Friday, March 15 Card Includes Weekly National Stronach 5 Wager
Five Stakes Worth $450,000 in Purses Set for Saturday, March 16

LAUREL, MD – A 20-cent Rainbow 6 carryover jackpot of $15,318.66 will greet bettors when live racing returns to Laurel Park Friday, March 15, kicking off a weekend that includes the weekly national Stronach 5 wager and five stakes worth $450,000 in purses led by the Private Terms for 3-year-olds.

First post for Friday’s nine-race card is 1:10 p.m.

The Rainbow 6 spans Races 4-9. Race 5 is a $45,000 second-level optional claiming allowance for fillies and mares 4 and older that drew a field of nine including 2018 Politely Stakes winner Elevated Vision. Wendell Fong, most recently fourth in the Miracle Wood Feb. 16, is among a dozen 3-year-olds entered in Race 8, a $42,000 entry-level optional claiming allowance. Both are carded at six furlongs.

The carryover jackpot is only paid out 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.

Friday’s jackpot is the largest in Laurel’s Rainbow 6 since a $17,184 carryover following the Dec. 16, 2018 program. The jackpot carryover reached $21,746 following the next live card Dec. 21 before being solved for a $31,286.30 payout Dec. 22.
    
The Stronach 5, featuring an industry-low 12 percent takeout, will once again offer a guaranteed pool of $100,000 for Friday’s wager, which kicks off with Laurel’s Race 9 and continues with two races each from Gulfstream Park and Golden Gate Fields, concluding with Race 6 from Golden Gate (6:30 p.m. ET, 3:30 PT).

Saturday’s $100,000 Private Terms, led by multiple stakes winner and 4-5 program favorite Alwaysmining, serves as a prep for the $125,000 Federico Tesio April 20, a ‘Win and You’re In’ race for the 144th Preakness Stakes (G1) May 18 at legendary Pimlico Race Course.

Also on the March 16 program is the $100,000 Beyond the Wire for 3-year-old fillies, a prep for the $125,000 Weber City Miss April 20, a ‘Win and You’re In’ event for the 95th Black-Eyed Susan (G2) May 17 at Pimlico. Las Setas, winner of the Wide Country Stakes last out, is the narrow 3-1 morning-line favorite.

Other stakes Saturday are the $100,000 Harrison E. Johnson Memorial for 4-year-olds and up featuring six stakes winners in the field of seven, and a pair of $75,000 stakes for older Maryland-bred/sired sprinters – the six-furlong Not For Love and seven-furlong Conniver, the latter for females.