Saturday’s Rainbow 6 Jackpot Pool Guaranteed at $100,000

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Holly Crest Farm’s Great Navigator, a graded stakes-placed juvenile, is scheduled to make a highly anticipated second start of his 3-year-old season in Saturday’s featured race at Gulfstream Park.

The New Jersey-bred colt, who finished second behind very promising prospect Ticking in his 3-year-old debut, is rated as the 8-5 morning-line favorite in a six-furlong optional claiming allowance for 3-year-olds carded as Race 10 on an 11-race program that will get underway at 12:40 p.m.

“He’s matured a lot. He’s not a big horse, but what he lacks in size, he makes up for with heart,” trainer Eddie Owens Jr. said.

Great Navigator, who finished second in last year’s Sanford (G3) at Saratoga in July, had debuted at Monmouth Park with a going-away 5 ¾-length romp.

“I was running against open company. I was expecting for him to run good, and he ran a lot better than I thought he would,” Owens said.

With limited options for Great Navigator’s next start, Owens opted for the Sanford.

“It wasn’t that I was really high on him. It was pretty much the only race for him. By the numbers, I thought he’d be competitive in there,” Owens said. “There were some nice horses in there, but his numbers matched up pretty good, so we took a shot.”

Great Navigator saved ground before swinging outside of a group of rivals in mid-stretch and rallied to finish second, 3 ½ lengths behind Mo Strike.

“I’m biased because I train him, but I thought he should have won the race. He got in some trouble, bumped the rail turning into the stretch, then he had to alter course,” Owens said. “When he altered course, I knew he’d get beat, but he had another gear in him. I didn’t think he’d finish second, because he had to go from the 1 hole way over to the 5 hole and lost about four lengths. He had a good kick. He really impressed me that day.”

The Sanford would be the final 2022 start for the son of Sea Wizard, a son of Uncle Mo who broke his maiden by five lengths at Gulfstream March 27, 2016 in his second and last career start.

“We were going to run in the Sapling [at Monmouth Park] around two turns, but he came up with some little issues, some baby things. We turned him out and gave him some time off,” Owens said. “We asked him to do a lot, so we pulled the plug.”

In his 3-year-old debut at Gulfstream March 16, Great Navigator rallied wide into the stretch but was unable to threaten Eddie Plesa Jr.-trained Ticking, a $675,000 OBS April purchase who was coming off a powerhouse maiden victory at Gulfstream.

“He was a little short. I missed a work with him. I think if I was able to get that work in him, they might have been a little disappointed,” Owens said.

Heriberto Figueroa has the call on Great Navigator, who will break from the rail post position while facing six rivals in Saturday’s feature.

Bassett Stables’ Swirvin, trainer Bob Hess Jr.’s Father Delay and Joseph Colonna’s Big John should provide the favorite with plenty of competition.

Saffie Joseph Jr.-trained Swirvin, a son of Girvin who is coming off a layoff since scoring a debut victory Dec. 3 at Gulfstream.

Father Delay will make his first start for Hess after being claiming out of an impressive maiden triumph for $35,000 at Gulfstream.

Jorge Delgado-trained Big John finished a very troubled third last time out.

Saturday’s Rainbow 6 Jackpot Pool Guaranteed at $100,000

The 20-cent Rainbow 6 gross jackpot pool will be guaranteed at $100,000 Saturday at Gulfstream Park, where the popular multi-race wager has gone unsolved for three racing days following a jackpot hit for $42.893.

Saturday’s Rainbow 6 sequence will span Races 6-11, headlined by a well-stocked optional claiming allowance in Race 10, in which graded stakes-placed Great Navigator will face six rivals as the 8-5 morning-line favorite.

In the Race 9 co-feature, the uber-consistent Journeytothemoon will face seven other fillies and mares in a mile-and-70-yard starter optional claiming allowance on Tapeta. The Bobby Dibona-trained Journeytothemoon has been first or second in eight straight races, including five victories. The 5-year-old daughter of Tourist will clash with Jazzy T., a Dibona stablemate whose seven-race streak of first- and second-place finishes was snapped last time with a fourth-place finish against better.

The Rainbow 6 jackpot is 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.