Sunday Card Features Eight Races, Rainbow 6 & Late Pick 5 Carryovers

LAUREL, MD – Gold Square’s Square Shooter, dropping out of stakes company for the first time in five starts dating back to last summer, dug in tenaciously through the stretch to fend off stakes winner Fielder and capture Saturday’s featured seventh race at Laurel Park.

Square Shooter ($10) ran six furlongs over a yielding Fort Marcy turf course in 1:10.64 to win the open $55,000 allowance for 3-year-olds and up by a nose. Fielder was second, while Eastern Bay edged Clever Triad in another photo for third.

It was the third win from four tries in Maryland for Square Shooter, including an off-the-turf optional claiming triumph last May at Pimlico Race Course. The only loss came by a neck to Miners Quest on the Laurel grass last April, the first of eight straight rides aboard the 5-year-old gelding for jockey Jorge Vargas Jr.

Square Shooter pressed Oldies But Goodies, the 4-5 favorite off his front-running victory in the Ben’s Cat Stakes July 14 at Laurel, on the lead through fractions of 23.16 and 47.04 seconds with Fielder in close pursuit. Oldies But Goodies weakened once straightened for home when Square Shooter on the inside and Fielder to his right hooked up for a drive to the wire.

“He seems to love it over here,” Vargas said. “I just put him right on the lead, fighting with the other horse, and at the quarter pole when I asked him, he just went for it.”

Square Shooter’s previous win came last June at Laurel Park, sending him to the Troy (G3) at Saratoga, where he was beaten five lengths while fourth. He didn’t race again for eight months, returning to be sixth by 3 ½ lengths in the April 6 Shakertown (G3) at Keeneland. He ran fourth in each of his past two races, the Pennsylvania Governor’s Cup Stakes June 1 at Penn National and Glasgow Stakes July 13 at Delaware Park.

Earlier on Saturday’s card, Alex G. Campbell’s Lucky Jingle ($4.40) pulled away from Fiftyshays Ofgreen in the stretch on the way to a 1 ½-length victory in a $40,000 maiden special weight for 2-year-old fillies. The winning time was 1:40.87 for one mile over a yielding Kelso turf course.

Lucky Jingle, by 2014 Belmont Stakes (G1) winner Tonalist, was making her second career start for trainer Graham Motion. She was third, beaten six lengths, in a 1 1/16-mile maiden special weight July 14 at Saratoga.

“She ran big first time out,” winning jockey Weston Hamilton said. “I watched the replay and she was tough the whole way. She didn’t get beat very far. I just kind of played it by ear [today]. We went to the front and I started slowing it down and they let me slow it down as much as I could, and it worked out perfect. We got to the front and got a nice, relaxing pace and she kicked on good. She was running to the wire. She never stopped. She could have went around again.”

Sunday Card Features Eight Races, Rainbow 6 & Late Pick 5 Carryovers

The 20-cent Rainbow 6 saw its carryover jackpot swell to $29,499.39 after no one selected all six winners in the popular multi-race wager Saturday at Laurel Park.

No horses were live heading into Saturday’s ninth-race finale to take down the Rainbow 6, which returned $2,322.96 for tickets with five of six winners.

The Rainbow 6 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.

Sunday’s Rainbow 6 spans Races 3-8. First race post time is 1:10 p.m.

There will also be a carryover of $5,534.12 in Sunday’s 50-cent Late Pick 5 (Races 4-8), after tickets with four of five winners Saturday paid $307.45.

Notes: Jockey Weston Hamilton won back-to-back races Saturday with Lucky Jingle ($4.40) in the third and Neyami ($20) in the fourth.