-old fillies led by Khozy Colby, first or second in seven of 12 career starts chasing a third straight win and fourth overall. Trainer Carlos David also entered Poseidon’s Mist, who beat older horses in a 6 ½-furlong claimer May 17 at Aqueduct. Maddie Ten had a two-race win streak snapped going the distance over a sloppy Laurel Park surface May 4 by Pudd’n N Pie, who returns having won two in a row.
The Race 9 finale, scheduled for one mile on the turf, is for fillies and mares 3 and up which have never won two races. The even-money program favorite from outermost Post 8 is Lusty, a 5-year-old daughter of Animal Kingdom racing for the first time since last May. In her only two starts, both maiden special weights last spring, she ran second going a mile at Laurel before registering a front-running 1 ¼-length triumph racing a mile and 70 yards at Delaware Park. The 4-year-old Mosey is also set for her season opener having won her lone prior start, a 1 1/8-mile maiden claimer over older horses last November at Laurel.
Mandatory payouts are scheduled in the Rainbow 6, $1 Jackpot Super High Five and 50-cent Late Pick 5 on Monday’s special Memorial Day holiday closing day program. The Jackpot Super High Five, which occurs in Race 6 every live race day, was hit for a life-changing $303,996.10 payout Friday.
Rominski Rolls in Stakes-Quality Allowance Feature Saturday
Tim Hopkins’ 5-year-old gelding Rominski, whose lone stakes attempt in 19 prior starts came in mid-March, proved no match for his seven rivals – six of them stakes winners – in a popular front-running four-length victory in Saturday’s co-feature at historic Pimlico Race Course.
Ridden by Horacio Karamanos for trainer Kieron Magee, Rominski ($5.80) ran his win streak to three straight in the third-level optional claiming allowance for 3-year-olds and up, covering six furlongs in 1:10.89 over a fast main track.
One of three horses in for a $55,000 tag including his Magee-trained stablemate, Grade 3 winner Classier, Rominski was hustled to the front from Post 5 by Karamanos and went the opening quarter-mile in 23.58 seconds pressed to his outside by Exculpatory, among four multiple stakes winners in the field.
Rominski maintained a comfortable advantage after going a half-mile in 46.89, then opened up once straightened for home in registering his ninth career win and sixth in nine starts since being claimed by Magee last March. Fourth in the March 16 Not For Love against fellow Maryland-bred/sired horses, he was claimed out of Saturday’s win by The Elkstone Group and trainer Brittany Russell.
Factor It In, a three-time stakes winner that is twice Grade 3-placed, closed to edge Classier for second. They were followed by Exculpatory, Don’t Wait Up, three-time stakes winner Alwaysinahurry, 2020 Maryland Million Sprint winner Karan’s Notion and 2021 Timonium Juvenile winner Cynergy’s Star.
Classier was claimed by Walter Doggett III and trainer Ferris Allen.
In the Race 9 co-feature, a third-level optional claiming allowance for fillies and mares 3 and up, Anonymously ($25.20) came through an opening on the inside and held off My Flicker by a head to win in 1:12.28 for six furlongs. Mystic Seaport, the 2-5 favorite, finished last of five. It is the 11th win from 42 lifetime starts for Diane Balsamo’s Anonymously, who dropped in class after finishing third in the April 13 Primonetta at Laurel Park and May 18 Skipat on the Preakness (G1) undercard at Pimlico.