The elusive Sunset 6 wager remains there for the taking if anyone can pick the last three winners on the Gulfstream Park and Santa Anita cards this Friday. The prize pool for the $1 wager begins with a $17,993 carryover. Here’s a closer look:

GP 8th race (4:23 p.m. EST) -- -SONIC SURGE, a $170,000 sales buy, finished behind three next-out winners in MSW company in his second start three months ago, including Gotham Stakes (G-3) winner Iron Honor. He drops in for a tag and gets Lasix in his first start as a gelding for a high-percentage barn with similar types. He appears an all-or-nothing type, but at a projected short price, look to a pair of first-time starters to begin the Sunset 6. MO RAPIDO shows a pair of bookend workouts in :46-and-change for trainer Victor Barboza Jr., whose 19-percent debut win rate is skewed a bit by a 4-for-30 record with first-out maiden claimers the last two years. Similarly, trainer William Walden is 2-for-12 the last two years with debut maiden claimers, all but one at 6-1 odds or less. But Starship Juliet’s sire, Maclean’s Music, posted a record 114 Beyer in his debut and her dam, Tiz News, had two stakes winners from four foals that raced.

GP 9th race (4:54 p.m. EST) -- GIANT TEDDY dueled gamely outside the favorite through rapid fractions before the trip-sitting winners and deep-closing runner-up took over in mid-stretch. He draws a similar post in his second start off the re-claim by trainer Martin Drexler and has a passing gear, if needed, with speed to his inside. He is the first of three solo plays.

GP 10th race (5:24 p.m. EST) -- MENTEE won a Grade 3 stakes race the first time he ran on turf as a 2-year-old, beating stablemate Gate To Wire – a subsequent stakes winner and multiple graded stakes-placed sprinter for Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher. Problem is, he hasn’t raced since the 2024 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, though his works indicate readiness.

SA 7th race (6:36 p.m. EST) -- With three solo plays surrounding this evenly-matched turf marathon, hit the ‘ALL’ button to encompass the six entries.

SA 8th race (7:06 p.m. EST) -- JOINT VENTURE just missed a one-mile three-peat in the fall and returns to his favorite distance off a useful 6F comeback. He’s versatile, too, and could sit a perfect stalking trip in his bid for $100,000 in distance earnings.

SA 9th race (7: 36 p.m. EST) -- Going six-deep in a field that is a combined 4-for-75 on grass and unlikely to reach the Beyer par of 80 at this level. SPUN NOT STIRRED just missed in a slow-paced mile on the main track and steps up off the claim for trainer Genero Vallejo, who has two wins and two seconds from his last 15 claims, many at double-digit odds like this one. BAD TO THE BONES got up for third behind runner-up SILLY RABBIT, who controlled a slow pace in a longer turf route race won by the favorite. SIX MAGPIES, one of two entrants to win at one mile, parlayed consistent form into an average 72 Beyer in his last nine starts on turf. PRECISION made a middle move and flattened out in the same race against SILLY RABBIT and others, but he’s worth using at 12-1 on the morning line because trainer Hector Palma began last year with four consecutive turf winners off the claim on the Santa Anita lawn. BOLT SUPREMACY is 1-for-21 on turf, mostly sprinting, but his last two starts on the class drop to the $25,000 level were ok. He ‘gained while easing out’ wide on the turn in a dirt sprint, then he skipped conditions to a nw/3 turf sprint and earned an improved speed figure.

Suggested $1 Ticket
GP 8th Race: 2, 7
GP 9th Race: 5
GP 10th Race: 3
SA 7th Race: ALL
SA 8th Race: 4
SA 9th Race: 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 9
Cost: $72