G1-Placed Filly Dry Powder Returns in Thursday Feature

Thursday’s Rainbow 6 Jackpot Pool Estimated at $225,000

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Gold Square’s two-time Grade 1-placed filly Dry Powder, nearly a year to the day after her debut victory over the track, returns to Gulfstream Park to resume her 4-year-old campaign in Thursday’s feature at Gulfstream Park.

Dry Powder is the 7-5 program favorite in the second-level optional claiming allowance for older fillies and mares going a one-turn mile on the main track. It is the ninth of 10 races on a program that kicks off at 12:50 p.m.

A $525,000 daughter of 2017 Horse of the Year and 2024 Hall of Famer Gun Runner, Dry Powder went unraced at 2 and was third or better in six of her seven starts last year starting with a front-running neck triumph sprinting six furlongs March 16 at Gulfstream. Second in back-to-back one-mile races at Aqueduct, the latter in the restricted Wilton, she ran third in the Coaching Club American Oaks (G1) prior to a dominant victory in the Cathryn Sophia going a mile and 70 yards at Parx.

It was an effort that convinced the connections to try Grade 1 company again in the 1 1/16-mile Cotillion four weeks later, where Dry Powder was beaten a neck when second to Clicquot. From there she was shipped cross country for the 1 1/8-mile Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1), finishing eighth.

Trainer Chad Summers said Dry Powder came a long way, “from where she started last March, obviously an expensive purchase but a relative unknown, and to be able to win first time out and then move forward and win stakes races and be multiple Grade 1-placed,” he said. “She just lost the Cotillion by a neck.

“The Breeders’ Cup obviously was a bit much to chew off at that stage of her career – being a 3-year-old, first season, long campaign,” he added. “We thought she earned her opportunity to run based on the Cotillion. We’re thankful for the opportunity that Gold Square let us take a chance.”

Dry Powder was freshened following the Distaff and returned to the work tab on New Year’s Eve at Palm Meadows, Gulfstream’s satellite training facility in Palm Beach County, where she breezed six times before making her season debut in the seven-furlong Barbara Fritchie Feb. 14 at Laurel Park. There, she broke outwardly and bumped with multiple stakes-winning favorite Takethemoneyhoney, set the pace for a half-mile and faded to be third.

“She wintered well. We gave her 45 days off after the Breeders’ Cup. She went over to Solaris Farm in central Florida and really liked the time off she had,” Summers said. “She looks even bigger and stronger than she was last year and we know she likes Gulfstream. She won first time out here last year.

“She’s doing well. It’s a [steppingstone] to hopefully what will be a very good year for her,” he added. “This year with the Breeders’ Cup being back in Kentucky and not having to go all the way out west, we’re really looking forward to that and hopefully we can have a big presence at Keeneland in October.”

Thursday’s Rainbow 6 Jackpot Pool Estimated at $225,000

Thursday’s Race 9 feature highlights a 20-cent Rainbow 6 sequence that is estimated to reach $225,000 when the Championship Meet resumes with a 10-race program.

The Rainbow 6 spans Races 5-10 beginning with a $50,000 maiden optional claimer at five furlongs on the turf for 3-year-old fillies. Leading trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. entered Senta Says, second in her debut against $35,000 maidens on this surface and at this distance. Emerald Ember finished second by a nose in her debut in May. She returns for her second start with new trainer George Weaver. Viking Quest, a length behind Senta Says in her debut, gets John Velazquez for trainer Lauren Robson, who is 4-for-12 at the meet.

After a claimer and starter allowance event, the Rainbow 6 shifts to the turf with an $86,000 allowance optional claimer at a mile for 3-year-olds. Tacticality goes out for trainer Chad Brown. The Essential Quality colt broke his maiden at Aqueduct on the turf in October before returning Jan. 1 with a fourth-place finish at 1 1/16 miles. Beautiful War won his debut here for trainer David Fawkes Feb. 8. Longhi makes his 3-year-old debut for trainer Graham Motion. Trainer Brian Lynch saddles Zucchero, who broke his maiden in December on the turf before finishing eighth Feb. 12.

Irad Ortiz Jr. is named to ride Dry Powder for the first time in Race 9, from Post 2 in a field of seven. Among her challengers are Brad Cox-trained Velvet Vortex, a winner at Saratoga last summer before running sixth as the favorite in a six-furlong optional claimer Dec. 28, her most recent start; and Her Town, a winner first off the claim for Joseph in a seven-furlong optional claimer Jan. 18 at Gulfstream.

The Rainbow 6 concludes in Race 10 with a 7 ?-furlong maiden optional claimer over the turf for 3-year-olds and up. A dozen entered from the stables of Lynch, Hall of Famer Mark Casse, Danny Gargan, Joe Orseno, Michael Matz and Rusty Arnold, the latter holding at 1,999 career victories with one starter Thursday evening at Turfway Park.

In the Rainbow 6, the jackpot pool is 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 goes back to those bettors holding tickets with the most winners while 30 percent is carried over to the jackpot pool.

The Rainbow 6 has gone unsolved for four consecutive racing days since being solved for a meet-high $462,562.64 payout March 1.