CONQUEST SANDMAN (7-1), ridden by the perennially underrated turf master Jose Lezcano, somehow held off a sustained bid from SLIM SHADEY (3-1) in getting the Rainbow 6 started here today with a narrow, wire-to-wire triumph in race 7. Full results were 1-8-10-3.

An additional $502,593 was bet today into the Rainbow 6 (races 7-12), which, when added to the $858k already in the kitty, allowed Gulf to exceed its $1.25M pool guarantee.

Of greater consequence is that Conquest Sandman, trained by Juan Carlos Abarrio, surely knocked out a whole bunch of tickets. Even though he was sent off at 7-1, he was pegged at 20-1 on the Gulf morning line, and all it will take is a long price or two to make it very possible for a solo sweep of a massive pool to occur here later today.