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Octane Makes Triumphant Return in $100,000 Gil Campbell
10/21/2023
Rainbow 6 Mandatory Payout Yields Multiple $228 Payoffs
HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Arindel homebred multiple stakes winner Octane added to his resume with another big performance against fellow state-breds, surging past favored Dean Delivers turning for home and keeping Big and Classy at bay late to capture Saturday’s $100,000 Gil Campbell Memorial at Gulfstream Park.
The one-mile Campbell Memorial, a handicap for registered Florida-bred 3-year-olds and up, served to support the co-featured $200,000 Affirmed and $200,000 Susan’s Girl, the second legs of the $2.2 million FTBOA Florida Sire Stakes series.
Making his 15th career start and first since finishing sixth in the June 17 Salvator Mile (G3) at Monmouth Park, Octane ($13.80) covered the distance in 1:36.18 over a fast main track under jockey Edgard Zayas. It was Octane’s fourth stakes win including two-thirds of the 2021 FSS series, the Affirmed and In Reality.
“He had been so good as a 2-year-old and if you look at him he’s not the biggest horse. He had run a bunch of races in a row. At that time, the races were a lot closer,” Arindel racing manager Brian Cohen said. “We sent him up to Monmouth for the stake and at that point we sent him back to the farm to just give him some time. He came back and started training and our plan was we were going to run in an allowance and if he [won] the allowance, we’d try one of the stakes in December.
“And, since we don’t have Clapton anymore, maybe he could be our Pegasus horse. We always wanted to try and have a Pegasus horse,” he added. “The way he was training we thought, it’s Sire Stakes day. There’s not many Florida-bred opportunities. Maybe the mile was going to be tough, but the way he was training and just knowing him, and having Edgard available, we figured we’d try.”
Octane settled in third as Boca Boy, sent off at 45-1, led the group of eight older horses through a quarter-mile in 23.61 seconds pressed to her inside by 6-5 favorite Dean Delivers, winner of the July 1 Smile Sprint (G3) at Gulfstream that was racing for the first time since his third in the July 29 Alfred G. Vanderbilt (G1) at Saratoga.
The half went in 45.83 as Dean Delivers forged a short lead and Octane began to roll on the outside. The 4-year-old Brethren gelding got up on even terms straightening for home and drew off through the lane as Big and Classy, an eight-time winner this year, came running late. Big Daddy Dave got up for third with The Skipper Too fourth and Slim Slow Slider fifth.
“He drew perfectly, the track seems to be playing kind of speedy and it wasn’t too crazy a pace for him. As soon as we got to paddock, he was on his toes and he was ready to go. I thought he was going to get out and go too fast. He’s such a gamer. We’re just happy and hope we can have a good winter with him.”
Cohen said the $150,000 Harlan’s Holiday (G3) Dec. 30 at Gulfstream – local prep for the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitatonal (G1) Jan. 27 – could be a possibility for Octane.
“As as big as he ran, we may have to give him a little more time and look at the big race at the end of December as a Pegasus prep,” Cohen said. “Had he run and maybe not won, he won the Sire Stakes race at Tampa [last year] maybe we would have been thinking about that. But maybe we keep him here and we go for the Pegasus prep.”
Rainbow 6 Mandatory Payout Yields Multiple $228 Payoffs
A mandatory payout of the 20-cent Rainbow 6 jackpot pool yielded multiple payoffs of $228.92 Saturday at Gulfstream Park.
The popular multi-race wager had gone unsolved for five racing days following mandatory payouts of $28,990.06 Oct. 7.
A total of $634,193 was wagered into Saturday’s Rainbow 6 on top of a carryover of $53,612.86 from Friday’s program. The winning combination was 7-9-11-10-7-2.
The Rainbow 6 included all three stakes on Saturday’s program. R Harper Rose ($2.60) stayed unbeaten in the $200,000 Susan’s Girl in Race 8, Octane ($13.80) earned a fourth stakes win in the $100,000 Gil Campbell Memorial in Race 9 and Bentornato ($3.60) improved to 4-0 in the $200,000 Affirmed in Race 10.
Other winners in the sequence were Mish ($3) in Race 6, Classic Car Wash ($5.20) in Race 7 and The Best Distance ($10.20) in Race 11.
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. The carryover jackpot is usually 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 begins anew Sunday, spanning Races 4-9.