Gulfstream Caps Weekend with Competitive Sunday Card

Three Maiden Special Weights, Two Allowances Top Program
Wide-Open Tropical Turf Pick 3 Scheduled for Races 5, 7, 10
Nicoletti Analysis Tropical Turf Pick 3
Sunday’s Rainbow 6 Jackpot Pool Estimated at $250,000
Jockey Paco Lopez Takes Finale to Cap Five-Win Saturday

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Two early maiden special weights on the turf, optional claiming allowances on grass and dirt to close the card, a competitive Tropical Turf Pick 3 and a Rainbow 6 jackpot pool estimated at $250,000 put an exclamation point on an exciting 10-race program Sunday at Gulfstream Park.

First race post time is 12:50 p.m.

Race 2 is a maiden special weight for 3-year-old fillies scheduled for one mile on the grass that drew an overflow field of 15 led by lukewarm 4-1 program favorite Chelsey’s Choice, making her season debut after going winless in three tries last year for trainer Bill Mott. Fellow Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher will unveil Double Jeopardy, a homebred daughter of champion Uncle Mo.

The 20-cent Rainbow 6 and $3 Tropical Turf Pick 3 both kick off in Race 5, a maiden special weight for 3-year-olds and up scheduled to sprint five furlongs on the turf. Irish-bred Senor Marcelo looks to break through after finishing second by a half-length in a similar spot Feb. 7. Send Cash, unraced since last June, returns having placed in both of his starts last year, one each on turf and dirt.

Ron Nicoletti Handicaps Tropical Turf Pick 3: Click here to view

The TTP3 continues in Race 7, a 1 3/8-mile maiden special weight for 3-year-olds and up where Pacific Front is entered to make his third start of the Championship Meet having run second, beaten less than two lengths, in a 1 3/16-mile spot on the all-weather Tapeta course Jan. 2. Trainer Brendan Walsh sends out the pair of El Zain, a $700,000 son of Medaglia d’Oro that is 0-for-2 this year at Gulfstream, and Sumood, a first-time starter by Kitten’s Joy owned and bred by Shadwell Farm.

Sunday’s co-feature comes in Race 9, an optional claiming allowance for 3-year-olds going one mile on the main track that attracted Triple Crown-nominated Bear Claw Necklace, Kinetic Control and Praetor. Kinetic Control adds blinkers after finishing sixth while setting the early pace in the Feb. 1 Holy Bull (G3), while Praetor will open his season having capped 2024 with a front-running neck maiden special weight triumph in late September at Aqueduct.

Sophomores will go 1 1/16 miles around two turns on the grass in the Race 10 finale, an optional claiming allowance that concludes both the TTP3 and Rainbow 6. Pletcher will saddle Barricade, a $750,000 Quality Road colt racing for the first time since graduating by a neck second time out in mid-September at Aqueduct. Tiz Dashing, beaten a head when second in Aqueduct’s mid-October Awad, adds blinkers and Lasix after finishing fifth in the Feb. 1 Kitten’s Joy over the course and distance. Stakes-placed Ready for Peace and Concord Green are also in the field of 11.

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.

Who’s Hot: Jockey Paco Lopez notched a five-win day Saturday aboard Digital Sale ($9) in Race 1, Dubawi Wowie ($4.60) in Race 3, Honesto ($9.40) in Race 6, Emirates Affair ($7.20) in Race 9 and I’m Due ($) in Race 11… Edgard Zayas doubled on Lookin for Roses ($4.60) in Race 4 and Eamonn ($22.60) in the $115,000 Silks Run … Both Digital Sale and Eamonn are trained by Joe Orseno … Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. also won twice, with Lookin for Roses and Here’s the Kicker ($6.60) in Race 7.