Carryovers of $24,026 in Rainbow 6, $6,959 in Late Pick 5    
$750,000 Spring Stakes Spectacular Card Post Time 1:10 P.M.
Juvenile Colt Rookie Salsa Tastes Victory in Career Debut

LAUREL, MD – Saturday’s Spring Stakes Spectacular program at Laurel Park will feature all-stakes 20-cent Rainbow 6 and 50-cent Late Pick 5 wagers to close an 11-race card that gets under way at 1:10 p.m.

The Rainbow 6 carryover jackpot grew to $24,026.24 after going unsolved Friday. A total of $10,506 was bet into the popular multi-race wager, which began with a carryover of $20,664.48 from Thursday. Tickets with five of six winners Friday were worth $720.36.

The Rainbow 6 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 30 percent is carried over to the jackpot pool.

Saturday’s sequence begins in Race 6, the inaugural $100,000 King T. Leatherbury Stakes presented by B & B Commercial Interiors for 3-year-olds and up sprinting 5 ½ furlongs on Laurel’s world-class turf course, and is immediately followed by the $100,000 Primonetta and $100,000 Dahlia, both for fillies and mares 3 and up, the latter on grass.

Race 9 is the $125,000 Weber City Miss for 3-year-old fillies, a ‘Win and In’ qualifier for the 95th Black-Eyed Susan (G2) May 17 at legendary Pimlico Race Course. Race 10 is the $125,000 Xpressbet Federico Tesio, a ‘Win and In’ event for Triple Crown-nominated 3-year-olds to the 144th Preakness (G1) May 18 Pimlico. Alwaysmining, a winner of four straight stakes and five races overall, is the 1-5 program favorite.

The Spring Stakes Spectacular program closes with the $100,000 Henry S. Clark presented by Fidelity First and James Blackwell Real Estate for 3-year-olds and up going a mile on the turf, featuring graded-stakes winners Just Howard, Irish Strait, Flatlined and Real Story and multiple turf stakes winners Phlash Phelps and Talk Show Man.

The Late Pick 5, offering an industry low 12 percent takeout, spans Races 7-11 and will have a carryover of $6,959.21. Tickets with four of five winners Friday returned $178.40.

Juvenile Colt Rookie Salsa Tastes Victory in Career Debut

Designated Hitters Racing’s Rookie Salsa sat off Quad Eights around the far turn, forged a short lead at the top of the stretch and outran the pacesetter through the lane for a three-quarter-length triumph in Friday’s opener, Maryland’s first race for 2-year-old colts this year.

A Florida-bred son of multiple graded-stakes winning millionaire Two Step Salsa, Rookie Salsa ($19.80) ran 4 ½ furlongs over a fast main track in 52.76 seconds to best six rivals in the $40,000 maiden special weight.

“I was expecting a big run from him. I thought it would take a good one to beat him,” winning trainer Jeremiah O’Dwyer said. “All my 2-year-olds improve from a run. I educate them enough so that they’re able to run well, and he’ll improve from that. He broke OK and got quick into his stride and sat off just behind the speed, which is ideal.”

Rookie Salsa had three works at Laurel for his unveiling, including a bullet three-furlong breeze in 36 seconds April 12. Jockey Angel Suarez was aboard for O’Dwyer, who ran second with filly Punk Rock Princess in Thursday’s opener, the first juvenile race of the season.

“I have a lot coming along. They were a couple of the earliest ones I got in,” O’Dwyer said. “The filly yesterday ran a nice race. I have this guy and, hopefully, if they run the maiden race in two weeks’ time I’ll have another one. I have eight 2-year-olds in right now, which is most of my barn, and if they give me a few more stalls I’ll get a few more in.”

O’Dwyer said he will take a look at the $100,000 Kentucky Juvenile for 2-year-olds going five furlongs May 1 at Churchill Downs for Rookie Salsa.

“He’ll go a bit farther, as well. He’s a very nice, little horse,” he said. “We have his half-sister in the barn, as well, Olive Kat. She was very sharp, she won a nice maiden here second start [last October]. This guy, now we’ll take him back and see how it goes and we might take him down for the race at Churchill the [first] of May.”