Mr. Money continues hot streak with Indiana Derby victory
Make it three straight Grade 3 wins for Mr. Money, who’s become one of racing’s hottest 3-year-old colts.
Mr. Money took over coming out of the far turn Saturday at Indiana Grand, digging in down the stretch to win the Grade 3, $500,000 Indiana Derby.
Allied Racing Stable LLC campaigns the son of Goldencents, who entered the Indiana Derby off dominant Churchill Downs wins May 4 in the Pat Day Mile (G3) and June 15 in the Matt Winn Stakes (G3).
The Bret Calhoun trainee sat third off the lead Saturday as Alwaysmining set fractions of :23.89 and :47.62. Mr. Money and Long Range Toddy swept up Alwaysmining in the far turn.
With jockey Gabriel Saez aboard, Mr. Money then pulled away for a victory that paid $3.80 to win, with Gray Magician second and Math Wizard coming home third in the 11-horse field.
Mr. Money covered the 1 1/16 miles in 1:41.8 over the main track.
The $1.25 million Travers Stakes (G1) could be next for Mr. Money, who ran fourth in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile before missing the Fair Grounds board this spring in the Risen Star Stakes (G2) and Louisiana Derby (G2).
“We’ll see how he comes out of this race and make a decision," Calhoun said. "The (Grade 3, $500,000) West Virginia Derby (on Aug. 3 at Mountaineer) is a little quick, coming back in three weeks. But then you get a good break to the (Grade 1, $1 million) Pennsylvania Derby (on Sept. 21 at Parx Racing).
"Or we can decide to go to Saratoga to go to the Travers and take on the top echelon.”
Saturday’s Indiana Derby got off to a frightening start when Eskenforit stumbled badly out of the gates, throwing jockey Julien Leparoux.
Eskenforit recovered and raced rider-less near the front of the field, getting in the way of some of the horses still in contention.
"Obviously there were anxious moments all the way around with the loose horse who stays in the middle of them," Calhoun said. "Usually they’ll go to the outside and pull up and get away from it. But that horse stayed in the middle of it the whole way. It looked like we had a lot of horse.
"In the middle of the turn, I thought we were just waiting for him to pull the trigger. I know Gabe was waiting and watching that loose horse and didn’t know what direction he was going to go."