Fall Meet Leading Rider Jeiron Barbosa Busy in Return to Action

BALTIMORE – Live racing returns to Laurel Park Friday featuring a 20-cent Rainbow 6 jackpot carryover that has continued to grow over the past month and the return of its fall meet-leading rider, apprentice Jeiron Barbosa.

The Rainbow 6 has gone unsolved for 20 consecutive racing days dating back to Oct. 16, when it was hit for a $12,582.58 payout. The carryover stands at $36,421.01 following the last live program Nov. 13.

The Rainbow 6 jackpot is paid out only when there is a single unique ticket sold with all six winners. On days when there is no unique ticket, 60 percent of that day’s pool goes back to those bettors holding tickets with the most winners while 40 percent is carried over to the jackpot pool.

Friday’s Rainbow 6 spans Races 4-9 and includes a maiden special weight for horses 3, 4 and 5 years old going 1 1/16 miles on the main track. Favored at 7-5 in a field of seven is Three Diamonds Farm’s 3-year-old Uncle Mo gelding Afjan, who will race with blinkers off in his first start for Keri Brion after running previously for trainers Mike Maker and Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher.

The feature comes in Race 8, an open allowance sprinting seven furlongs on the main track for fillies and mares 3 and up. Bob Bone and Ed Brown Jr.’s R B’s Star, a four-time career winner, is the 2-1 program favorite over Brereton C. Jones’ homebred filly Skipper Sue, an 11-length maiden special weight winner over her elders in debut Oct. 14 at Laurel for fall meet leading trainer Brittany Russell.

Herringswell Racing Club’s Flimsy, shortened up and returned to dirt by trainer Graham Motion, exits a fourth in a 1 1/16-mile restricted turf allowance against older horses. Pepe Stables’ Murph, winner of the 2021 Small Wonder at Delaware Park for Russell, races for the first time since being claimed out of a runner-up finish Oct. 27 at Laurel.

The 18-year-old Barbosa has not ridden since being involved in a four-horse spill Nov. 8 at Parx, escaping serious injury. He took last weekend off and is named in eight of nine races Friday and Saturday and seven of nine races Sunday at Laurel, with mounts Friday and Saturday night at Charles Town.

Barbosa began riding professionally Jan. 1 in his native Puerto Rico before coming to the U.S. in March, winning with his first two domestic mounts. He earned riding titles at Laurel’s spring meet and the boutique fall stand at historic Pimlico Race Course, and enters Friday tops in both wins (29) and purse earnings ($1.067 million) at Laurel fall, which runs through Dec. 31.

On the year, Barbosa is Maryland’s top apprentice and tied with Horacio Karamanos as its second-leading rider with 92 wins, trailing Jevian Toledo (125). He is 154-for-833 overall with $4.7 million in purses earned, and a leading contender for the Eclipse Award as champion apprentice.

Twelve Maryland-based jockeys have been named champion apprentice including contemporary Victor Carrasco, currently sidelined by injury, and retired Hall of Famers Chris McCarron and Kent Desormeaux.