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Jockey Poster Giveaway Saturday to Benefit PDJF
3/21/2024
Friday’s Rainbow 6 Pool Estimated at $550,000
G3 Mr. Prospector Winner Sibelius Arrives in Dubai
HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Continuing a long-standing tradition, autographed full color posters featuring Gulfstream Park’s 2023-2024 Championship Meet jockey colony will be available Saturday.
Fans can pick up their posters between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. in the Breezeway for a $10 donation to the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund.
The PDJF is a 501(c)(3) public charity that provides financial assistance to 60 former jockeys who have suffered catastrophic on-track injuries. Since its founding in 2006, the fund has disbursed nearly $11 million to permanently disabled jockeys, most of whom have sustained paralysis or brain injuries.
This year’s poster features 20 members of Gulfstream’s renowned jockey colony including five-time Eclipse Award winner and four-time Championship Meet leader Irad Ortiz Jr.; past meet champions Luis Saez and Paco Lopez and Hall of Famers Javier Castellano and John Velazquez; Eclipse Award winner and Davie, Fla. native Tyler Gaffalione; 2024 George Woolf Memorial Award winner Junior Alvarado; and such local riders as Edgard Zayas, Miguel Vasquez, Emisael Jaramillo, Leonel Reyes and Luca Panici.
Friday’s Rainbow 6 Pool Estimated at $550,000
Friday’s 20-cent Rainbow 6 pool is expected to grow to an estimated $550,000 at Gulfstream Park, where the popular multi-race wager went unsolved for a 12th racing day following a March 3 mandatory payout.
The Rainbow 6 sequence will span Races 4-9.
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.
G3 Mr. Prospector Winner Sibelius Arrives in Dubai
Jun Park and Delia Nash’s millionaire gelding Sibelius, repeat winner of Gulfstream Park’s Mr. Prospector (G3) in December, is back in Dubai following an uneventful trip from South Florida.
Trainer Jerry O’Dwyer said the 6-year-old Sibelius arrived at Meydan Racecourse late Wednesday morning after the 14-hour, 7,842-mile journey, accompanied by assistant and exercise rider Allyson Hartfield.
“He’s all settled into his stall and doing well,” O’Dwyer said. “Everything went smoothly. The temperature is good, the horse is good, and he was looking for his feed.”
Sibelius is attempting to win the $2 million Golden Shaheen (G1) for a second straight year by following an identical plan that led to his thrilling upset last March. He was a popular four-length winner of the seven-furlong Mr. Prospector Dec. 23, then opened his season with a dramatic neck triumph in the six-furlong Pelican Feb. 10 at Tampa Bay Downs.
The Golden Shaheen is contested at 1,200 meters, or about six furlongs, March 30 on the undercard of the Dubai World Cup (G1). European champion jockey Ryan Moore, aboard last year, gets the return call on Sibelius.
“I feel probably a little more relaxed about it this year because we’ve gone there and done it. We know what it takes to travel well and take the trip well,” O’Dwyer said. “The field this year we have a good line on the American runners, anyway. We’ve run against some of them and there’s some horses that ran in the Shaheen last year that finished behind us.”
Hartfield will put Sibelius through his daily paces on the track at Meydan. O’Dwyer and his wife, Alison, are scheduled to leave Saturday for Dubai.
“He’ll just have a blowout, that’s all. A quarter of a mile run down the lane to get a little air in his lungs and that’ll be it,” O’Dwyer said. “It does make things a lot easier when you have been there, and you know it. It’s not just me that’s been there, the horse has been there, and we know he takes it all well. There’s no pressure, there’s no what ifs and buts. We just have to go through our routine like we did last year and try to do the same thing.”
O’Dwyer’s winter base is Palm Meadows, Gulfstream’s satellite training facility in Palm Beach County, which the trainer credits as being an ideal situation for Sibelius in a career that has seen him post a 9-3-3 record with $1,789,751 in purse earnings from 24 starts.
Who’s Hot: Luis Saez notched three wins, scoring back-to-back wins aboard Khosea ($14.80) in Race 3 and Battling Bubbles ($5.20) in Race 4, before winning aboard Wicked Mercury ($9.20) in Race 8 … Jose Ortiz swept the early Daily Double with wins on Mi Amore ($5.20) in Race 1 and Lookinforbargains ($2.80) in Race 2 … Hall of Famer Javier Castellano also doubled with Rough Draft ($23.40) in Race 5 and J P Hellish ($) in Race 9 … Wicked Mercury and J P Hellish are both trained by Marty Drexler.