Gulfstream Park: A single for the mandatory-payout Pick 6

Get ready—the Saturday card at Gulfstream Park features a mandatory payout in the 20-cent Rainbow Pick 6.

The Rainbow Pick 6 is normally a jackpot-style wager that only pays out its ever-accumulating carryover in the event someone constructs a unique winning ticket. But once in a while, Gulfstream schedules mandatory payout days in which all winning bettors split the carryover equally.

Technically, there isn’t a carryover adding value to Saturday’s sequence; on Friday, someone managed to assemble a unique winning Rainbow Pick 6 ticket and cashed a $213,992.18 payoff. Instead, Gulfstream Park is seeding Saturday’s pool with $50,000, so the end result is equivalent to chasing the mandatory payout of a $50,000 carryover.

Saturday’s Rainbow Pick 6 gets underway in Race 5 at 2:49 p.m. ET. The six-race sequence drew 56 horses in total, averaging just over 9.3 per race. It works out to 627,264 possible outcomes, so anyone who assembles a winning ticket ought to catch a nice payoff.

If you’re thinking, “I wish I could find a solid single to build tickets around,” we’ve got a recommendation. The feature event is Race 9, the Princess Rooney (G3) for fillies and mares sprinting seven furlongs on dirt, and morning line favorite #2 Maryquitecontrary (5-2) looks ready to roll.

Some bettors might hesitate to single Maryquitecontrary in a nine-horse field, since she’s exiting last-place finishes in the Honorable Miss H. (G2) and Ballerina H. (G1) at Saratoga. But those were deep races won by champion Echo Zulu, and even in defeat Maryquitecontrary posted decent Brisnet Speed ratings of 93 and 85.

Dropping in class at Gulfstream Park figures to work wonders for Maryquitecontrary. She boasts a near-perfect record of six wins and a second start from seven starts at Gulfstream, including a 2 1/2-length victory in the seven-furlong Inside Information (G2) last winter. Her affinity for this track has been reiterated by recent morning workouts; after spending the summer training in New York, Maryquitecontrary returned to Gulfstream for a series of half-mile breezes highlighted by a blazing bullet move in :46 2/5 on Oct. 1.

#8 R Adios Jersey (7-2) is the other key Princess Rooney contender after wiring Gulfstream’s seven-furlong Sheer Drama S. against Florida-breds by 6 1/2 lengths, earning a flashy 102 Brisnet Speed rating. But R Adios Jersey finished fourth behind Maryquitecontrary in the Inside Information, and there’s enough speed in the Princess Rooney field to suggest stretch-running Maryquitecontrary will receive a better setup than a speed horse like R Adios Jersey.

For all these reasons, we’re willing to take a stand and single Maryquitecontrary in the Rainbow Pick 6. Good luck!