Beth’s Dream Highweight for Co-Featured Mo’ Green Handicap<br> Friday’s Rainbow 6 Pool Estimated at $375,000

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Robert Cotran’s Extendo, who was claimed last fall for $40,000, will seek to continue paying dividends in Saturday’s $75,000 Sunny Island Handicap at Gulfstream Park.

The Sunny Island, a five-furlong turf sprint for 3-year-olds and up, and co-featured $75,000 Mo’ Green, a mile event for fillies and mares, will be run as Races 9 and 10, respectively. and will be included in the 20-cent Rainbow 6 sequence, which will span Races 6-11. A mandatory payout of the Rainbow 6 jackpot pool is scheduled for Saturday’s card.

When trainer Joe Orseno claimed Extendo for his longtime client Oct. 1 at Gulfstream, it was hardly a spur-of-the-moment thing.

Extendo first caught his eye more than a year earlier at the OBS sale, where he had fully intended to buy the unraced juvenile son of Handsome Mike.

“I was there to buy a couple horses. He was on my list, and I was going to buy him, but I bought a couple horses before and I filled my quota,” Orseno said. “So, I didn’t get him bought,”

Orseno would have a second chance to bring Extendo into his barn when he debuted for a $35,000 claiming price a year later. Although he had the claim slip filled out, a client backed out at the last minute.

“I said, ‘I want to go on record, I would have taken the horse,’ and he went on to win,” he said. “It made me sick.”

Extendo went on to win three of his first four starts, all on Tapeta, before finishing off the board in the My Frenchman, an off-the-turf stakes run over a sloppy Monmouth Park surface, and an optional claiming allowance over a yielding Saratoga turf. Orseno wasn’t about to miss the opportunity to add him to his stable when Extendo surfaced at Gulfstream in a $40,000-$50,000 claimer Oct. 1.

“When I saw him in for a tag, I knew I was taking him. If he was in for the $40,000, I was taking him. If he was in for the $50,000, I was taking him,” Orseno said.

Extendo, who won by 5 ½ lengths, won at first asking for Cotran and Orseno in a 5 ½-furlong optional claiming allowance on Tapeta. Although he hasn’t won in five subsequent starts, he has finished second or third in four races, including runner-up finishes in stakes on turf and Tapeta.

Orseno has become so enamored with Extendo that he clamed his sister Jazzin, who is now a broodmare in foal to Bucchero, as well as his dam, Jeekers, and a 2-year-old sister.

“It’s a family affair,” Orseno said.

Extendo has been assigned 121 pounds for the Sunny Island, two fewer than the highweight, Golden Kernel Racing’s Stable’s Yes I Am Free, a graded-stakes winner who has won 13 of his 36 races. The Laura Cazares-trained 8-year-old gelding is coming off a rare off-the-board finish in the Shakertown (G2) over a good Keeneland turf.

The Sunny Island attracted a deep field of 12, including Smithwick’s Spice (121 pounds), who edged Extendo by a neck while winning the Turf Dash at Tampa Bay Downs two starts back; Xy Speed (121), who rallied from off the pace to win a five-furlong optional claiming allowance on turf last time out; and Kanthari (121), who finished a troubled fifth in the Silks Run after winning a five-furlong optional claiming allowance on turf.

Virginia and James Gamble’s Beth’s Dream is the 121-pound highweight in a strong field of seven for the Mo’ Green. The Victor Barboza Jr.-trained 6-year-old mare came off a seven-month layoff to register a game optional claiming allowance score March 17, in which she was pressured throughout and fought back after being headed to win by a neck.

“This is a good race for her,” Barboza said. “We gave her time off and now she is good.”

Yuki, a graded-stakes winner Chile and a stakes winner in California, is assigned 120 pounds. The Amador Sanchez-trained mare is coming off a troubled off-the-board finish in the Royal Delta (G3).

Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Michael Dubb’s Atomically, who won the $400,000 My Dear Girl, the 2022 finale of the Florida Sire Stakes series, brings solid form into the Mo’ Green. The 4-year-old daughter of Girvin has been no worse than third in four starts since returning to trainer Jose Pinchin.

Friday’s Rainbow 6 Pool Estimated at $375,000

The 20-cent Rainbow 6 pool is expected to grow to an estimated $375,000 Friday at Gulfstream Park after going unsolved Thursday for the 13th consecutive program of the Royal Palm Meet.

A mandatory Rainbow 6 payout is scheduled for Saturday with a jackpot pool estimated at $3 million should the popular multi-race wager go unsolved Friday.

Friday’s Rainbow 6 sequence will span Races 4-9, headlined by a 5 ½-furlong optional claiming starter allowance for 3-year-olds on Tapeta in Race 8. The field of nine has five last-out winners, including Joe Orseno-trained Rezasrolex, who is coming off a 5 ¾-length starter allowance win, and Adios Cole, who captured his debut by 4 ¾ lengths for trainer Herman Wilensky.

The Rainbow 6 carryover pool only paid out when there is a single unique ticket sold with all six winners. On days when there is no unique ticket, 70 percent of that day’s pool usually goes back to those bettors holding tickets with the most winners, while 30 percent is carried over to the jackpot pool. On mandatory-payout days, the entire Rainbow 6 jackpot pool is paid out to the bettor or bettors with the most winners in the wager’s six-race sequence.

Note: Four jockeys rode two winners on Thursday’s eight-race program. Leonel Reyes doubled on Adios Asher ($3.60) in Race 1 and Sheza Rajun Cajun ($22.20) in Race 3, Edgar Perez was first with My Happy Holiday ($30.60) in Race 2 and Midnite Musket ($57) in Race 5, Edwin Gonzalez found back-to-back success aboard No Deliberation ($8) in Race 6 and Sunshine Frolic ($11.40) in Race 7, and Jose Morelos scored with Subtle Faith ($6.60) in Race 4 and Avellino ($14) in Race 8.