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TODAY

• $4 million is the guaranteed pool in Gulfstream’s Rainbow pick-6 pool today. First pick-6 race goes at 1:30 p.m. Download program pages here.
• Who will be named Horse of the Year (and other awards) at tonight’s Eclipse Awards banquet at Gulfstream Park? Will Woodbine’s apprentice, Kazushi Kimura, third in the jockey standings, be the first Japanese rider to be named top North American apprentice rider?

Oaklawn begins tomorrow with Kentucky Derby prep race

TOMORROW

• $600,000 carryover in Santa Anita’s pick-6. Gulfstream’s Rainbow pick-6 continues
• Oaklawn Park meet begins in Arkansas at 1 p.m. with the Kentucky Derby prep race, the Smarty Jones Stakes
• Sign up for the first Player’s Choice handicapping tournament Saturday with $1,750 in prize money and points toward Handicapper of the Year and a trip to Las Vegas. Entry fee just $25.

SATURDAY: The Year of the Rat begins

• Order the $10 Chinese plate special Saturday and Sunday

  A delicious $10 Chinese plate special will be served all day Saturday and Sunday to mark the Year of the Rat: spring rolls, sweet and sour chicken balls, veggie stir fry, fried rice
• It’s Pegasus World Cup Day from Gulfstream featuring the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Dirt race and the $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf race
• The first of 12 monthly handicapping tournaments begin. Play starts at noon. Make $2 win/place/show wagers on 10 horses at thoroughbred tracks of your choice. $1,750 in prize money
• “I won bigger” betting group discussion on Gulfstream’s Rainbow pick-6--likely at $5 million--at 10:30 a.m. on the Clubhouse plaza

SUNDAY: Mandatory Rainbow pick-6 payout

• Join in group play of the mandatory payout of the mega-millions Rainbow pick-6 at Gulfstream. A special “I won bigger” workshop will play the pick-6 if the pool wasn’t won on Thursday, Friday or Saturday. Shares are $20 each which will be generously topped up with an additional $5 from ASD. Workshop begins 10:30 a.m. on the Clubhouse plaza.
• A delicious $10 Chinese plate special will continue to be served all day (see Saturday)

EYE ON LIVE

Stakes schedule released; see it here
Escape Clause Stakes to celebrate Manitoba's greatest-ever horse

Manitoba’s most celebrated race horse, Escape Clause, who captured the hearts of race fans throughout North America before being sold to Japanese breeders last November, will have a stakes race named in her honour this summer: the one-mile $30,000 Escape Clause Stakes for the best older female horses on the grounds. It will be run on Wednesday, July 22, replacing the Winnipeg Sun Stakes.  

After earning more than $1 million racing at 13 different tracks from ages 2 to 5, Escape Clause was sold last November to Japanese breeders at auction for $300,000 U.S.

There will be 32 stakes races worth almost $800K during Assiniboia Downs’ 50-day meet. As usual, notable horses from ASD’s past will be honoured in Overnight Stakes races. See stakes schedule here.

When does "spring" training begin?
Here's the schedule released by Derek Corbel, the assistant director of racing

• Trainers may begin setting up their barn on the weekend of Feb. 22-23 and horses may be brought in towards the end of the following week
• Backstretch diner opens Tuesday, Feb. 25
• Equi-ciser opens March 1
• Training track will open March 10, weather pending

THE GREAT WORLD CUP TRIPLE

Do you like it?
The Insider creates a name for the new "triple"

What if a horse wins all three of the rich World Cup races in January, February and March? Shouldn’t there be a designation for that achievement? How about calling the feat the “Great World Cup Triple?” You’re welcome, racing world, if you like it and adopt it. Maybe you have a better one. Send it to theinsider@ASDowns.com

The three races, of course, are:

• Giant Pegasus statue overlooks Pegasus World Cup races Saturday

  The $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational this Saturday at Gulfstream Park in Florida. Will the winner (and the two runners-up) take up Saudi Arabia’s offer to fly their horse(s) to participate in the Saudi Cup, all expenses paid?
• The $20 million Saudi Cup on Saturday, Feb. 29, the richest race in the world, at King Abdulaziz race track in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Top horses are already scheduled to race there--but will they be joined by the Pegasus World Cup winner eyeing the Triple?
• The $12 million Dubai World Cup in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on Saturday, March 28. Will a horse still be in the running to capture the “Great World Cup Triple?”

The prospect of a horse achieving a Triple feat creates another layer of excitement to winter racing as we drive down the Road to the Kentucky Derby with prep races every week, the next stop being the Smarty Jones at Oaklawn Park tomorrow.

POCKET PLENTY IN '20: When should you bet a last-place finisher?

When should you bet a horse who finished last in his previous race? When the horse set quicker-than-usual early fractions in that race and tired late. That’s probably an indicator--both for thoroughbreds and standardbreds--that the horse will save that early energy to make a late move in his next race. That blistering early pace is often a perfect set-up for a prime performance in his next race. And you’re likely to get juicy odds.